grahamkingsley
Member
Wondering if anyone has had much luck with finding some cost-effective alternatives to lauan (aka luan, aka rotary mahogany). With the sharp spike in plywood costs, a sheet of ¼" lauan has gone from $16/sheet pre-covid to $40/sheet now (Canadian Dollars), and suppliers aren't bringing it in as regularly, so we're feeling a supply squeeze as well.
We build almost exclusively tv style hard flats, so seeing our material cost go up 2.5x is really hurting our show budgets. I've started looking around to see if there might be something else that could be a reasonable alternative as a stand-in, at least until material costs (hopefully) start coming down more.
So far I've looked at:
- ¼" foamcore board (about $20/sheet)
- ¼" double wall cardboard (about $15/sheet), though that doesn't seem to be recommended in this thread.
- ¼" masonite/hardboard (about $20/sheet), but very heavy
- ¼" corrugated plastic (way up there at about $40/sheet too unfortunately)
Hoping someone might have some other recommendations of sheet materials to look at, or share experience working with some of those options!
We build almost exclusively tv style hard flats, so seeing our material cost go up 2.5x is really hurting our show budgets. I've started looking around to see if there might be something else that could be a reasonable alternative as a stand-in, at least until material costs (hopefully) start coming down more.
So far I've looked at:
- ¼" foamcore board (about $20/sheet)
- ¼" double wall cardboard (about $15/sheet), though that doesn't seem to be recommended in this thread.
- ¼" masonite/hardboard (about $20/sheet), but very heavy
- ¼" corrugated plastic (way up there at about $40/sheet too unfortunately)
Hoping someone might have some other recommendations of sheet materials to look at, or share experience working with some of those options!