20 Types Of Plywood Used In Interior And Exterior

Plywood has been a cheap choice for all woodwork projects throughout the years. For newbies, you get overwhelmed in knowing that there are more types of plywood than you would think.

The untrained eye would choose callously, and this is the reason why you must know the essentials in plywood shopping.

Specifically, you must know the kinds of plywood and other important information regarding this workable wood product. As such, we will cover everything that you need to know about plywood in this post so read on.

What does plywood mean?

Plywood (ply and wood) is named after the word "ply," which refers to its multiple thin layers of wood veneers bonded together. The term "ply" comes from the French word "plier," meaning "to fold," reflecting the layered structure that gives plywood its strength.

Different Types of Plywood

As has been said, shopping for the right plywood type for your home projects is not a walk on the beach. With this, you need to be acquainted with the following types of plywood.

Softwood Plywood

The name suggests that this type of plywood was made out of softwoods like redwood, cedar, or pinewoods. Although these woods are generally pitted against the sturdier hardwoods, you would be surprised to know that softwood plywood is used for heavy woodworks. This includes roof sheathing, laid down as home subfloors, and frame sheathing for home exteriors.

Other uses of softwood plywood would be in constructing tool sheds at home, shelves, and dog houses.

Hardwood Plywood

In contrast, this type of plywood is made of wood veneers from walnut, oak, maple, and birch woods. Usually, hardwood plywood is made of seven and more layers making them very sturdy. Manufacturing this needs gluing the veneers at the right depth and angle to support heavy woodwork projects.

Hardwood plywood is a ply board furniture, used for projects which need a durable frame like musical instruments, wood casings, sports equipment, and of course, in making furniture.

Aircraft Plywood

This one is considered one of the most durable and highest-grade plywood out there. It is made specifically from hardwoods that are not vulnerable to moisture and too much heat such as birch and also mahogany.

Aircraft plywood is made of thinner wood veneers to keep it lightweight and more workable. With these features, aircraft plywood is usually used for aircraft building, rafters and boats, furniture that is meant to carry heavier loads, and buildings that require industrial-strength plywood.

Exterior Plywood

As the term implies, this type of plywood is used for exterior woodworks. As such, it is manufactured and glued using water and weather-resistant adhesive. Good quality external ply board will provide strong wood frames for many decades.

This type of wood is categorized as a multi-ply. Note that each location would have different weather conditions. It is because of this reason that oak exterior plywood has greater leverage among the various types of exterior plywood as they are mold and mildew-resistant even in extra-moist locations. You need choose the best exterior plywood for your house.

Lumber Core Plywood

This one is specifically designed 3-ply. Usually, it is made by laying down a thick wood core and gluing two thin wood veneers on each of its sides. The outer surface of lumber core plywood is made of hardwood like birch, maple, and oak. The inner layers are made of strips of various types of softwood glued together, forming a sturdy wood slab.

Having a softer interior gives it more value for projects that need to be nailed and screwed as you can easily attach them to the softer interior. This is quite a gamble, however, because if you choose wrongly, the nails and screws might not hold.

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Marine Plywood

This is not water-resistant plywood albeit the label. Being the most common plywood yet most high-grade constructed plywood, you have to understand that the term reflects more the grade of the plywood, which is marine-grade using waterproof adhesives. As a plywood type, it is distinguishable with the absence of knotholes.

This one is the one of most beautiful plywood, often made of firwood or larch, making it durable and sturdy. However, it is manufactured raw, without chemicals. As such, it is not resistant to rot, mildew, and molds. It is used mainly for exterior structures such as plant boxes, benches, decks, and gazebos.

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Overlaid Plywood

It gets its name for having an overlaid surface giving off a strong wood finish look. It follows the regular way of making plywood which is gluing wood veneers using waterproof adhesives. However, overlaid plywood comes in either medium or heavy density because the wood veneers are bonded in high heat and pressure processes.

High density overlaid plywood is more expensive than medium overlaid plywood because more resin is poured into them. The smooth wood finish on the surface is more for function than aesthetics. Through this, you can depend on its durability while avoiding dust and water particles from damaging the wood. This also makes it scratch-resistant.

Structural Plywood

It is also called sheathing plywood because of its known durability both in framing and building. The strongest, most waterproof glues are used in manufacturing structural plywood. Usually, types of plywood used in construction are graded as C or D. And although they are very durable, they cannot be graded higher because they will become expensive for construction.

Structural plywood is, however, not that flexible when it comes to harsh weather conditions. Nonetheless, they are still the favorite choices for indoor and outdoor woodworks.

Tropical Plywood

It is considered as the Asian counterpart of softwood plywood because they really look similar. It is made of tropical timber from countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. It is prevalently exported in the UK and the US. It is loved for its a-grade density, evenness in terms of its layers, and superior strength.

Flexible plywood

As the name suggests, flexible plywood is for curves and bending. As such, it is used for the curved parts of construction frames and also in furniture making. It is made out of a cross-grained central ply and thicker cross-grained plys on both sides. To get a shinier surface, overlaid wood veneers are added to the front surface.

In the UK, it is often referenced as the hatters ply since they were once used in making stove-pipe hats during the Victorian era.

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Construction Plywood

This one is an umbrella term for many products. It is divided between structural and non-structural panels in which particleboards, MDF core ply, and foam boards, among others, are included. The non-structural boards may look soft but all construction plywoods are incredibly sturdy.

Veneer core plywood

This is distinguishable for its odd-numbered veneers in its core. It is usually constructed with a center veneer and on its sides are alternately glued cross-grained veneers. It is all-around plywood because it has the ability to hold greater weight, has the softness that allows nail and screw holding and the flexibility to be bent in curves.

MDF core

It is often contrasted to particleboards. The main difference is that the MDF core is made out of individual wood fibers. It is very neat to work with since it does not produce wood chips or sawdust. It is also flatter than most softwood ply boards making it the top choice for furniture base. It is also very workable with paints and also resin or vinyl coating.

The only downside to this plywood type is that it is heavier than most types of plywood.

Compared to particleboard, it is sturdier and more durable.

ApplePly

This one is distinguished from softwood and hardwood plywood because it has more layers than them although they look similar in grains and color. To construct it, strips of birch and alder wood are laminated together.

This produces a sturdy and at the same time light wood board making it a top choice in making cabinets and other wood furniture. It is also generally easy to work with as it does not tear or fuzz even with the use of heavy-duty cutting machines.

Exterior sheathing plywood

There are many types of exterior sheathing plywood such as CDX plywood but the most common is the OSB. It is a re-engineered plywood that is two times stronger than standard plywood. It is used mainly for roofing, exterior sheathing, and roof decking.

It is joined by waterproof adhesive and most of the time semi-exposed to prevent wearing. It is sometimes compared to particle board too because it has the same compressed wood flakes too, scattered in various angles.

Subfloor plywood

Subfloor is an important part of the whole construction project because it is where the floor finish will be attached. Subfloor plywood is a cheaper choice compared to the concrete subfloor. In this case, two subfloor plywood are on the forefront: OSB plywood and CDX plywood. Both are sturdier than regular ply but also soft enough for nailing.

Sundeala board

This one is by far the most sustainable of all the plywood types. It is made of recycled newspapers, reinforced to make sturdy plywood that is not just eco-friendly but also long-lasting. It is a kind of plywood 4×8 and comes with different color variants. This plywood is used as cork boards or information boards as well as in modeling railways.

Interior Plywood

For indoor applications, plywood interior is the material of choice. Although it does not have the weather resistance of exterior plywood, it is well-suited for tasks like

ply flooring thickness. Interior plywood performs exceptionally well in areas with limited moisture exposure. However, for spaces that are frequently exposed to water, such as bathrooms and kitchens, it is better to use exterior plywood for its superior moisture resistance.

Types of Ply

The term ply usually refers to the levels of thickness of various products including wood. This explains why there are thicker plyboards than others. The thickness of ply boards is created by gluing wood veneers on top of another. With this, we turn to the following types of ply.

3-Ply

As the term suggests, this ply board is made of three layers of wood veneer. It is considered the most common board thickness. It is used for lighter woodwork, mostly indoor woodworks like cabinets and drawers. It is used more for decorative purposes but still is found as durable as the others.

5-Ply

This one is made of five layers of wood veneers and is used for lighter use compared to 3 ply. As such, like the 3ply, it is also used for indoor woodworks that does not require much wood strength.

Multi-Ply

This one is produced out of eight or more wood veneers. This is the one used for exterior woodworks such as in roofing. It is also used in home construction, in establishing the frame and foundation of the building. Multi-ply boards are unyieldingly strong.

Plywood grades

Plywood and furniture plywood grades follow a grading system that indicates the quality of materials used and the price of the plywood. Typically, plywood is graded A, B, C, or D, with A being the highest quality and D the lowest. A-C grades are used for exterior panels and woodworks due to their durability and resistance to water and weather, while C and D grades are more suited for interior woodworks and should be adequately covered.

If a plywood grade has an additional ‘X’ at the end, it means the plywood has passed tests qualifying it as strong exterior plywood. For high-end woodworks, grades A-B or CX are the best options, as they usually lack knotholes, providing a better surface for painting and staining.

Picking Plywood for Your Roof: What’s Out There?

Plywood sizes

The common plywood sizes are: 4x4ft, 4x8ft, and 4x9ft. Plywood sizes have specific functions. Thinner sized plywood is used for greater flexibility. This means that they could be bent to construct irregularly shaped frames. Thicker plywood, on the other hand, is specifically built to survive harsher weather conditions and greater weight.

Plywood boards are generally very long. The good thing is, you can always ask the lumber to cut it into specifically sized pieces. This is very important because the tagged size in each plywood most of the time does not reflect the exact size of the plywood.

For example, a ¾ inch plywood will have a 1/31inch gap because, in reality, it measures at 23/32inch. You should also take note of the metric unit used by the lumber. While the standard is in inches, some still use millimeters. You have to take all of these into consideration when it comes to plywood sizes.

Plyboard vs plywood: What is Difference?

Plyboard is lighter than plywood because its core is made of softwood strips, which are lighter than the hardwood veneers that form the core of plywood. The edges of plywood show layers of wooden sheets glued together.

Plywood price

For construction grade plywood, we have OSB and CDX ply. A 4×8 CDX sheet at 15/32” thickness costs $28-30 while a 4×8 23/32” thickness would cost $35-37. OSB ply on the other hand will cost $5-15 depending on the thickness.

For cabinet-grade plywood, sanded pine ply will cost $13-21 while hardwood ply will cost $18-45. Oak hardwood ply will typically range from $25-45 while birch plywood will cost from $41-45.

Plywood has become a go-to wood material as the years go by and it is understandable for many reasons. Aside from being an affordable choice, the different types of plywood show us that there could be a cheaper choice for specific tasks. It might not be as classy as solid wood but you can count on plywood its low-maintenance quality and moisture-resistant characteristic.

Other than this, there are also types of wood that are warp, twist, and bend-resistant, a feature that is not present among solid wood. More than this, all your woodwork projects, be it exterior or interior, can be constructed by choosing the right plywood type which you can count on for durability. There are just a few considerations in choosing the best plywood for you, but these are just basic pointers that you can master in no time.

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