Little Library- which plywood?

Re: Little Library- which plywood?

Ellis Walentine

The little libraries I've seen are pretty funky. You could get away with almost anything, especially if you're going to paint it. I don't know if the location calls for some specific style or finish, but maybe you could use junk plywood for the basic box and clad it with barn wood or shingles or something. Make it whimsical. I wouldn't use cabinet wood. Save your good scraps for something fancier.

Ellis

Re: Little Library- which plywood?

Keith Newton

I wouldn’t waste my time by using any interior grade plywood, it will be falling apart way too soon. If you want to use salvage material, drop by any construction sites and ask the carpenters to save you some of their larger siding scraps.

Re: Little Library- which plywood?

David Weaver

I built one a couple of years ago with interior plywood - If it's heavily painted and you're careful about not making areas on it that will retain standing water, i doubt it will matter too much. the one that I built breathes well - intentionally, so that it won't heat and cool and cause condensation issues.

https://i.imgur.com/zdpl0QF.jpg

I built mine for the neighborhood at the cost of materials, and at first thought about using premium materials but the cost would've been double. (the bigger one on the left - sorry I don't have better pictures of it face on, that's just the side - some of the girl scouts in the neighborhood requested that the sides be inset so that they could do tile mosaics).

I couldn't find a reasonable roofing material (cost wise for one house) so I bought a quart of rubberized bed liner and applied that to the roof so that there were no seams or low areas that would hold water.

As ellis says, most of the libraries are haphazardly built. The small one on the right in the picture was "professionally" made and it's made poorly, but it's small enough that it doesn't really matter. When I was eyeballing the construction of other "professionally" made and sold versions, many were just made of pine dimensional lumber from home stores.

I think paying attention to costs and doing something simple is more prudent - ours are heavily used, but who knows before you put them up? Some others near us in parks scarcely have much in them or get used (when you go back to them, the same books are in them every time). If ours last 10 years, that's great. If they last 5 and need repair, I will repair or replace parts.

if you're volunteering the work, especially if you're donating materials, just doing something reasonable is going above and beyond.

It wasn't a Little Library but....

Barry Irby

a local group asked me the make dog houses for homeless dogs. Somehow they would auction off the dog houses and the money went to help the dogs.

I went to Lowe's and talked to the manager. They would scrounge up damaged stuff and give it to me to build with. Got some pretty interesting stuff, requiring some creativity in turning it into a dog house. They made pretty good money off the houses.

My point is to check with your local lumber yards and maybe they will provide the materials and you can provide the labor.

Re: Little Library- which plywood?

Henry (Raleigh NC)

Plywood? Not a specific answer, but here's a clean-up experience.

I have just rebuilt a door for a little library. A friend had one made and installed in their neighborhood, to honor their book loving mother (also a resident in their neighborhood). The plywood pieced frame around the glass of the door failed miserably once the seal at the silicone/glass failed at the bottom corner, causing plywood delamination. While the case of the little library may have been made of the same lousy materials, it held together without issue; the door being more exposed, and with a flat lip on the panel edge to catch and hold water, did not fare so well.

I remade the door out of white oak - and then repainted and resealed. While the paint seal will eventually fail, the rot resistance of the materials should mean a long lifetime.

Henry

door ...

David Weaver

..i made the door on mine out of solid wood just because it's M&T with a plexiglass window.

Same experience - the only part of the whole build that's showing signs of weather is the lower rail. I built the window sloping away and with drain holes under the plexi, but i'm sure it just stays wet a lot longer.

Re: Little Library- which plywood?

William Duffield

you might try looking for a sign painter in your community and asking them for scrap MDO.