Thread: the best shelving sheet

Hard question, depends on how much support you have, how much moisture is in the air in your shed & how you seal the material.

I am going to use well supported ply with several good coats of sealer 'cos mine will be in a container in a very high humidity area.

Chipboard is much stiffer than mdf, but it's what you can scrounge cheap that matters.

This blokes in Geelong, !2' x 6' (3600 x 1800) sheets are $15 each.
You can find them in various places in Melbourne around the same price

I agree with Cliff, whatever you use needs sealing/painting to keep the moisture out

Go with the ply.

Yep, more expensive etc but do it once and do it right. As you will only have to do it once it will probably work out cheaper in the long run rather than replacing swelled, crumbly, sagged chipboard/MDF. It will need to be "finished" or go the whole hog and use form ply - you will only need to seal the edges the main surface will last out your kid's lifetime.

Have a look around the Demo yards to see what's available. As already mentioned form ply is really strong and can npormally be had at areasonable price 2nd hand.

I was lucky enough to pick up 4 internal doors ( el cheapo masonite with the cardboard webbing in betwween. I cut these down the middle on the tabble saw,cut some pieces of whatever I had handy ( mostly pine ) annd used these as stiffeners in the cut side. They hold quite a bit of weight and were as expensive as the time it took me to do them plus a little glue and a few nails.

Dont forget to reinforce the front edge with 2x1 this will take any bow out once they are loaded!!

I used either yellow tongue or red tongue (can't remember which) flooring sheet.

Can't remember the cost but I think the sheets were 900 x 3600.

Built the shelves out of 50x50 RHS to suit the size of the sheet.

Didn't seal it and it seems OK after 3 years.

Its looks like it may have been sealed at manufacture.