Plywood
is a wood based material, normally used in constructions and not as a surface material. But the rough look of Plywood has increased its popularity. Building regulations for public rooms mean restrictions for the use of Plywood as an indoor surface material.
Plywood is sensitive to indoor climate changes so large formatted panels and zero spaced joints should be used with care. Plywood can be used as it is, just sanding and lacquering its rotation cut top veneer in birch or pine, or a veneer in another wood specie can be glued to the board surface.
Plywood can be vacuum impregnated with chemical fire retardants, but the non-transferring glue in between the multiple veneer layers makes it hard for the impregnation fluid to reach the whole core of the plywood board. Its only a limited number of producers who master this tricky process.
Plywood cores are produced with a lot of glue, but versions with approved emissions are available. Surface area increasing post treatments, like acoustic perforations or slicing the material into Linear Ribs, may affect the emission classification.
| Material Property | Plywood | Score |
| Dimension Stability | Plywood is sensitive to changes in the room’s temperature or humidity and should be installed with a 2 mm spacing per 1000 mm of length and width | 3/5 |
| Resistance to impact | Plywood has a good resistance to impact and is suitable for high traffic areas, sports halls, schools, hospitals, restaurants and similar. | 5/5 |
| Flattness | Plywood is sensitive to changes in the room’s temperature or humidity and large panel formats should be avoided. | 4/5 |
| Fire Safety of the core | Plywood can be impregnated to class B-s1,d0. The impregnation and drying process can lead to warping panels. | 4/5 |
| Fire Safety of the whole panel, including the veneer, lacquer and perforations | Plywood including the top veneer can be impregnated to B-s1,d0. Impregnation cannot pass the glue layers in plywood, perforations might expose nonimpregnated material. | 2/5 |
| Acoustics | With 9,5 kg/m², Plywood based panels will more easily start to vibrate/ resonate due to sound waves. Sound will not be properly reflected towards to back concert halls or auditoriums. | 3/5 |
| Recycled material | Plywood is made of new raw materials and does not contain any recycled material (and by that no post consumer recycled materials). | 0/5 |
| Thermal mass | Plywood is not very good at storing heath and cold and rather works the opposite way by isolating the concreate structure of a building which ortherwise can store heat and cold. | 2/5 |
| Emissions | Plywood is available in formaldehyde class E1. After adding an acoustic perforation, the E1 classification is normally not valid anymore as the total emitting surface increases. | 2/5 |
| No added Urea Formaldehyde | Plywood is available in non added ureaformaldehyde versions. Plywood contains a lot of glue, so when incorrect glues are used, a lot of urea formaldehyde will be added. | 2/5 |
| Colors | Plywood is not available in pre-colored grades. | 0/5 |