Dog Star
Western Thunderer
When building baseboards one of the preferred / recommended sheet materials is Birch Ply - a material which is infinitely better than the Far East Mahogany ply which is generally offered by the High Street DIY stores. So where to get Birch Ply? Well, not an easy question to answer even with the help of search engines.
For the Basingstoke 7mm layout the need was fifteen sheets of 6.5mm ply and the only option which we could find was an on-line order with Wickes because the Basingstoke branch did not stock that item. Well, actually, our order was placed "in-store" with delivery from the Guildford store (which does stock the material).
All well and good... until I needed some 9mm and 12mm Birch ply... no interest from Wickes so back to the internet. Now there are some timber merchants which do stock such thicknesses of Birch ply - most seem to be north of Birmingham or east of the M25. Eventually, after more than one hour of searching web pages, I came across a business in Totton, just to the west of Southampton, which had the required stuff.
Totton Timber - the link is to the page for plywood. Thicknesses from 1mm to 18mm, in several sheets sizes. There is a price on the internet page... I went to the store and collected some today and the price was that shown on the internet page less 10% . I asked about delivery... the answer was "free" even when informed that the delivery address would be Basingstoke (31 miles distant).
As for price - a 2440mm x 1220mm x 6.5mm sheet is the same price as from Wickes, the difference being that delivery is free from Totton and chargeable from Wickes (free when order value is greater than £300).
Recommended.
For the Basingstoke 7mm layout the need was fifteen sheets of 6.5mm ply and the only option which we could find was an on-line order with Wickes because the Basingstoke branch did not stock that item. Well, actually, our order was placed "in-store" with delivery from the Guildford store (which does stock the material).
All well and good... until I needed some 9mm and 12mm Birch ply... no interest from Wickes so back to the internet. Now there are some timber merchants which do stock such thicknesses of Birch ply - most seem to be north of Birmingham or east of the M25. Eventually, after more than one hour of searching web pages, I came across a business in Totton, just to the west of Southampton, which had the required stuff.
Totton Timber - the link is to the page for plywood. Thicknesses from 1mm to 18mm, in several sheets sizes. There is a price on the internet page... I went to the store and collected some today and the price was that shown on the internet page less 10% . I asked about delivery... the answer was "free" even when informed that the delivery address would be Basingstoke (31 miles distant).
As for price - a 2440mm x 1220mm x 6.5mm sheet is the same price as from Wickes, the difference being that delivery is free from Totton and chargeable from Wickes (free when order value is greater than £300).
Recommended.
