What is Plywood

Plywood has been a widely used building material in the construction industry for over 100 years. The engineered wood product has undergone many revisions since its inception to create the wide variety of plywood sheets we know and use today. Below we explain what it is, when it was created, and the different variations that have arisen since.

Plywood is an engineered wood product that combines layers of wooden veneer in a criss cross pattern using glue or resin-based sealants. Logs are loaded onto a lathe that peels thin timber sheets before they are layered on top of one another with each new sheet being rotated 90 degrees. The process is known as cross-graining, which improves the strength and stability of plywood, increasing its resistance to splitting, expansion, shrinking, and warping.

Many variations of plywood are in production today, but the easiest way to categorise them is interior, exterior, and marine grade. Interior products go in dry places with little to no moisture, exterior ply goes outdoors in moisture-prone areas, while marine-grade ply is reserved for the wettest environments.

The History of Plywood

The creation of plywood goes back to ancient history, with early remnants found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs. In ancient China, remnants of old furniture were found to use thin timber sheets with glue.

Modern plywood has many origins, with different patents filed in the past 400 years. It is generally accepted that industrial plywood began production in the 19th century.

Product Range

Incremental improvements over the last three centuries have led to today’s industrial-grade plywood. Before, we mentioned three categories (interior, exterior, and marine grade). In reality, there are many sub-categories, including structural and non-structural plywood, regular and marine ply, and more.

Here at Australia Scaffolding & Formwork, we supply F17 formply sheets and non-structural plywood. Formply is built for concrete formwork, supporting and providing a smooth finish on concrete slabs. Our non-structural plywood acts as a safety barrier for kwikstage scaffolding systems operating near live power lines.