I did some pricing recently and it was not hard to find 1/2" black PVC for $75 to $90, depending on brand. Thinner and/or white material will go down from there. Just sticking with black expanded PVC one place sold 1/4" for about 60% of the price of 1/2". 3/8" sold for about 85% of 1/2".

In my situation all of these places would have required shipping but still be cheaper than local sources.

Also, from the bit of experimenting I have done with PVCX, I don't think I would go thinner than 3/8". 1/4" is lighter and cheaper but creates extra difficulty when it comes to joinery since it does not work well with mechanical fasteners. It is also more flexible.

$99 is not a horrible price but I would find out exactly what it is and see if they offer free CNC milling with that price. It will have to be cut down to size for shipping anyways (assuming this is not a big order) so if you can get it CNC milled that's a huge bonus.

Expanded PVC does vary in quality and density. For that price I'd want to make sure I was getting one of the higher quality and lighter products.

I have seen expanded PVC sold as foamed PVC, which is a bit misleading as there is also PVC foam core, which is a different product.

The interior of expanded PVC is "foamed" but don't let that scare you. It makes the product lighter, easier to mill and also improves it's thermal properties. And believe it or not it also makes for a more rigid product (vs. solid PVC sheet) since it is essentially a stressed skin style of construction.
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• ? avg. cost for exp. pvc 4X8 - adamjeffery, Sun Feb 1 09:28:02 2009
• RE: ? avg. cost for exp. pvc 4X8 - Chris_Harper2, Sun Feb 1 11:59:47 2009
• RE: ? avg. cost for exp. pvc 4X8 - adamjeffery, Sun Feb 1 13:41:15 2009
• RE: ? avg. cost for exp. pvc 4X8 - Chris_Harper2, Sun Feb 1 13:51:57 2009
• more... - Chris_Harper2, Sun Feb 1 14:01:17 2009
• RE: more... - adamjeffery, Sun Feb 1 19:24:52 2009
• RE: more... - Chris_Harper2, Sun Feb 1 19:30:42 2009
• RE: more... - markg, Mon Feb 2 13:25:14 2009
• RE: ? avg. cost for exp. pvc 4X8 - Paul Edwards, Tue Feb 3 17:23:05 2009
• RE: ? avg. cost for exp. pvc 4X8 - LarryS, Tue Feb 3 18:11:12 2009