Marine Plywood dealer in Dallas

I am thinking about build a skiff in Dallas to test or improve my boat building ability. I will use stitch and glue method. But I have hard time to locate a marine grade plywood dealer in Dallas area. Any body has clue?

 

Welcome to the forum. A quick search produced 39 separate marine plywood dealers in the Dallas area. Most wood stores can order it for you, though often is a special order. Have you tried Dixieply.com/dallas or duckworksmagazine.com?

 

Marine plywood in Dallas

Thank you for help. I will contact the dealer you suggested.

 

Tell everyone up there I said hello.

 

Marine plywood in Dallas?

I did a quick search, it did not only give 39 dealership, but thousand of dealership. The 39 listing is on the first page. The first list led me to yallow page. On the first list is D G Battery Co. Second one is Ai SushiSakeGrill, Asian Restaurant in Oak Lawn/Uptown. Reviews from critics, food blogs ... Oak Lawn/Uptown. 4123 Cedar Springs Road Dallas, TX 75219......
The second list led me to iboat forum. The third one led me to www.glen-l.com which is not in Dallas. The fourth led me to forums.bateau2.com......

That's why I said that I had hard time to locate marine plywood company. Would you specify how did you do the search? With what title?
Dixieply.com's automatic email syestem replied that they do not deal with individual. Must be a dealership.

I am still waiting for direct email from Dixiply.com. Anyway, I still need help to locate a marine plywood dealership in Dallas area.

 

Tong,

Anyone will ship, so you can compare prices with shipping prices.

Okoume is pretty standard. Sometimes Lloyds of London approved - I think that means it has "A" grade finish on both sides. The other standard is BS 1088.

With a price list: http://www.boulterplywood.com/MarinePlywood_4.htm Shipping extra.

The only guys I found were over in Fort Worth. I had that problem when I lived in the DFW area as well.

http://www.plywoodcompany.com/application/common/store/category.aspx?categoryid=105 Ask them specifically for marine grade, BS1088 or Lloyd's approved. I did not see that on their price list, and their prices seemed a little low for BS1088 .... IMHO.

If you do not care about quality, you can sometimes use cheaper 'water-proof' plywood, but the real problem with the lower quality plywoods are two fold, one, the glues are not as strong. And two, they have voids in the interior which sometimes matter, and sometimes do not.

http://www.mcilvain.com/bruynzeel-marine-grade-plywood/

 

PCtong,

I live in Ft. Worth.
Couldn't find good marine ply in all of DFW.
Lots of plywood places but nothing marine except Ft. Worth Plywood has Fir Marine ply. I did not like how it splintered when I cut it, and there were footballs on both faces.
Ft. Worth Plywood would not order the better grades of plywood since I did not want a complete stack.

I had to go to Austin to pick up meranti or okoume.

There was one company in Dallas that offered to ship me a full pallet of 20 sheets per size, for retail cost + shipping, after they said they were only wholesale. The lady was very sweet while trying to screw me on price.

There was another place in San Antonio with Okoume, but no reason to go that far.

You might see how much it is to get it shipped like was suggested, then think about going to Austin instead.
Come to think about it, I will be delivering a couple of kayaks to Austin a week from Saturday (tomorrow).
Call me if you would be ready that soon, we could talk about what you want, how I have to carry it and how to pay for it. 817-480-8445. Marc

There are two standards BS 1088 and BS1056 (I believe) the 1056 is not as high quality of a standard.

 

Dixie is like many specialty suppliers, such as World Panel, who I deal with. These companies only work with commercial operations. To do business with them, you'll need a business license and you'll have to open an account with them. There's several mostly logical reasons for this. For example, the EPA has changed the pressure treated chemical cocktail used on PT products (decking, plywood, etc.). It was done for public safety reasons and the price of PT products has gone up as a result. Damnit you say, but wait, the old CCA treated PT products are still available, but you have to have a contracting license to get it. The old CCA formula works better then the new CA formula, but it's more hazardous, so some level of control is required, to regulate who gets the CCA stuff, so there's an accountability.

Bateau.com will ship to you, as will World Panels, Boulter and all the other major players in the industry. Some may require a level of protection, such as opening a commercial account.

This said, if you get to know the purchasing agent at the local Lowe's/Depot, they can special order it for you and have it delivered on an up coming shipment. This isn't the best way to get prices. In your area there are several specialty wood suppliers and mills. This is where you need to go and talk with the purchasing agent. They make special orders each week for weird cabinet and furniture builders, contractors with particular clients, etc., so your marine plywood request wouldn't be much of a big deal to them. My local Lowe's is literally just a few miles from my home. The wood purchasing agent now knows me personally and he brings me coffee, when I show up in the morning (it used to be the other way around). The internet is handy, but nothing but nothing can beat a simple, a box of donuts and some questions about something this person knows a lot about. They usually will trip over themselves telling you what they know, of course gnawing on donuts and sipping coffee in their office, hoping no one else notices, their sudden pastry windfall.

 

Marine lumber has a very small market and can be hard to find.

Talk to a lumberyard in your area...not a yard who services homebuilding.

The website Woodfinder might be worth a look

http://www.woodfinder.com/

In my area wood, epoxy, fabric is impossible to find.

Local boatbuilders buy common supplies in bulk then resell to other boatbuilders. See if you can connect with local boatbuilders or local airplane builders.

 

PAR,

Can you get 3mm, 6mm, and 12mm Okoume from Lowes?
Do you have a price?

I must admit I only tried the specialty plywood business's instead of Lowes/ Depot.
The specialty stores all said they once had marine ply, but the distributor went out of business (they all quoted the same distributor) and they didn't have another. Absolutely no willingness to look for another - that was stated in no uncertain terms.

Things could change tomorrow, but I suspect Dallas/ Ft. Worth is not a hotbed of homebuilt boats.
Actually I am unable to get anything but cheap fir in 1/4" 3 ply equal laminations. Everything is 3 ply with microthin outside plys for cabinets.

 

Yes, I can get Lowe's to order Okoume, but they buy it from the same wholesale supplier I do and mark it up.

 

Well I guess if that were the only option you have.
Perhaps in my small quantities it would still be worth it.
Thanks for the suggestion

 

I'm buying direct, from a few suppliers, if I'm not creating a coop with some other builders and getting deep discounts on several full pallets of stock. World Panel is 15 miles for me, so this is convenient as I can select each sheet personally. "Larry the Cable Guy" lives about 17 miles from me.

 

i'de love to help

I have a bunch of left over sheets kept in mint condition in my Garage, I work @ the local freight company so I could get it to you @ a great price. email chasewpp@gmail.com They are Straight and Lloyd's Okoume throughout. Void free & beautiful. Email me the thickness you need and your zip code, least I can do is price it out for ya.
Good Luck!

 

Thank you! I am waiting for my boat plan arrive. When I got my boat plan, I should know better about the thick and quantity of plywood I need.