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The glue and the core. Commercial ply uses a glue that softens with moisture and has small voids in its core. Marine ply uses a boil proof glue and a core with no voids.

Commercial ply is right for a wardrobe carcass in a dry room and wrong for a bathroom vanity or a sink unit, which delaminate within about two years. Ask any supplier to cut a corner off a sheet and look at the core, because a good deal of what is sold here as marine ply is not.

No. MDF swells irreversibly when it takes up water and a swollen edge cannot be sanded back, so an MDF bathroom cabinet fails at the bottom of the door however well it is painted.

MDF is excellent for a painted door, a moulded panel or anything sprayed, because it machines cleanly and takes a finish better than plywood. Keep it dry and it will outlast the room.

Sheet material takes up moisture from the air, and in this humidity a sheet stood on edge against a wall will take a bow across its width within weeks. Four to nine millimetres is normal on board that has been stored badly for a month.

It cannot be taken out. Every sheet in this yard lies flat on bearers under cover and the stacks are turned, and when a new customer comes we take them to the stacks and offer them a sheet from the bottom.

Yes, on a sliding panel saw, at 15 rufiyaa a cut with edge banding at 8 rufiyaa a running foot and shelf drilling at 4 rufiyaa a hole. A wardrobe's worth of parts is usually 300 to 500 rufiyaa on top of the board.

Send a cutting list with the grain direction marked. We will tell you how many sheets it actually needs, which is often fewer than people order. Cutting stops at five, and a list over about sixty parts needs to be in the day before.

Yes. 150 rufiyaa in Malé for up to twenty sheets, carried in by hand cart where the lane needs it.

Tell us the floor when you order. Two men carrying 18mm board up four flights is a different job from a ground floor door, and knowing in advance is the difference between it happening that afternoon and not.

Consolidated onto the scheduled cargo boats. Tell us the island and the week and we will tell you the sailing and what loading costs, and we do the manifest and the loading note.

Sheets are crated with battens across the face rather than strapped, and they travel flat and covered. A strapped bundle on a boat deck arrives bowed with crushed corners, which is why island customers usually ask for the parts cut here as well.