I went with vertical (see picture) for this ramp because that way you don't have to worry about the seam between the two sheets of plywood coming together over a 2x4. The plywood can be screwed in horizontally or vertically. I would only recommend surfacing your ramp this way if being able to separate the ramp easily will be of great benefit to you (see step 6 for a picture of the growing seam). All of my layers are going to have an edge there, so that I can separate the ramp into three pieces without removing any of the surface layers. There are two seams on this ramp, on each side of the flatbottom (where it meets the transition). However, I want to be able to separate this ramp easily into three parts, so I'm sacrificing a little structural integrity for the convenience. I would recommend going with two layers of plywood.Īlmost always when surfacing a ramp you want to stagger the plywood and surface pieces as much as possible so the seams to not line up between layers, this improves the ramps strength and helps keep the seems small. Generally for a miniramp two layers of 3/8' plywood are used, for this ramp I went with one plywood layer (mostly due to time constraints), I used a layer of 1/4' massonite, which doesn't add as much support as a plywood layer, but its better than nothing. Check out the General Ramp Building Tips for more updated information about surfacing a ramp.

3 mini ramp plans