Recommendations for a supplier for good quality plywood in bulk?

[Alan Ambrose]

That's it really...say in 50-sheet lots.

[nod]

I pay £16.9 for structural ply from Sheffield insulation 

There are plenty of saw mills near us But all add a delivery charge which takes it over the Sheffield I price 

Some jobs allow us to use OSB for pattreses Under a tenner 

[Temp]

Wherever you go its worth discussing the grade with the company, possibly even testing a sheet. Some of the WBP out there is worse than Wheatabix in hot milk 

[Oz07]

Vexgold worth a call but I don't know how you guarantee its good quality. Have to be there on delivery to inspect and be prepared to send back. James Latham are a bigger nationwide outfit might be worth a call too.

[Nick Laslett]

2 hours ago, Oz07 said:

Vexgold worth a call but I don't know how you guarantee its good quality. Have to be there on delivery to inspect and be prepared to send back. James Latham are a bigger nationwide outfit might be worth a call too.

@Alan Ambrose, For any large orders James Latham’s is great. I could not believe the per board price when I bought a whole pallet of Medite MDF. They supply quality recognised brands, so there is a premium. 

Edited September 29 by Nick Laslett

[-rick-]

14 hours ago, Nick Laslett said:

@Alan Ambrose, For any large orders James Latham’s is great. I could not believe the per board price when I bought a whole pallet of Medite MDF. They supply quality recognised brands, so there is a premium. 

 

Should I read this as either:

a) The prices are very good for the quality if you order in bulk but there is a premium to standard stuff

b) I recommend this supplier but their prices are high

 

What were you paying per board?

[Benpointer]

We hunted around for the best price for 75 sheets of 18mm class-3 exterior ply and because and my local builders merchants, Sydenhams, came up with £28.74 per sheet ex VAT.  Very good boards they are too.

 

Best of all they have kept the price for the extra sheets I have bought in 1s and 2s.

 

Appreciate you are nowhere near a Sydenhams but I assume other local BMs might do similar for a bulk order.

Edited September 30 by Benpointer

[Nick Laslett]

1 hour ago, -rick- said:

 

Should I read this as either:

a) The prices are very good for the quality if you order in bulk but there is a premium to standard stuff

b) I recommend this supplier but their prices are high

 

What were you paying per board?

This was back in May 2022.

15mm 2440x1220 Medite Exterior Medium Density Fibreboard 

@£39.17 per board, 48 in total

 

15mm Medite Exterior MDF is quite hard to source from online sellers. 
 

Just had a Quick Look online and 12mm Medite Exterior Mdf was priced at £65-70 per board. 
 

I’m sorry if my comment was more confusing than helpful. I just wanted to make a distinction between Medite MDF and unbranded MDF. Plywood is another generic term, where there is such a range in prices for the different specs. So I assume Latham’s plywood might be expensive compared to B&Q, even when bought in bulk. 

 

 

[saveasteading]

It's worth trying several merchant. A national brand or two, a local chain or two  and any independents.

Some will regard a big order as a sale, and add a margin. Others will give some discount on the advertised price

 

If the order happens to be close to a whole pallet then this matters more, as they don't have to double handle or manhandle the boards. 

Talk to the manager or salesperson though. They might also have alternatives.

Shockingly I once got concrete blocks (half a lorry load) cheapest from b and q. They came on a Travis P lorry. The TP prices from 2 depots were very different and both much higher.

[SimonD]

On 29/09/2025 at 15:54, Alan Ambrose said:

That's it really...say in 50-sheet lots.

 

What ply are you after? What are you doing with it? What kind of grade surface finish do you want? There are just so many different plywoods out there, the question is not that simple. And also quality varies dramatically between them, even with the same so called specification.

 

As an example, I had some 'cheap' class 3 (exterior) grade Chinese hardwood ply that when left exposed to the elements completely de-laminated in no time at all. To compare, I left some interior grade Birch plywood completely exposed outside for 2 winters and 3 summers. The Birch play is still servicable and usable despite greying - but no delamination at all. I've also used some moderately expensive exterior grade structural ply usually used for formwork or site barrier fencing which has lasted nearly 6 years as an outside step.

[Alan Ambrose]

>>> What ply are you after?

 

Good point, a lot of 15mm and some 25mm exterior grade or, if I can afford it, marine - for the outside of a load of wall & roof cassettes. Yes, they'll have some rainscreen, but I would like them to last as long as possible. Will buy it by the pallet if the first sheets check out. Surface finish not that important, weather resistance is.

 

I've been looking at sheetmaterialwholesale, materialsmarket & buildersmerchant but yet to be inspired - probably a dumb approach.

[Gus Potter]

2 hours ago, Alan Ambrose said:

Good point, a lot of 15mm and some 25mm exterior grade or, if I can afford it, marine - for the outside of a load of wall & roof cassettes. Yes, they'll have some rainscreen, but I would like them to last as long as possible. Will buy it by the pallet if the first sheets check out. Surface finish not that important, weather resistance is.

 

I've been looking at sheetmaterialwholesale, materialsmarket & buildersmerchant but yet to be inspired - probably a dumb approach.

The selection of ply is a bit of minefield.

 

Alan. I think you are taking the right approach. Your starting point is to ask what do we need it to do structurally then make sure you achieve the durability that your require. 

 

Brace yourself sir.. there is a bit too it when navigating the selection of ply vs cost. One thing to also look at is if you are using the cassettes to act as a stiff diaphragm then you might want to source 3.05m in length rather than the 2.4m UK size or 8 foot US size as you want to avoid joints in the diaphragm layer. In theory it all is easy anough until you add in windows and doors to diaphragms.. also read as SIPS panels. 

 

Main thing though is to look at the off cuts and see if you can turn them into brackets. 

 

@saveasteading is doing something a bit similar to you, he has  higher walls, internally and externally his wall heights are long span and is taking advantage of the extra stiffness of the ply skins to reduce deflections. 

 

For all when we go off piste like this we need to do two things. The first is to make it safe. The next is to manage how much the wall is going to bend by and how much it will vibrate when you shut a door. 

 

The selection of ply and fixing is critical to this. 

 

OK cost and sourcing material and getting another opinion. You could PM @saveasteading, he is a Chartered CE, also doing a massive project and is as hard nosed as it comes for getting material at the right price. 

 

 

[SimonD]

3 hours ago, Alan Ambrose said:

>>> What ply are you after?

 

Good point, a lot of 15mm and some 25mm exterior grade or, if I can afford it, marine - for the outside of a load of wall & roof cassettes. Yes, they'll have some rainscreen, but I would like them to last as long as possible. Will buy it by the pallet if the first sheets check out. Surface finish not that important, weather resistance is.

 

I've been looking at sheetmaterialwholesale, materialsmarket & buildersmerchant but yet to be inspired - probably a dumb approach.

 

I'd highly recommend speaking to a local timber merchant specialising in plywood. I found our local merchant (we actually have 2 locally) to be invaluable prior to purchasing several pallets of birch ply a while ago - that's because they view ply not as ply but an important building material that needs to be specified correctly. I also found that when buying in bulk, they were very competitive in price and also have access to ordering in your sizes such  as 3.050 as @Gus Potter in both 1220 and 1525 widths.

[Gus Potter]

38 minutes ago, SimonD said:

3.050 as @Gus Potter in both 1220 and 1525 widths.

Ta for that. When designing diaphragms we often need the larger sizes. Ta for also mentioning the extra width option.

[Alan Ambrose]

OK I thought I would report back for anyone else looking at this subject in future. There don't seem to be an great timber-specialist suppliers in our area BTW.

 

DIY Building Supplies, Materials Market & Sheet Materials Supply Wholesale will ship both small and large quantities and put up bulk quantity prices on their website - at least for some variants. Their prices are look cheapish and the product is almost certainly Chinese.

 

Proper external grade i.e. 'waterproof' is BS 1088 Class 3.

 

I also found these other professional suppliers - they actually have datasheets / certificate for their ply which gives the structural strength, country of original, wood species etc: Meyer / Robbins / International. There are probably a few others. They don't have prices on their websites and most likely supply wholesale only. But they have great info - apparently the best plywood is Gaboon or Sapele species from Africa and Meranti or Eucalyptus species from Indonesia or Malaysia. The glue for all class 3 products seems to be formaldehyde.

 

[SimonD]

23 minutes ago, Alan Ambrose said:

Robbins

 

Robbins Timber in Bristol are excellent for just about any timber. Not the cheapest. Don't go by their website price list which is buried on the site, call them and explain quantities to get a good price. They used to do free delivery for me, but with your distance this may not be feasible for them. If you're casting your net this wide, then also speak to Sydenham Plywood (used to be Avon Plywood) based in Keynsham near Bristol.

[Nick Laslett]

In west Suffolk, I used Clarkes of Walsham for the plywood for my flat roof deck. And a few sheets of 18mm OSB. I’m close enough for free delivery. 
 

https://www.clarkesofwalsham.co.uk/product-category/building-construction/sheet-materials/plywood-sheets/

 

For a number of other timber purchases I used Suffolk Timber Supplies

 

https://suffolktimbersupplies.co.uk/sheet-materials

 

This was material I wanted cut, so collected direct. 
 

They appear to have branched out to building timber frame houses. 

Edited October 1 by Nick Laslett

[Alan Ambrose]

Thanks Nick.

 

I thought I would report back: I ended up ordering from Sheet Materials Supply and was pleasantly surprised when their marine plywood turned up. I was sure it would be Chinese, but it turned out to be Malaysian.

 

AFAIK, Malaysia along with Gabon and a few other places in Africa produce the best of this kind of ply. So, I got a better deal than I expected.