How thick should Plywood be to walk on?
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No matter what the spacing is on your ceiling joists, 3/4-inch plywood should be used if you plan on walking on it. If you plan on placing the plywood around the perimeter of the opening or door and using it only to store light boxes or materials, 1/2-inch-thick plywood should suffice.
Considering this, is plywood strong enough to walk on?
You need 3/4-inch plywood. The thinner plywood is acceptable when the joist spacing is 16 inches. Thinner plywood can flex when you walk on it -- even with 16-inch spacing -- and this will damage the flooring.
Keeping this in view, how thick should plywood flooring be?
The National Wood Flooring Association recommends a minimum plywood panel thickness of 7/8-inch for joist spans of 19.2 to 24 inches, and a minimum plywood panel thickness of 5/8-inch for joist spans of 16 inches or less.
Typically, the actual thickness of plywood is 1/32 inch less than the nominal thickness.
Nominal and Actual Thickness.
Nominal Thickness | Actual Thickness |
---|---|
1/2” | 15/32” |
5/8” | 19/32” |
3/4” | 23/32” |
1-1/8” | 1-1/8” |