How Much Does Plywood Weigh?
Plywood and OSB sheet weights by thickness
A half-inch 4x8 sheet of plywood weighs about 48 pounds; a three-quarter-inch sheet runs closer to 74. OSB of the same thickness weighs a touch more, near 80 pounds for 3/4-inch. The exact number tracks thickness and whether it's plywood or OSB, and it climbs fast once the panels get wet.
Sheet weight at a glance
All figures are for standard 4x8 sheets at typical moisture. Hardwood, marine, and water-damaged panels run heavier; see the tables below.
Plywood weight by thickness
Thickness sets the weight, and it scales close to straight-line. Softwood plywood (fir, pine, spruce) averages about 34 pounds per cubic foot, so every extra layer of veneer adds predictable mass. The per-square-foot column is the useful one for a tear-out: multiply it by your floor or wall area to get the load.
| Thickness | Per sq ft | 4x8 sheet |
|---|---|---|
| 1/4 in | ~0.8 lbs | ~26 lbs |
| 3/8 in | ~1.1 lbs | ~37 lbs |
| 1/2 in | ~1.5 lbs | ~48 lbs |
| 5/8 in | ~1.9 lbs | ~61 lbs |
| 3/4 in | ~2.3 lbs | ~74 lbs |
Hardwood-veneer plywood (birch, oak, maple) and marine plywood use denser cores and more glue, so bump these figures up by 10 to 20 percent. A sheet of 3/4-inch birch cabinet ply can top 80 pounds.
Is OSB heavier than plywood?
Yes, by a small margin when dry. OSB (oriented strand board) is wood flakes pressed with resin, and it runs denser than softwood plywood, near 40 pounds per cubic foot against 34. Match the thickness and OSB comes out about 10 percent heavier. The everyday example is subfloor: a 23/32-inch OSB sheet lands around 80 pounds, where the plywood version sits near 74.
| OSB thickness | Per sq ft | 4x8 sheet |
|---|---|---|
| 7/16 in (wall sheathing) | ~1.5 lbs | ~47 lbs |
| 1/2 in | ~1.7 lbs | ~54 lbs |
| 5/8 in | ~2.1 lbs | ~67 lbs |
| 23/32 in (subfloor) | ~2.5 lbs | ~80 lbs |
Dry, the difference barely matters for disposal. Wet is where they part ways. OSB drinks up water at cut edges, swells, and can gain half its weight again before it starts crumbling; plywood sheds water better and holds together. On a flood or roof-leak tear-out, that soaked OSB subfloor is far heavier than the dry chart suggests.
Wet subfloor weighs nothing like the dry chart.
Water is the wildcard with sheet goods. Soaked OSB and plywood can carry 40 to 60 percent more weight than dry, and OSB swells and falls apart as you pry it. On a flood, burst-pipe, or long roof-leak job, weigh the subfloor as if it's the heavy end of the range, not the light one, or you'll misjudge how much fills your container.
What this means when you rent a dumpster
Plywood and OSB are volume-limited. Broken up, sheet debris packs at roughly 250 to 300 pounds per cubic yard, so you fill the box with bulk long before you reach its weight cap. Size the container by how much space the demo takes, not by the tonnage, and a 15 or 20-yard dumpster handles most subfloor or sheathing tear-outs. When that plywood is the underlayment beneath a finish floor, our guide to flooring removal weight shows how much the subfloor layer adds on top of the tile, hardwood, or carpet above it.
We recommend cutting or snapping the sheets down before they go in. Whole 4x8 panels bridge across a container and trap open air underneath, so a dumpster looks full at half capacity. Break them over a joist or score and fold them, and the same debris takes a third less room. This is the single biggest thing that changes how much you can fit.
Before you toss anything, sort the intact sheets out of the pile. Clean, dry leftover plywood is worth real money, often 40 to 60 dollars a sheet new, and it reuses straight into shelving, subfloor patches, jigs, or a shed. We wouldn't pay landfill fees to bury a stack of good 3/4-inch ply; set it aside, list it, or hand it to the next person on site. Only the water-stained, delaminated, or crumbling panels have earned a spot in the dumpster.
One caution on stacked sheets: a full lift of plywood is deceptively heavy. Fifty sheets of 3/4-inch runs close to two tons, so a pile of intact panels loads a container by weight faster than the volume-limited rule suggests. The rule holds for busted demo debris; a neat stack of whole sheets is a different, denser animal.
Reference Sources
The per-sheet weights come from published panel densities applied to a standard 32-square-foot sheet. Softwood plywood runs about 34 pounds per cubic foot and OSB about 40, both at typical in-service moisture. Actual sheets vary by species, glue, and how much water they've taken on, so treat these as solid working numbers, not lab-exact ones.
- Panel weights and density: APA – The Engineered Wood Association, the industry standards body, lists plywood at roughly 0.8 to 2.3 pounds per square foot and OSB slightly higher across the common thicknesses.
- Wood density basis: USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-282), the federal reference for wood and panel-product density.
- Loose debris factor: U.S. EPA Volume-to-Weight Conversion Factors (2016) lists clean engineered wood near 268 pounds per cubic yard; broken sheet goods pack in that range.
Related Pages
Know the sheet weights; now size the container. These tools do the disposal math for the projects where plywood and OSB come out.
Common questions
How much does a 4x8 sheet of plywood weigh?
About 48 pounds for half-inch, 74 for three-quarter-inch. Quarter-inch runs near 26. Softwood plywood averages roughly 34 pounds per cubic foot, so weight scales with thickness. Hardwood-veneer and marine plywood run 10 to 20 percent heavier.
How much does a 4x8 sheet of OSB weigh?
About 80 pounds for 3/4-inch subfloor, 47 for 7/16-inch wall sheathing. OSB is denser than plywood, near 40 pounds per cubic foot, so a given thickness runs about 10 percent heavier than the plywood equivalent.
Is OSB heavier than plywood?
Yes, but only by about 10 percent when dry. OSB averages near 40 pounds per cubic foot versus 34 for softwood plywood, so a 3/4-inch OSB sheet is roughly 80 pounds against 74 for plywood. Wet changes everything: OSB soaks up water and swells much heavier, while plywood sheds it better.
Do plywood and OSB need a heavy-debris dumpster?
No, sheet goods are volume-limited. A container fills with broken panels (about 250 to 300 pounds per cubic yard) before it hits the weight cap. The exception is water-damaged subfloor; soaked panels can weigh half again as much, which adds up fast on a flood or roof-leak job.
How much does a subfloor weigh to tear out?
Figure about 2.3 pounds per square foot for 3/4-inch plywood, 2.5 for OSB. A 200-square-foot room holds roughly 460 to 500 pounds of subfloor; a 500-square-foot area runs 1,150 to 1,250. Add the finish floor and any underlayment on top of that.
Disclaimer: These weights are estimates for standard 4x8 sheets at typical moisture. Actual weight varies with panel type (softwood, hardwood, marine), glue, thickness tolerance, and water content. Hardwood and water-damaged panels run heavier than the figures above. For a large tear-out, confirm dumpster sizing and weight limits with your hauler. This is general information, not professional or legal advice. See the Terms of Use for full terms and disclaimers.