Introduction:
Plywoods are a technology invention that happened during 1865 in the United states. Though the plywoods were invented the first production plywood came after 50 years.
It’s a great product and it gave a lot of advancement in saving our planet. In Spite of cutting trees, plywood helps the world to reduce deforestation because the process has organized structure.
We cannot make plywood without cutting the tree, but we can reduce the usage and regrow the trees easily. Architects uses these plywoods for modular kitchen chennai, and the durability will stand for more than 25 years.
Lets see the Advantage and disadvantage of using plywoods:
Pros of Plywoods:
- Compared to softwood or hardwood, plywood is very cheap. Which can reduce the cost up to 30% with the same functionality.
- It is very thin but very strong.
- Easy cut, so designers and architects can use their creativity to make a fine product.
- A Product which can withstand heavy stress and still perform their functionality.
- Last long for years. For example some plywood’s durability is around 25+ years. If they cared perfectly.
- Cross Graining plywoods are new arrivals, where the cuts are made in the growth line of the timber.
- Indeed, we can make any product from plywoods. Say from basic interior work to high end modular kitchen.
- Since the Plywood industry is completely organised, it can boost the country’s economy too.
Cons of Plywoods:
- Phenol Formaldehyde is the chemical majorly used in plywoods, hence this chemical can cause cancer for human beings.
- Though plywoods are manufactured in 18 different types, the toughness cannot be compared with wood.
- Usually there are a variety of woods, which are durable for more than 100 years. But plywood durability is very less.
- Plywood manufacturers use chemicals to protect the layers, once the chemicals are drained over the period of time the chances of bug attacks are really high.
- Homeowners must protect the plywoods from wet or moisture. If you need to increase the life span.
- Interior Designers and architects use laminates on top and bottom to make the plywood shine and protective.
- Proper painting must be done or else the layers will peeled off from the core.
- We cannot use plywood for difficult projects, for example sculpting a design is possible only with wood.
Usually plywoods are made of hardwood or softwood. We will discuss about the types below
Uses of Plywoods:
Architects and Interior Designers use different grades of plywoods for their projects. Depending upon their need they use Hard and Soft plywoods.
Here are some examples of how plywoods are used.
Exterior Walls:
Indians never heard of sheathing Exteriors, however homeowners in European countries and North America use Plywoods for their wall exteriors. This helps them to protect their wall from bad weather.
Roofing and Flooring:
Homeowners in the United States and the United kingdom usually use wooden roofing and flooring. They use ‘A’ Grade for their interiors. Which can withstand for years even in harsh environments.
Interior Walls:
As I already said, plywood comes in different sizes, shapes and quality. Wooden Paneling inside the wall looks really great. So Interior Designers choose perfect plywoods, hence it looks like a natural wood finish.
Furniture:
There is a misconception among homeowners, that we cannot make furniture with them. But it is not true, with the technology innovation manufacturers use bend plywoods with high heat compression.
Types of Plywoods:
Plywood comes with various sizes and shapes, its architect or interior designers job to select which one suits their purpose.
Plywood manufacturers make 18 types. Let’s go deeper into the subject.
- 3 Ply
- 5 Ply
- Multi Ply
The name derived from ply+woods. Ply means layer, which is nothing but the veneers. So combined veneers are known as plywoods.
Interior designers and Architects use plywood for various purposes, from wardrobe to modular kitchen. So Depending upon the product we need we them
3-Ply:
This is the basic type, which has three layers of veneers. We cannot expect some big work from 3 ply. The strength of the plywood is low, so interior designers use 3 layer plywood for some decorative purpose.
Majorly we should use them indoor, they don’t fit in for outdoor exteriors.
Choose 3 Ply if you are looking for some affordable and basic plywood.
5 – Ply:
Five layer are a little bit stronger than 3 ply. Manufacturer Compress 5 layer veneer to make this product. These plywoods are durable and homeowners use them for wardrobe, table, and some minimum usage furniture.
Plywoods can withstand harsh environments if they use proper laminates.
Multi Ply:
This is the most important category in plywoods list. In spite of 3 and 5 Ply, multi ply will be better and efficient.
If the layer of the plywood crosses more than 5 then it is considered as multi ply. Some of the examples of multi ply are 7 Layer, 9 Layer, 11 Layer and 13 layer.
These plywoods are very hard and give better wood strength. Interior designers and architects use these multi ply to make bed cot, dividers, doors, exterior dividers and decorations as well.
Softwood Interior :
Manufacturers call softwoods plywoods, but actually they are not plywoods. They are real woods which come from pine, redwood and cedar.
These woods are not very hard like 5 layer or Multi Ply Plywoods, but softwood are used for some basic design or construction works.
Uses:
- Softwood plywoods are used for floor sheathing and roof sheathing.
- Homeowners use softwood to build garages, pet homes, shelves and more.
Hardwood Interior :
They are similar to multi ply plywoods, where five to 7 layers of thin woods are used. In Simple terms we don’t use veneer, instead thin woods are compressed to make hardwood plywoods.
Some of the trees which gives you hardwoods are
- Birch Plywood
- Oak
- Poplar
- Walnut and Maple.
Meanwhile, we can create furniture, wooden panels, packaging boxes, musical instruments and so on.
We might see a slight price increase for hardwood because of its durability. Furthermore, homeowners use hardwood for their DIY projects.
Marine Plywoods :
We can easily say that marine plywoods have the highest quality when we compare them with the above types.
Marine are made of high quality veneers because people who use it will be in a do or die situation.
Manufacturers always produce these plywoods with lots of care. Marine Grade are made with water resistant exterior glue, it acts as a complete water resistance coating. So the durability of marine lasts for years.
Some of the products made in marine plywoods are boats, mini ships, interior waterfalls, waterproof wooden false ceiling etc.,
Architects use marine plywoods for home exteriors. Indeed most of them are used for exterior decorations.
Here are the major features of marine plywoods for interiors
- Resistant to chemicals
- Prevent from weather damage
- Stay away from Scratching and Denting.
Aircraft Interior
Aircraft Plywoods are the most Gradable plywood ever produced. Manufacturers always take extra care to produce aircraft plywoods which resist heat and moisture.
Usually thin veneers which are light and flexible are compressed to make aircraft woods.
Features of Aircraft Plywood:
- They are lightweight
- Durable
- Completely resistant to heat
- Highly flexible
Exterior :
Exterior must be very strong and it must be heat and water resistant. Interior Designers across the world use multi ply veneer plywoods because it must withstand harsh weather conditions.
Some of the woods used to manufacture exterior plywoods are
- Maple
- Pine
- Spruce
- Mahogany
- Douglas Fir
- Birch
- Oak
There are 4 grades which are “A,B,C and D”. A Grade is the costliest one and D Grade is the least price
Average expectancy is 35 years, because it has Grain Stain Solid Latex coating.
Lumcore Interior :
Lumcore is the most unique plywood in the total list, because it’s the mixture of softwood and veneer. We cannot expect multi Layer veneer, instead lumcore uses two layers, top and bottom then the core consists of some hardwood.
I personally would say that lumcore is unique, but they are not the best product. There are a lot of disadvantages in lumcore models.
- Screw might come out soon.
- This type of plywood will have lots of void, so they cannot withstand for long duration.
Blockboard:
Blockboard are used in the construction and interior design industry. It consists of three layers, the core and top & bottom layer.
The core will have lots of pieces of hard or softwood, where the outer layer has two single layer veneers.
This plywood is not meant for tough jobs, rather we can use it for normal purposes like cabinet work and add on furniture pieces.
Composite Woods Interior Boards:
Composite is considered as a traditional plywood, which doesn’t require any advanced veneer compression feature. It’s easy to produce composite woods. Rather than using veneer we must use wood grains for the compression and heating process.
Even Though the wood underwent compression and heat process, the durability is not as good as plywoods.
The outer layer is decorated with laminates and chemical coating.
Conclusion:
Just think about a world without plywood. Definitely it will look different. Moreover, the plywoods helped deforestation. And gave the opportunity for the government to manage the trees’ cut off and growth.
In recent times, the government has taken tremendous steps to make the wood industry well organised.
Without plywood the chances of interior designing industry have only limited growth
