Plywood Grade (1-2) – US Plywood Standard (APA PS1-95 Construction and Industrial Plywood)

According to US Plywood Standard (APA PS1-95 Construction and Industrial Plywood), plywood can be classified into several grades, such as A-A, A-B, A-C, B-B, B-C, C-C , C-D . The grade refers to the grade of surface covering. The first letter refers to the grade of face veneers and the second letter refers to the grade of back veneers . The better the grade, the nicer the surface.

The following is a guide to these plywood grades .

1. A-A grade: is high grade . The face/back of plywood are both A grade . This grade is very expensive and is used for nice furniture or decoration requiring both sides of plywood to be nice and visible .

2. A-B grade: is high grade , too . Because the face is A grade and back is B grade, so the plywood is suitable for applications where face should be nice but back is less important, such as furniture, cabinets ……

3. A-C grade: is “economical” high grade . This grade is suitable for applications where (like roof overhangs) face is important but back is not important . Using C grade back is a good method to reasonably save costs .

4. B-B grade: is common grade for general usages . This grade is suitable for applications where face/back is not very important but should still be good .

5. B-C grade: is economical, common and utility grade . Usually, as for general usages, B grade face is OK while the back is not important . Thus using C grade back can save costs .

6. C-C grade: is economical, common and utility grade . Used where face/back are not important but the panel should be strong enough.

7. C-D grade: is cheap and utility grade .