Birch or CDX, and Which Sheet Your Job Actually Needs

Sheet goods look interchangeable stacked against a wall and they are not. The choice between CDX and birch decides what the finished work looks like, what it costs you, and whether you walk out with an offcut worth keeping. This is how we sell them and why they are sold differently.

What CDX is, and why we sell it by the sheet

CDX is construction grade plywood. The letters are the veneer grades on the two faces, C on one side and D on the other, and the X is the exterior glue, which means it tolerates getting rained on during construction. It is not a finish panel. It has voids, patches and a rough face, and nobody is meant to look at it.

That is exactly why we sell it whole. CDX is subfloor, sheathing, a temporary door, a protection panel over a lobby floor, a backer behind a mounted unit. The piece you do not use today is still a perfectly good piece of CDX next week. So you buy the sheet, we charge a flat $7.00 per finished piece to cut it on the panel saw, and the remainder goes home with you. Luan and Masonite work the same way.

What birch is, and why it is priced by the square foot

Birch plywood is a finish panel. Both faces are sanded hardwood veneer, the core is tighter, and it takes paint, clear finish and edge banding properly. It is what a shelf, a cabinet side, a closet build-out or a panelled reveal is made of.

Birch costs several times what CDX costs, and the offcut from a finish panel is usually scrap. Charging a contractor for a whole sheet of birch to get one 24 by 36 shelf would be charging for garbage. So birch cut to size is billed by the square foot: width times length divided by 144, rounded up to the whole square foot, times the number of pieces. There is no separate cut charge on birch, because the rounding up already covers the cutting.

A 4x8 sheet is 32 square feet

Four feet by eight feet is 32 square feet, and that number is the whole arithmetic of this page. Compare any square foot quote against the full sheet price and the answer falls out. Past roughly half a sheet the whole sheet starts to win, and once the billed square footage exceeds the sheet price, buying the cuts is simply paying more for less material.

We do not let that happen quietly. The calculator on the birch product pages checks the full sheet price on every quote, and when the cuts come out dearer it says so and offers you the sheet instead. Take the sheet. You get the offcut for nothing.

What a rip costs you against a cross cut

A cross cut runs across the 48 in width. A rip runs the long way down the 96 in length. The saw does not care much, but the sheet does.

• Cross cutting a sheet into 48 in wide pieces wastes almost nothing. Four 48 by 24 pieces come out of one sheet with no remainder worth mentioning.
• Ripping narrow strips eats the sheet in a different way. Two 20 in rips out of a 48 in width leave an 8 in strip plus saw kerf, and that strip is usually the piece nobody wants.
• Long narrow rips are the expensive shape. A piece under 12 in on the short side and over 48 in on the long side flexes, wanders and needs support through the cut, which is why we quote those by hand instead of pricing them from a box.
• Plan your cut list around the 48 by 96 sheet before you order. Two sizes that add up to 48 in across are worth more to you than two sizes that add up to 40 in.

When Luan or Masonite is the right call

• Luan, 1/4 in. Thin, light, bends around a curve, cheap enough to treat as consumable. Underlayment, drawer bottoms, cabinet backs, a template, floor protection over a finished floor during a renovation. It is not structural and it does not like water.
• Masonite, 1/8 in and 1/4 in. Hardboard, not plywood: pressed fibre, dead flat, hard smooth face, no grain and no voids. The standard floor protection board in a Manhattan building renovation, and the right thing for a template, a shim stack or a backer that has to be perfectly flat. The 1/4 in takes more abuse; the 1/8 in is for protection and lining.
• If what you need is a painted finish and flatness matters more than strength, Masonite. If it needs to hold a screw or carry a load, plywood.

How accurate the cuts are

We cut on a professional panel saw and we cut square and clean, but this is jobsite accuracy, not cabinet-shop accuracy. Expect up to about 1/16 in of variance, sometimes a bit more on a long rip.

If your tolerance is tighter than that, buy the sheet slightly oversize and trim it on site, or take it to a cabinet shop. We would rather tell you that now than have you find out on the install.

Questions we get asked

Why is CDX sold by the full sheet and birch sold by the square foot?

CDX is a rough construction panel and the offcut is still useful, so we sell you the whole sheet and charge a flat cut fee per finished piece. Birch is a finish panel where the offcut is usually scrap, so we bill only the square footage you take, rounded up to the whole square foot, and the rounding covers the cutting.

How many square feet is a 4x8 sheet?

A 4 ft by 8 ft sheet is 32 square feet. That is the number to compare any square foot quote against, because past roughly half a sheet the whole sheet starts winning.

When is a whole sheet cheaper than buying cut pieces?

When the billed square footage costs more than the full sheet price. On birch that crossover sits a little past half a sheet. The calculator on the product page tells you when you have crossed it and offers the full sheet instead.

How accurate are your cuts?

We cut on a professional panel saw and we cut square and clean, but this is jobsite accuracy, not cabinet-shop accuracy. Expect up to about 1/16 in of variance, sometimes a bit more on a long rip.

The sheets we stock

CDX, Luan and Masonite, sold whole with a flat $7.00 per finished piece to cut:

Birch, whole sheets:

Birch cut to size, billed by the square foot:

Each product page carries the calculator. Enter your pieces and it prices them and adds them to the cart.

Price your cut list now.

Open any sheet goods product above and the calculator is in the buy box, above add to cart. For a long or unusual list, read how our cut-to-size service works or call the counter at (212) 535-8400.