5x5 Baltic Birch Plywood
1525 x 1525 mm panels, 3 mm to 30 mm, in B/BB, BB/BB and CP/CP. Regularly stocked in Houston, TX and Baltimore, MD, sold by the pack from five packs up. Pickup is welcome at both warehouses.
Thicknesses, grades & pack quantities
Every 5x5 panel ships as a full pack. Pack quantity is fixed by thickness, so a pack is a predictable volume — useful when you are planning a truckload rather than a pallet. Exact inch equivalents, ply counts and the reason 18 mm is not 3/4" are in the thickness guide. The panel is sold as 60 × 60" and measures 1525 mm square, which works out at 60.039" — a millimetre over, never under. See sizes & tolerances.
| Thickness | U.S. equiv. | Sheets / pack | Grades | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 mm | 1/8" | 130 | B/BB · BB/BB | Regularly stocked· Houston · Baltimore |
| 4 mm | 5/32" | 100 | B/BB · BB/BB | On order |
| 5 mm | 3/16" | 80 | B/BB · BB/BB | On order |
| 6 mm | 1/4" | 65 | B/BB · BB/BB | Rotating· Houston · Baltimore |
| 8 mm | 5/16" | 50 | BB/BB · CP/CP | On order |
| 9 mm | 3/8" | 44 | BB/BB · CP/CP | Rotating· Baltimore |
| 12 mm | 1/2" | 33 | B/BB · BB/BB · CP/CP | Regularly stocked· Houston · Baltimore |
| 15 mm | 5/8" | 26 | B/BB · BB/BB | Regularly stocked· Houston · Baltimore |
| 18 mm | 3/4" | 22 | B/BB · BB/BB | Rotating· Houston · Baltimore |
| 21 mm | 13/16" | 19 | BB/BB · CP/CP | On order |
| 24 mm | 15/16" | 17 | BB/BB · CP/CP | On order |
| 27 mm | 1-1/16" | 15 | BB/BB · CP/CP | On order |
| 30 mm | 1-3/16" | 13 | BB/BB · CP/CP | On order |
Regularly stocked means the specification held U.S. warehouse stock in at least five of the last six months. Rotating comes and goes with container arrivals. On order is part of the programme and ships on a production lead time. Because stock turns over continuously, this page deliberately shows no pack counts — ask us and you get today's real position, not last month's. 35 mm, 40 mm, custom sizes and film-faced panels are available on request.
Why 5x5 and not 4x8
1525 x 1525 mm is the mill-native size for Baltic birch — the square panel the presses were built around. It is not a 4x8 sheet cut down, which is why the face veneers and the core stay uniform right to the edge.
For anyone cutting parts rather than sheathing a wall, square is simply more efficient. Drawer sides, cabinet components and nested CNC parts yield with less offcut on a 5x5 than on a rectangle, and a square panel is easier to handle on a slider or a vertical saw.
The trade-off is real and worth stating: if your parts are longer than 1525 mm, this is the wrong format and you want 4x8.
Interior bond, sanded two sides
Our 5x5 stock is interior-grade (MR) bonded and sanded on both faces. That is the correct specification for furniture, cabinetry and fabrication — parts that live indoors and get a finish.
If the panel will see moisture, weather or concrete, you want the exterior (WBP) bond instead, which we carry in the 4x8 format. Tell us the application and we will point you at the right one rather than at whatever is closest to hand.
Which face grade you need
The full ladder, including the grades we carry to order, is on the grades page.
Clear, patch-free face. The grade to specify when the panel is seen: display furniture, toys, laser-cut goods.
Sound wood patches, no open defects, both faces. The workhorse for cabinet boxes, drawer sides and general furniture.
Unlimited sound patches and small knots. Intended to be covered — laminate, veneer or paint-grade substrate.
What 5x5 is bought for
- Drawer boxes
- The 5x5 panel is cut for drawer sides with far less offcut than a 4x8, which is why drawer-box shops buy this format almost exclusively.
- Cabinet components
- Doors, fronts and case parts where a void-free core matters for edge finish and screw hold.
- CNC and laser work
- Consistent thickness and a void-free core keep cut depth predictable across a sheet. 3 and 6 mm are the volume thicknesses here.
- Furniture parts
- Bent laminations, seat blanks and structural components that rely on the cross-banded birch core.
- Toys and displays
- B/BB faces take clear finish without patch shadows.
How 5x5 ships
- Minimum order
- Five packs. Mixed thicknesses and grades count toward the same minimum.
- Warehouses
- Houston, TX and Baltimore, MD. Pickup is welcome and encouraged at both — bring a trailer and we will load you.
- Freight
- LTL, full truckload, or palletised mixed loads. Give us a delivery ZIP and we quote the lane.
- Documentation
- CARB Phase 2 and TSCA Title VI records, certificates of origin, phytosanitary and fumigation certificates, grade and mill reports — provided on request.
Prefer to talk? +1 713 731 5145