Plywood - Lumber And Wood Framing Materials

Plywood is made by gluing multiple pieces or strips of wood together in alternating directions. Plywood is commonly used for building floors, walls and roofs and believe it or not, can also be used for stairs. The picture below provides you with an excellent example of a stairway that was built out of construction standard lumber and plywood.

Plywood is created from a variety of different woods. Each layer of wood used in a sheet of plywood runs perpendicular to the next one. This usually creates a strong building material that can be used for floors, walls and roofs.

Plywood comes in different grades and uses different adhesives and wood combinations, to create a variety of different types of plywood. You can purchase interior, exterior, structural and marine grade plywoods.

Most plywoods also use a letter grading scale. "A" grade plywood is one of the best grades of plywood you can purchase. From there it works its way down to B, C and D. "D" grade plywood is usually an extremely low-quality plywood and I haven't seen it for quite a few years.

Sometimes plywood is sold as CDX. The C represents one side of the plywood surface and the D represents the other side of the plywood surface. The X stands for exterior and can be exposed to moisture for short periods of time.

Just because you purchased an exterior grade of plywood, doesn't mean that you can leave it exposed to moisture forever. As a matter of fact, I don't recommend leaving any plywood exposed to heat, cold or moisture, unless it's properly treated.


Stairs / Stair Glossary

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z