Birch Ply Regional Pricing Index

[HexusOdy]

I've read a lot of posts on here about sources and pricing for Birch ply with some big regional differences and with suppliers in the same region. As it's used a lot by many of us I thought it would be useful to pool our knowledge of sources and prices. As 18mm 2.4m x 1.2m BB/BB seems most common I'll use pricing for that but feel free to post what you like and I'll try build and index. I'm pretty sure I'm paying over the odds but not many options near me.

Suffolk

18mm BB/BB £58 delivered - Ipswich Plastics (they supply many sheet goods including veneered, laminates etc)
18mm BB/BB £64 delivered - Meyer Timber

 

[HexusOdy]

100 reads and nobody wants to share their knowledge?

 

[custard]

I assume these are ex-VAT prices. If so that's about par for the course for 18mm, I reckon about £60 a sheet ex VAT delivered is pretty much the benchmark price.

I generally stay away from these pricing threads because they tend to gloss over or ignore completely the whole quality question. I'm making high end furniture and it would be rare for material costs to account for more than 20% of the finished cost, 10-15% would be closer to the average, so quality completely swamps price when it comes to sourcing materials.

This even applies to sheet goods. I'll generally use BB/BB birch ply as part of the substrate for veneering (it usually gets skinned both sides with MDF), so as well as void free ply of consistent thickness I'm also looking for exceptionally flat and stable ply. Birch ply comes from a huge swathe of Northern and Eastern Europe, with hundreds of manufacturers contesting the market. There's no doubt some of them would happily let quality standards slip in order to steal a small price advantage. But is that a product I want to have at the heart of my furniture? And the quality issue also extends to the retailers; ply and MDF needs to be stored very carefully to keep it flat. So I take the view that about £60 a sheet is sufficient to allow a manufacturer and retailer to provide excellent quality products, and having found suppliers who can achieve that (Timbmet in my case) I'm in no hurry to switch. There's no doubt that cheaper is possible, but will the quality still be there?

And when it comes to hardwoods then price is even less of an issue. Not because price isn't important. But because the cost of buying inferior materials far outweighs the benefit of shaving a pound or two off the price.

Nowadays I'm a full time furniture maker, but even as a hobbyist I took a similar approach. If I was sinking hundreds of hours of my time into a project I wasn't going to risk the outcome by looking for bargain basement timber. If I couldn't afford the material costs then I'd rather find a smaller and more affordable project than jeopardise the quality of the finished piece.

Just my two pennyworth.

 

[Logger]

I pay £42 for BB ply near me but that might possibly include some discount as i use Lathams for hard wood as well as boards. I will check what regular price is. Avon plywoods charge about £57 for BB 10 miles down the road.

 

[Fishandchips]

This place is close to me, 6mm to 24mm

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121110619893?ul_noapp=true

Prices all on eBay. £20 to £60

 

[Mark-numbers]

How much???

I pay 42 quid for 8 x 4 x 25mm Birch Ply so guessing the 18mm is cheaper.

 

[HexusOdy]

This kind of the point of my post. 18mm BB Birch Ply is an easy product to quantify as its the same quality and size everywhere. There's no grey areas over grades or source with hardwood.

But just from these few posts you can see massive differences. From £35 per sheet to £60 per sheet.

Do you mind sharing your sources, maybe between us we can help each other find better deals.

 

[Fishandchips]

Garrards Huddersfield £42.48 18mm BB/BB http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121110619893?ul_noapp=true

 

[custard]

18mm BB Birch Ply is an easy product to quantify as its the same quality and size everywhere. There's no grey areas over grades or source with hardwood.

I wish that were the case but it's not. Spend some time looking at ply and you quickly realise the BB classification is pretty subjective, not only in terms of the absolute number of defects allowed but also in terms of the quality of the patching. Plus, AFAIK the classification only relates to the show faces, you then get a great deal of variation in terms of voids, and different retailers store their ply in different ways. Some are diligent in keeping it flat and dry, some lean it at an angle against damp external walls; some let you select the ply you want or are flexible with returns, some not so much. In addition the thickness of ply can be very variable, I appreciate the thickness is quoted as "nominal", but variations of 0.5mm within a single sheet is surely evidence of a manufacturer that's not on top of their game!

Finally are you sure the price range you quote is really comparing apples with apples? Is that for a single sheet or a pallet? Is that delivered or collect?

You may be using ply in an application where none of this matters very much. Fair enough, chase the cheapest price. But if your application is more quality dependent then be aware of these potential variations. It's interesting that some wholesalers offer BB ply in different price bands, so you can better fit the quality to your own usage intentions.

Good luck.

 

[Rhossydd]

Finally are you sure the price range you quote is really comparing apples with apples? Is that for a single sheet or a pallet? Is that delivered or collect?

We know it's not been a consistent 'like for like' comparison already as some prices are 'delivered' and some are collect only.

I have to agree with Custard that this is a pretty futile exercise.

 

[Fishandchips]

Well I think this is a good exercise, it's showing the forum members the prices that are available for the advertised product of 18mm BB/BB birch plywood. Prices seem to be £42 inc vat to £60 plus vat.

If you can get it for £42 inc vat and the quality is fit for purpose you know you got a good deal. If your buying 10 sheets it's a big saving.

If you paid the higher price and you got a lower than expected quality then you need to take it back or don't use the supplier again.

There are plenty of suppliers out there who are willing to sell lower quality products at higher prices.

 

[Rhossydd]

product of 18mm BB/BB birch plywood. Prices seem to be £42 inc vat to £60 plus vat.

For what ? one sheet or 50 ? delivered or not ?
That quoted price of £42 didn't actually state it included VAT

So far not much more use than two minutes with Google.

 

[SlowSteve]

Arnold Lavar are offering Baltic at £32.32 + VAT on a "per sheet" price - no discounts - works out at £38.78 if you collect.

 

[mind_the_goat]

Custard makes very valid points but this is still a useful exercise for those of us who are very occasional buyers and generally have no clue as to an average price.
Given the number of questions we see asking about suppliers is this a chance to update the local suppliers list on this forum? Not sure what the procedure is to post updates? Scrub that, the 'Local' link no longer works, Is this something it would be worth reinstating, even if it was just a list maintained by a mod, on request from users?

 

[HexusOdy]

product of 18mm BB/BB birch plywood. Prices seem to be £42 inc vat to £60 plus vat.

For what ? one sheet or 50 ? delivered or not ?
That quoted price of £42 didn't actually state it included VAT

So far not much more use than two minutes with Google.

Sorry I thought it was obvious for 1 sheet as from there, thats the only number can quote like for like.

My hope was that people would say where they buy it from then could list the best prices by region / county.

The £42 was inc VAT as it was an Ebay listing with VAT included.

 

[Rhossydd]

The £42 was inc VAT as it was an Ebay listing with VAT included.

No. The first poster to quote £42 was logger, but no mention of VAT, bulk rates or delivery, next was Mark-numbers and again no details on VAT/bulk/delivery.

Unless you know if prices includes VAT, delivery and if it was for a single sheet rate, multi sheet rate, a favoured regular customer/trade rate or even a member's discount rate, none of it is very useful.

 

[JSW]

Arnold Lavar are offering Baltic at £32.32 + VAT on a "per sheet" price - no discounts - works out at £38.78 if you collect.

Not at my depot (Bradford) they just quoted me £35.62 + VAT on new stock, still not bad though (£42.74 incl.)

 

[Fishandchips]

When someone asks me the price of a product I give the price of the product. Inc vat or ex vat is my only addition.

Would be stupid to include delivery as the supplier could be 500 miles away, or local and collect.

Cheers for info on Arnold laver, gonna go have a look.

 

[SlowSteve]

Arnold Lavar are offering Baltic at £32.32 + VAT on a "per sheet" price - no discounts - works out at £38.78 if you collect.

Not at my depot (Bradford) they just quoted me £35.62 + VAT on new stock, still not bad though (£42.74 incl.)

Bradford is the depot that gave me the prices as well. However - I checked and it has gone up to the price you quoted - £35.60

Sorry - I should have said which depot it was

 

[Logger]

Apologies, my original post did not give more details. Lathams in yate near bristol sell me their BB for £42 including vat. Not sure about delivery as i will normally be having other timber delivered so makes total delivery free. This is a price for a single sheet as i sometimes collect in my van.

I personally think that any information shared is better than none. Yes, there may be bulk discounts etc to take into account, but if nothing else, it may give people alternative places to try they were not aware of.

Cheers

Nick