Plywood(materials) weight list ?

[rustytoolss]

I'm sure this info has been covered before. But the search feature will not let me search it (words to common). Does anyone have a list of material weights ? Plywood in different thickness 1/8,1/4,5/16, 1/2 etc, and other common TD building materials.

[Trebor English]

One of Angib's contributions is a spreadsheet that calculates weights of sandwich panels as well as providing weights of lots of stuff. Cells F3, F4, and F5 can be adjusted if your wood is heavier or lighter. I found the "data" sheet handy for stuff I can't weigh because I don't have one.

At the top of the page click on "Lets reconstruct the design library" then go to the fourth page of that topic. Near the bottom there are a pair of links to Angib's spreadsheet file and pdf file weight-est-data.xls and weight-est-data.pdf.
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=66458&start=45

I uploaded them there and don't want to make another copy here as that would just take up more disk space.

Thank you Andrew.

[S. Heisley]

I don't think you'll find the old weight estimate page among Andrew's data. He took it down a few years ago, (I think around 2009) when we discovered that the weight of wood depended upon the type, density, and even how wet or dry it was and could be argued even between wood shops. He had other things listed as well, such as the weight of batteries and even water and those could (and were) argued as well. For instance, he had that a gallon of water weighed 9 lbs. Others argued that a gallon of water weighed 10 lbs. ...and so on.... Because it was his wish not to publish his weight data any more, I will honor that. **

I used poplar to frame my build and weighed every or nearly every piece of it. What I found was that the whiter the piece, the less it weighed. The more brown or green marbling or striping, the more it weighed. Things can sometimes even differ slightly from manufacturer to manufacturer. Plywood seemed to stay pretty true, though. A 4x8' sheet of 1/8" thick was 9 lbs. For 1/4" thick, 18 lbs; 1/2" thick, 36 lbs...etc.

Your best bet is to weigh things yourself. Just pick it up and stand on the scale and look down at the weight. Put the piece down, stand on the scale and look down at the weight. Subtract the second weight from the first and the difference is your piece's weight. If you're at a big box store and wonder how much something weighs, bring a scale over from the home products aisle and use it. I've done it and nobody has ever bothered me for that. For small pieces, I weighed them on a small food scale. To get the weight of an assembled piece, including glue and screws, picking it up and standing on a scale and then subtracting your weight without the assembled piece can be pretty accurate. Remember that, while you can estimate them, you probably won't be able to weigh some of your finishing touches. This includes glue used to hold siding on; silicon gels, caulking, paint, etc. Also, there will probably be things that you forget to weigh. After all, you're human.

** Postscript: I stand corrected. Trebor did find it. I have mixed emotions about that, as mentioned in the first paragraph of my post. I still believe that your best bet is to weigh things yourself.

[Trebor English]

I wasn't aware there was a problem and that it had been removed. If anyone thinks it is appropriate to remove the copy I uploaded and they know how to remove it that is certainly fine with me. I didn't intend to add fuel to an old fire. I'm sorry.

[S. Heisley]

Thanks, Trevor. It's out there again and people can decide for themselves. As long as they are aware that some things may change because of manufacturing modifications, etc.... It isn't listed under the Design Resources and I'm assuming that's because it's a download; so, people would have to go to one of these two threads to find it and might have to have a similar spreadsheet program for it to "read" properly. ...Dunno. I doubt any harm has been done. There's still a lot that's good about it. Thanks for all your efforts.

[GPW]

Awhile back , someone stated plywood was around 57 lb/ per cu. ft. Don’t know if that fits all, but it sure seems close as a “guesstimate “ ...

[DrewsBrews]

Menards seems to list the product weights on most items on their online store. I bet they round to nearest lb, but I use it as a general guide.

[jstrubberg]

Where you live makes a big difference when it comes to wood weights. Here in Missouri, our lumber will stabilize around 9-12% moisture content. In Arizona wood settles in at around 4%. Across a 3/4 inch plywood panel, that can easily get you a 3-5 pound weight different on a single sheet of ply. Buy a piece that is still green and you can see even more dramatic differences!

[noseoil]

Look it up online. there are weight tables for different thicknesses. From that you can interpolate the off-sizes if they aren't in the table. Here's what I found online & what I used to calculate my weight when building.

Materials Weight / unit Cost #/ft
1/8" 4x8 ply(HD) 12 $10.00 0.38
1/4" 4x8 ply(HD) 22 $12.00 0.69
1/2" 4x8 ply(HD) 41 $22.00 1.28
3/4" 4x8 ply(HD) 61 $32.00 1.91
1/8" 5x5 BB 11 $14.00 0.44
1/4" 5x5 BB 22 $19.00 0.88
3/8" 5x5 BB 36 $25.00 1.00
1/2" 5x5 BB 43 $31.00 1.72
4/4 Poplar 3 $3.00 3.00
This was a spread sheet & the table doesn't want to stay put when brought into the thread.

[rustytoolss]

Look it up online. there are weight tables for different thicknesses. From that you can interpolate the off-sizes if they aren't in the table. Here's what I found online & what I used to calculate my weight when building.

Materials Weight / unit Cost #/ft
1/8" 4x8 ply(HD) 12 $10.00 0.38
1/4" 4x8 ply(HD) 22 $12.00 0.69
1/2" 4x8 ply(HD) 41 $22.00 1.28
3/4" 4x8 ply(HD) 61 $32.00 1.91
1/8" 5x5 BB 11 $14.00 0.44
1/4" 5x5 BB 22 $19.00 0.88
3/8" 5x5 BB 36 $25.00 1.00
1/2" 5x5 BB 43 $31.00 1.72
4/4 Poplar 3 $3.00 3.00
This was a spread sheet & the table doesn't want to stay put when brought into the thread.

Thank you.