BS1088 PLY (wtf have i just paid for................)

dancrane said:
The ply I bought for my Osprey's floor was just sold as "Far Eastern"...there are some markings which I photographed...I'll try to put them on Photobucket later so I can show them here. I was hoping for a big obvious reassuring BS 1088 stamp, but mine was the second half sold from a whole sheet of 9mm, so I guess the first half will have carried the mark.
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BS1088 ply has to be marked as such to comply with the standard, ISTR on both faces. No mark, no BS1088.
 
I have tried trading standards people a few tim they are very overworked and take a long time to get anything moving IMO still worth doing as something may happen in a year or so
 
To be honest it would be like getting trading standards to investigate the concept of globalisation as (IMO) its another example of yet another industry in a race to the bottom. The carpentry contract i've just finished was for a well known uk builder where pretty much most of the materials are coming in direct from China and believe me alot of what i saw (in terms of quality) wasn't great it has to be said, although China do a lot things very well.

But as i was told on site thats how you maximise your profit, and thats not to be naive, i understand no ones in business for the good of their health but surely there must come a point where its obvious to a fecking dog its unsustainable.

Maybe thats just me, but where we will be in another ten years is anyones guess, for me i'm certain i'll be done with the world of carpentry /construction by then - i'm only doing what i'm doing as i have a dead Centaur in my back garden that still needs alot of money spent on it and theres no decent-paying work of any longevity round my way, if there was i wouldn't be getting up at the crack of sparrow fart driving up the M3 everyday to earn a crust - thats for sure!

Altogether now, China is our future!, repeat after me.....................................................
 
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AntarcticPilot said:
BS1088 ply has to be marked as such to comply with the standard, ISTR on both faces. No mark, no BS1088.
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Thanks for that. I don't have any reason to doubt the assiduity of my local timber yard, in acquiring and supplying the proper stuff...

...although the stamp I've found on my piece, isn't quite as clear as I'd like. Is this typical?

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KellysEye said:
The previous owner of our boat was a shipwright and fitted teak decks under which was plywood. The only plywood he would use is a Dutch Marine ply that is guaranteed for, from memory, 50 years.
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Bruynzeel! Best marine ply by far, but also a tad expensive.
 
I bought two sheets of marine ply from jewsons last year to make some boat seats, all stamped up, when the guy brought them out to the car I mentioned that I didn't think that they were marine grade cos of a few voids along one edge, but he convinced me that they were so I foolishly took them home, we made the seats up, but overnight I noticed that the off cuts I had thrown outside were curling up and delaminating. Worst of all the seats had been fitted to the boat already, so they had to be ripped out.
To cut a long story short jewsons eventually owned up to their error and sent two lovely sheets from a place in Bristol, what a difference, no voids and they cut like a dream. Be careful out there and go by your instinct.
 
prv said:
I know the one you mean - I still have a couple of bits remaining from the three or four boards I bought a few years ago.

I got the impression though that it was a one-off disposal by Sunseeker or whoever, and I assumed the stock on the farm was exhausted by now.

Pete
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Any chance anyone knows this bloke? He had stacks of dark cherry laminate. I bought a pile of it to redo Cariad. I could do with another piece for a project if he's still about!
 
From memory, BS1088 only refers to the glue standard and not the quality of the wood. In my wooden boatbuilding days in the 60's 70's 80's, the only ply we would use for exterior use was Brunzeel Regina Mahogany which although expensive was of far superior quality than its closest rival Thames Marineply. Even in those days the so called BS1088 plys from the far east were seriously suspect. Brunzeel had a 12 year warranty which we only ever had to claim on once when we found a void in the middle of a sheet used as a cabin side. After initial inspection, there was never any quibble about the cost of replacement (which was expensive).
 
Rubbish or what?

Been to two suppliers today looking for a sheet of 12mm marine ply. First one the sheet stamped on edge and one side only, checked the face veneer and it was 1.02mm where the minimum standard is 1.3mm. Second supplier I went to was even worse with visible voids on the edge of the sheet and the colour of the face veneer did not even look like hardwood.
 
Hmm. Very disappointing, but not a rare occurrence I'm certain.

I went back today for more of the 9mm Far Eastern marine ply I bought last month. I noticed at once how much paler the wood is...the gent selling it said that that's normal, but later I also found a lot of small voids exposed along an edge, and I was surprised to find that the ply I bought today is a clear 20% lighter in weight, than that I bought in March.

I'm inclined to give my timber merchant the benefit of the doubt regarding quality - but there's no doubt in my mind that what I bought today is quite different, and feels inferior.
 
dancrane said:
later I also found a lot of small voids exposed along an edge,
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The last ply I bought from a local proper hardwood supplier was rubbish.
He said he couldn't guarantee any of the stuff he was importing any more as it was so variable and even the marine grade was pathetic.
He said a pallet of supposedly 18mm ply varied between 12 and 23mm per sheet in the one pack.
He stripped a top veneer off and found that the intermediate plys were just alternate softwood sheet and shavings with strips of veneer. There was no wonder there were voids.
 
But...this is madness. There's no question that we're prepared to pay plenty for quality...but there's so much trash about, we can't find the good stuff amid the junk.

Isn't it in the interests of reputable merchants, only to offer the good stuff for sale?
 
Surely for a boatbuilding project you should go to Robbins or their equivalent and order from their range of plywood - why would anyone think of going to a builder's merchant or is this me being naive?
 
Dear all, incl rogerball0
http://wallerwickham.ie/
These nice people stock the Dutch product desired.I re-soled my cabin with the striped holly and teak and it was the DB's
They may know of a GB source nearer to forumites.
No connection, simply found this firm knew their business.
 
BERT T said:
Been to two suppliers today looking for a sheet of 12mm marine ply. First one the sheet stamped on edge and one side only, checked the face veneer and it was 1.02mm where the minimum standard is 1.3mm. Second supplier I went to was even worse with visible voids on the edge of the sheet and the colour of the face veneer did not even look like hardwood.
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I wouldn't go by the colour of the face veneer - there is nothing in the spec that says it must be pretty, and there are plenty of uninspiring white hardwoods! Mine is a white coloured wood with not much grain pattern, and I certainly wouldn't use it where I want a good appearance - but I have no doubt it really is marine ply, as I have found none of the defects other people have reported, it is properly marked and the supplier is a very reputable local company.
 
paulclan said:
Dear all, incl rogerball0
http://wallerwickham.ie/
These nice people stock the Dutch product desired.I re-soled my cabin with the striped holly and teak and it was the DB's
They may know of a GB source nearer to forumites.
No connection, simply found this firm knew their business.
Click to expand...

Spoke to them and they were very helpful but note the following:-

They do not deliver to the UK.

Even in Ireland they do not deliver Teak and Holly veneered marine ply due to the risk of damage.

They further advise that for UK Robbins timber use the same source for Teak & Holly as them.
 
Its interesting the comments coming back are the same as i've experienced; that is no one will accept responsibility for the incredibly low / random standard of product, the problems exacerbated in the Uk i think by the price deferential between far-eastern marine and guaranteed marine ply, on 12mm it can be something like £40 vs £100 so its not a case of thinking okay i'll pay another 25% to ensure decent quality its more like 250% + depending on how long you want it guaranteed for.

Seeing as most of the worlds ply is coming out of Indoenisia and China i cant justify paying such a difference in price and know from bitter experience my customers won't either.

This is what the ply was used for, making my van half habitable:

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