Surprising good ply from B&Q

[Beau]

I'm guilty of often only piping up when I've bought something thats fallen short of expectation but today it's the other way around.

We have just started a DIY house renovation and we happened to pop into B&Q. I was looking for birch ply which they didn't have but I came across some not bad looking 18mm beech faced ply for £40 a sheet. I need to do some boxing in and thought it would be suitable so I have bought a few sheets with little expectation at the price. The ply's are well bonded with hardly any gaps, it cuts cleanly without the surface flaking off and even though it makes no claims it appears to be water resistant as I left a sample in water for 4 hours with no ill effects. Next I'm going to use it instead of birch ply for a base unit in the utility room. Its less than half the price of any birch ply I can get and appears to tick nearly all the same boxes. Its probably not as consistently flat but any unevenness should be corrected with the compound strength you get in base units.

 

[Fitzroy]

I bought a piece of 18mm ply from B&Q recently, looks like the same stuff. I had to pick through a couple of somewhat wobbly sheets to find one that was flat enough for my liking but was likewise more impressed with-it than I expected upon cutting it up for use.