Sheet material

Sheet Woods

Hardboard

• Usually 3mm thick
• Not fully rigid
• Used to line damaged wood floors before carpeting
• Also available with a semi-gloss white finish
• Most popular as cupboard backs and drawer bottoms in cheap furniture
• Vulernable to water damage
• Hardboard is occasionally called HDF, high density fibreboard, or masonite, a US trade name.

Pegboard

• Hardboard with a matrix of prepunched holes.
• Used for vending displays, long metal hooks go in the holes and products are hung on these.

Chipboard

• aka Particleboard
• Low cost sheet material
• Made from wood chips & sawdust glued together.
• Very widely used
• Dimensionally stable, as long as kept dry
• Much weaker than real wood
• Comes in differing strength & finish grades
• Flooring grade chipboard is a higher density stronger board
• Occasionally called LDF, low density fibreboard
• Made from mostly recycled wood.
• - T&G, expand on

For Veneered chipboard, see Melamine below.

Melamine

• Plastic coated chipboard
• Available in white, brown wood patterns, and sometimes other plain colours
• Veneer is very prone to chipping when cut
• Veneer tends to chip over time, making it look tatty
• Veneer chipping is mostly unrepairable
• Veneered chipboard is the most popular furniture material today.

Blockboard

• 2 sheets of veneer with wood strips glued between
• Used for furniture panels

OSB

• Oriented strand board
• aka Sterling board
• Similar properties to plywood
• A cheaper alternative to ply
• Waterproof
• Some OSB contains biocidal zinc borate to prevent mould & bacterial growth.

OSB vs ply

MDF

• 'Medium Density Fibreboard'
• Fine wood fibres glued together
• Uniform, can be tooled in any direction
• Free from knots & other defects
• Vulnerable to water
• Often criticised for being an aesthetically inferior finish to real wood
• Made from wood, scrap wood, recycled paper, bamboo, forest thinnings & sawmill off-cuts
• Some concerns have been expressed about formaldehyde outgassing, which can possibly cause eye or lung irritation during working. But this is no more or less true than with chipboard or hardboard.
• Green MDF is moisture resistant
• Red MDF is fire retardant

Pineboard

• Strips of pine glued side by side to make sheet wood
• Each strip is in alternating grain direction
• Eliminates nearly all potential for warping & cupping
• Finished to furniture standard
• Used for pine furniture construction, shelves, etc

Plywood

• Sheets of wood veneer glued together
• Each sheet has grain laid at 90 degrees to its neighbours
• Excellent strength in both directions.
• Available in various grades: - Marine, WBP, fair faced, beech, underlay
• Various thicknesses from 4mm to 2"
• Flexible 4mm ply also available
• Not one of the cheaper sheet materials

Laminate

• Hardwood on chipboard generally, with or without a balancing underside layer of wood for greater stability.
• Used for flooring

SIP

• Structural insulated wood panels
• 2x OSB outer layers with insulation fill.

Non Wood Materials

Plasterboard

• Very popular walling sheet
• Cheap
• Not as strong as wood sheets
• Cut with handsaw or knife
• 2 sheets of paper with gypsum inbetween
• 9.5mm and 12mm are the most common sizes
• 12mm is significantly more robust
• Available with various edge profiles:
• Flexible PB is also available.
• 2 layers gives better soundproofing and longer fire resistance

Clayboard

• Used as plasterboard
• Typically 1" thick
• Construction as plasterboard, but using clay based plaster
• Much heavier than plasterboard
• Better sound absorption

Sheet plastic

• Not widely used in DIY
• High price & lacklustre performance for DIY purposes

Fibre cement

• New fibre cement sheet is normally glass fibre reinforced cement. Other fibres may be used.
• Old fibre cement sheet (until 1986) was normally asbestos fibre reinforced
• Both have similar properties, except for the health issues surrounding asbestos
• Totally weatherproof
• Waterproof
• Very robust
• Fireproof
• Long lasting
• Ruins drill bits & saw blades
• Not cheap
• Possible to make non-compressed fibre cement sheet at home
• Used for soffits, bargeboards, furniture, garages, bunkers, heatproofing, fireproofing, and sometimes found in place of plasterboard.
• Breakage on outbuildings is largely due to the very thin elements used.

Sag

Sag can be an issue with sheet materials, especially the lower strength ones like chipboard.

The Sagulator calculates short and long term sag, given the dimensions, loading and material type.

See Also

Insulation sheet materials

Wood-plastic composite

Using Chip Board