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Buying guide

Choosing plywood — commercial, shuttering, marine or flexible

Plywood is bought by the area a drawing implies and graded by what its glue and face can survive. Get the grade right and the sheet count follows from one division.

Buying guide

Choosing plywood — commercial, shuttering, marine or flexible

Plywood is bought by the area a drawing implies and graded by what its glue and face can survive. Get the grade right and the sheet count follows from one division.

Which plywood, and how many sheets

Plywood is graded by what its glue and its face can survive, not by how it looks. The four types here are genuinely different products and substituting down is how a pour goes wrong or a fit-out warps.

SheetAreaSheets per 100 m²Common thicknesses
1220 × 2440 mm2.98 m²343, 4, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 25 mm

One standard sheet covers 2.98 m². Divide your area by that and round up — allow extra for cuts and waste on anything but a simple rectangle. Film-faced is also stocked in 21 mm; flexible runs 3, 5, 8 and 12 mm.

  • Commercial — general joinery, boxing, partitions and site carpentry. The everyday board.
  • Film-faced (shuttering) — a phenolic film on both faces so the board releases from concrete and can be struck and reused. For formwork.
  • Marine — bonded to survive damp and repeated wetting, for boats, wet areas and anywhere exposure is real.
  • Flexible (bendy) — cut so it will curve, for curved joinery and column casings.

The arithmetic most enquiries need

4,000 m² of boarding is 4,000 ÷ 2.98 = 1,343 sheets before waste. Working the other way, 3,000 sheets covers about 8,930 m². Send us the area and we will do it with you rather than quoting a per-sheet price against a number you had to guess.

Questions

Straight answers.

How many plywood sheets do I need for a given area?

A standard 1220 × 2440 mm sheet covers 2.98 m². Divide the area by 2.98 and round up, then add for cuts. For 4,000 m² that is 1,343 sheets before waste.

What is the difference between commercial and film-faced plywood?

Film-faced has a phenolic film bonded to both faces so wet concrete releases cleanly and the board can be struck and reused several times. Commercial plywood has no such face — used as formwork it bonds to the pour and is effectively single-use.

Can I use commercial plywood outdoors?

Not where it will get repeatedly wet. Commercial board is a general interior and site joinery product. For damp or wet exposure the marine grade is the one specified, because the difference is the glue line rather than the appearance.

Where can I buy marine plywood in the UAE?

Lion Yard Trading supplies marine, film-faced shuttering, commercial and flexible plywood from 3 mm to 25 mm in 1220 × 2440 mm sheets, delivered to all seven emirates. Send the grade, thickness and sheet count — or just the area — and the quotation comes back the same day.

How many times can film-faced shuttering plywood be reused?

It depends on the film weight, how carefully the board is struck and whether the edges are sealed after cutting, so no honest supplier gives one number. The phenolic face is what makes reuse possible at all — commercial plywood used as formwork is effectively single-use.

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Get in touch

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Tell us the size, quantity and delivery emirate — we'll come back with pricing and availability.

Mon–Sat, 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM · +971 54 303 3119 (Operations Director) · +971 54 241 0599 (Managing Director)