Properties of Sheathing-Grade Plywood Made from Sweetgum and Southern Pine

Authors

  • Evangelos J. Biblis
  • Wu-Chung Lee

Keywords:

Plywood, sheathing, sweetgum, southern pine, structural properties

Abstract

Experimental test results of physical and certain important mechanical properties of commercial CDX southern pine plywood, of all-sweetgum plywood, and of plywood with southern pine faces and sweetgum cores are presented. Experimental results indicate that the mechanical properties of all-sweetgum CDX plywood are better than properties of all-southern-pine CDX plywood. Physical properties of all-sweetgum plywood are approximately equal to those of all-southern-pine plywood. In general, the results suggest that all-sweetgum plywood, bonded with phenolic resin, can perform structurally as good as CDX all-southern-pine plywood sheathing in house construction.

It is recommended that the American Plywood Association undertake tests according to their performance based standards on all-sweetgum plywood panels to verify and certify that such panels meet the criteria of APA rated sheathing and APA rated sturd-I-floor programs.

References

American Plywood Association. 1981. Personal Communication with Dept. of Marketing. Tacoma, WA.nAmerican Society for Testing and Materials. 1974. Standard D906; D1037; D3043; in ASTM, Annual book of standards, Part 22, Philadelphia, PA.nBiblis, E. J., S. T. Hsu, and Y. M. Chiu. 1972. Comparison of certain structural properties among 3-ply, 4-ply and 5-ply, 1/2-inch southern pine plywood sheathing. Wood Fiber4(1):13-19.nChiu, Y. M., and E. J. Biblis. 1973. Comparison of flexural properties and dimensional stabilities of two constructions of 5/8 inch, 5-ply southern pine plywood. Circular 210. Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, Auburn University, AL.nUSDA Forest Service. 1974. Wood handbook No. 72, Washington, DC.nUSDA Forest Service. 1978. Forest statistics of the U.S. in 1977. Washington, DC.nU.S. Department of Commerce. 1966. Products standard PS-1-66. Washington, DC.n

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Published

2007-06-27

Issue

Section

Research Contributions