where to buy oak plywood in Raleigh?

vbgregg · 10-12-2007, 10:57 PM

Hi,

Where is the best place in the Raleigh area to buy reasonably good quality red oak plywood at a fair price? Lowes is closest, but do other places have either better quality and/or lower prices? Thanks,

Gregg

Travis Porter · 10-12-2007, 11:15 PM

I have not been satisfied with the ply I have bought recently at Lowes or HD. It warps when I cut it. Might check East Wake Hardwoods to see if they carry some. I am pretty sure Stock building supply carries it as I have bought good quality birch from them in the past.

jeeves · 10-12-2007, 11:27 PM

Try Jackson lumber I have had good luck with them.577 9994 ask for Robin, Dwight

DaveO · 10-12-2007, 11:46 PM

Raleigh Hardwood Center off Poole Rd. just outside the belt line is a good bet for "cabinet" stock - good quality sheet goods, and S4S cabinet woods. They are open on Saturdays 'till 1 or 2:00 I think.
Dave

ScottM · 10-13-2007, 07:53 AM

Captial City Lumber also carries cabinet and other grades of plywood. Here is their plywood URL. They also have Saturday morning hours. Since they are located near the Fair grounds so I would wait until after the fair to go shopping there.

http://www.capitolcitylumber.com/plywood.cfm

Nativespec · 10-13-2007, 08:01 AM

Bring plenty of cash. It may be worth a drive to Gibsonville if you need some other items.

dave "dhi" · 10-13-2007, 09:08 AM

raleigh hardwoods is your place to go. they have it all in ply's. you can walk thru warehouse and see all the different ply's! great selections! you need some rc red/white oak.. i have some for sale also!

capital lumber you'll break the bank.

dave

rhett · 10-13-2007, 12:04 PM

I would suggest Horizon Forest products. Their prices are much better than Wurth Group (previously Raleigh Hardwoods). The Murphy brand is a top notch 7 ply fir core, stays flat and takes glue/screws very well. Its price is comperable to the cheap chinese stuff elsewhere. Call and tell them what you want, say you are a COD customer. It will be waiting for you when you get there. I will never do business with Capitol City Lumber. Besides being 20+% higher on everything they carry, their staff is rude and have no knowledge of what they carry. Horizon is also off Poole Rd, but they have no weekend hours.

vbgregg · 10-17-2007, 05:14 PM

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestions. I just thought I'd follow up with a summary of what I found out.

I called East Wake Hardwoods and they do NOT sell plywood.

I called Raleigh Hardwood and they quoted me prices on 3 grades: $79 for A1 Select, $67 for B, and $51 for Shop Grade.

I called Horizon Forest and they quoted me prices on 2 grades: $59 for B2 import and $63 for B2 domestic.

I called Jackson Lumber and Robin quoted me prices on 2 grades: $45 and $42, though he did not tell me what grades these were.

Someone said that often the quality is better and the prices are comparable to what Lowes has. Most of these prices are a lot higher than Lowes ($44), though I would guess the quality is as good as or better than Lowes. Also, Lowes will make a free cut for me, which will allow me to get the plywood home in my station wagon, whereas none of these other places would do any cutting. Finally, Lowes is about 3 minutes away and these other places are at least 20 minutes away (from me).

Maybe it boils down to what is being made with the plywood. In my case, I want to build the cabinet part of a router table (I already have a top). I certainly appreciate the advice, but unless the quality of the "cabinet grade" plywood at Lowes is significantly worse than the quality at these other places, I'm tempted to stick with Lowes for this project.

Any further comments before I make the plunge? Thanks,

Gregg

Nativespec · 10-17-2007, 05:19 PM

It's not oak but the Home Depot in Cary sells (or, at least they use to) 3/4" sandply "seconds" for $25/sheet. I picked through a stack one day and found plenty of good ones with lovely grain.

David

McRabbet · 10-17-2007, 06:04 PM

$79 a sheet for 3/4" A-1 Oak plywood is not outrageous -- late last Spring, I paid $77 for A-1 White Oak sheets (veneer core) at Catawba Hardwoods in Marion, less than 300 yards from the Columbia Forest Products plant where it is made.

One key addition. You certainly do not need to buy top grade plywood for anything but a high visibility project. I used it in my dining room commission project only where I knew either face would be seen. Otherwise, I use B-2 grade from the same source for just under $50 per sheet.

DaveO · 10-17-2007, 06:06 PM

IMO BORG Oak ply or most of their ply is just fine for a shop router table cabinet. I use Lowe's Oak ply often and really haven't found it to be to bad.
My RT cabinet is built out of the same cheap $25 "cabinet grade" ply that HD was carrying a while back. It's still working just fine and looks pretty good too.
Dave

Canuck · 10-17-2007, 06:41 PM

If you don't mind the drive over to the HD at Cary Crossroads, they were selling 4x8 3/4" poplar plywood at $20.00/sheet - on clearance. Last weekend I checked and they still had 11 sheets left. I have used it to build shop cabinets and a couple of bookcases with it. I found it to be pretty decent plywood with very few voids.

You may want to check it out. A deal at that price, in my opinion.....

(Oh ya. Look in the area where their pressure treated pine is stocked. It isn't in with their regular plywood.)

Wayne

dave "dhi" · 10-17-2007, 08:01 PM

agree with BORG. the poplar construction plywood is about as good as the birch for half the price. they have it in wake forest also. i wouldnt suggest the sandi-ply tho, its junk. i build alot of built-ins for customers and i love the poplar for its price. sandi ply to porous(open grains) that become worse with primer! and veneer is only on one side and hard to figure out what side

just my 2 cents!

vbgregg · 10-20-2007, 02:02 PM

Originally Posted by Canuck

If you don't mind the drive over to the HD at Cary Crossroads, they were selling 4x8 3/4" poplar plywood at $20.00/sheet - on clearance. Last weekend I checked and they still had 11 sheets left. I have used it to build shop cabinets and a couple of bookcases with it. I found it to be pretty decent plywood with very few voids.

You may want to check it out. A deal at that price, in my opinion.....

(Oh ya. Look in the area where their pressure treated pine is stocked. It isn't in with their regular plywood.)

Wayne

Hi Wayne,

Thanks for the tip. I picked up 5 sheets of this popular plywood. At $20, it's cheaper than their rough plywood. I think there are about 5 sheets left. Thanks again,

Gregg

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