plywood strength question

[Virginia Brugman]

how much weight can a 1/4 inch plywood floor hold?

[Virginia Brugman]

how much weight can a 1/4 inch plywood floor hold?

[ItsJoanNotJoann]

I know I'm just whistling into the wind, but are you wanting to use the 1/4 inch plywood for? A 12-by-36-inch piece of 3/4-inch fir plywood can support up to 50 lbs. without problems. Plywood strength drops when thickness diminishes. For example; a 12-by-36-inch piece of 1/4-inch plywood will only support about 5 lbs. before bending.

[rbowman]

How far apart are the supports? The quick answer is none.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Plywood over concrete can take 10,000 pounds. Over joists space 16" not enough to meet any building code.

More information needed, but I'd certainly not use wood that thin.

[gfretwell]

Not much. What is the span between supports?

[Mary Alice Winterbottom]

Hickory plywood has a compressive strength of over 9000 psi.

[Frank]

Plywood is anisotropic and there is also tensile strength and shear strength to consider as well as the modulus. If just sitting on a flat surface like concrete compressive strength would predominate. As a beam over joints shear strength would be important.

[TimR]

Impossible to know without more data.

But also, you need to refine the question.

Do you mean how much can it hold before breaking, or how much can it hold before deflection is too great to tolerate?

Most of the time you'll never get near tearing it apart, but it will bend too far to use.

[Dev Null]

I suppose a 450 lb woman (not uncommon today) in pumps might be able to punch a heel through 1/4" plywood.

[Clare Snyder]

Which has NO efect on how much the plywood can hold when used as a floor.

[trader_4]

Funny how few can spot an obvious troll.

[Dean Hoffman]

Exactly what do you want to use it for? Plenty of people here can advise you but you need to be more specific. What kind of supports, how far apart, etc?