Buying marine ply any trusted places ???

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Restoration man

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I need some proper marine ply, anyone on here know of somewhere i can get some from ?might have to do mail order??? , I’m a bit worried about buying something that’s not proper marine/ Lloyds approved stuff so if anyone here has any places they use please let me know , I’m only doing this job once so I want the very best ply I can possibly get
 
I would say James Latham's are the best national high end timber/sheet materials supplier. Depots across most of the country. Montague Meyer have historically been the main people for plywood imports, but you won't go wrong with Lathams, they don't sell rubbish.
 
Without getting into slagging off any one or several specific suppliers, caveat emptor ...

An awful lot of plywood sold as "marine ply" and stamped with "BS1088" is not genuine marine ply as we expect and require

And by "an awful lot" I actually mean the majority of the so called "marine plywood" sold in the mainstream builders merchants and DIY stores (this is and has been for years a known problem but nothing seems to be done about it)

The reason is simple. The mainstream trade relies on the distributors to supply the real thing and the distributors rely on the importers and the importers rely on the manufacturers (almost invariably in the Far East) and nobody along the way is actually checking that the stuff really is genuine quality marine ply

Just because it's been stamped "BS1088" doesn't mean it's the real thing. And even if it is to the BS1088 spec (or whatever the latest iteration is), that doesn't mean it's good quality.

Yes, you pay a significant premium for Robbins marine plywood. That's because it is genuine high quality marine plywood made to a very high specification in factoriies where Robbins have their own employees carrying out quality control and manufacturing checks.

Having had two projects go bad due to fake BS1088 plywood in the past, I now buy exclusively from Robbbins because I know for certain I'm getting something that is going to do the job properly
 
I used my 'marine ply' to rebuild the rudder on my Mirror Offshore. The quality was good, no voids and no unglued laminations. Although I didn't boil it to check the quality of the glue - it's rare the sea boils in Cardigan Bay It's still going strong after 6 years.
I'm aware of the quality control and dubious marking but overall am happy with the quality.
 
ghostlymoron said:
I used my 'marine ply' to rebuild the rudder on my Mirror Offshore. The quality was good, no voids and no unglued laminations. Although I didn't boil it to check the quality of the glue - it's rare the sea boils in Cardigan Bay It's still going strong after 6 years.
I'm aware of the quality control and dubious marking but overall am happy with the quality.
Click to expand...

Happy days :)

However, having once bought six sheets of BS1088 ply from a reputable high street DIY chain only to have three sheets delaminate overnight (they were under a tarp on a misty night) forgive me for not taking any chances again

(The three good sheets were the last three on a pallet. The bad sheets were the first three off the next pallet. Visually they looked perfectly ok, they were identical to the good stuff in every respect ... other than patently not having waterproof, let alone salt water proof, glue)
 
Salt'n'shaken said:
I would say James Latham's are the best national high end timber/sheet materials supplier. Depots across most of the country. Montague Meyer have historically been the main people for plywood imports, but you won't go wrong with Lathams, they don't sell rubbish.
Click to expand...


I would avoid a company where the reply in search for Marine Ply is something like this as on James Latham . They seem to be a domestic supplier.


marine ply
No results found for the phrase 'marine ply '
 
Bru said:
Without getting into slagging off any one or several specific suppliers, caveat emptor ...

An awful lot of plywood sold as "marine ply" and stamped with "BS1088" is not genuine marine ply as we expect and require

And by "an awful lot" I actually mean the majority of the so called "marine plywood" sold in the mainstream builders merchants and DIY stores (this is and has been for years a known problem but nothing seems to be done about it)

The reason is simple. The mainstream trade relies on the distributors to supply the real thing and the distributors rely on the importers and the importers rely on the manufacturers (almost invariably in the Far East) and nobody along the way is actually checking that the stuff really is genuine quality marine ply

Just because it's been stamped "BS1088" doesn't mean it's the real thing. And even if it is to the BS1088 spec (or whatever the latest iteration is), that doesn't mean it's good quality.

Yes, you pay a significant premium for Robbins marine plywood. That's because it is genuine high quality marine plywood made to a very high specification in factoriies where Robbins have their own employees carrying out quality control and manufacturing checks.

Having had two projects go bad due to fake BS1088 plywood in the past, I now buy exclusively from Robbbins because I know for certain I'm getting something that is going to do the job properly
Click to expand...

Ray Graham in NI sells marine ply but says not suitable for boat building. Supports your point.
 
Whatever is stamped on it, I leave a bit in the dishwasher for a few cycles.
Oddly, we have found a local yard that sells good quality ply. It is likely poplar in the middle laminates and has very few, if any, voids. Since both the boats we are building have thin epoxy sheathing, it is unlikely that there will be any problems in our expected usage. Price for a 10mm sheet has jumped from 43 to 65 euro, but still way below the other yard that sells 1088. Last time I looked there, after buying the 6mm in '06 for my faering, was in '10 for 10mm. 170 euro . I imagine it is 'slightly' more now. Have to say, very good quality., all hardwood lams and nice to work with.

I did buy a dozen sheets of 10 mm off 'marineplyonline' but they seem to have vanished. Stuff was quite good at £40 a sheet. But again, it was a while back.
 
Another vote for Robbins. I bought 3 sheets of MP from a well known large DIY store a few years ago, all stamped up and certified. We noticed on the first cut plenty of voids. Overnight we left an off cut in the bath of water to test it, and in the morning it was bent like a banana.
It took a long time and a few visits from the the rep before they admitted it was their stuff, in the meantime we bought 3 sheets from Robbins and it was void free, although expensive.
I have used external ply on jobs in the past for outdoor stuff and two packed it and 10 years down the line it's still perfect.
 
ghostlymoron said:
I bought a sheet from Boys and Boden it was stamped with the appropriate number (BS1088) and appeared to comply with the spec. It was also much cheaper than Robbins.
Click to expand...

If the wood is hardwood and no voids and the ply is marked (BS1088) I'm happy. But you can bet if the ply was intended for continual immersion in sea water I'd be a lot more discerning
 
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