Cabinetry Construction - Deconstructed! part 2

Construction Materials

Many people assume that cabinetry is constructed entirely out of solid wood, that is definitely not the case!  There are two main categories of materials used in cabinet construction - Solid Wood and Engineered Wood.  Let's take a closer look at each of these materials that Dura Supreme uses in the construction of our custom hand-crafted cabinetry.

Solid Wood

Since the cabinet doors and drawer fronts are the most visible part of the cabinetry, these components are constructed out of solid wood.  In addition, the face frame components used in Dura Supreme's Crestwood and Designer product lines are also constructed out of the exact same wood species as our cabinet doors and drawer fronts.

 

Solid wood naturally expands and contracts with changes to temperature and humidity levels and therefore is not a stable product to be used for the cabinet box construction, such as the cabinet end panels, top or bottom components and even the shelving.  These components need to be constructed out of a material that is strong, durable and stable - that's where Engineered Wood has its advantages. 

Engineered Wood

The term "engineered wood" refers to any man-made material that is used in the home building and construction industries.

The use of Engineered Wood in the construction industry has continued to grow over the last few years due to the added stability, strength and durability that these engineered wood products offer.  It's not uncommon to see engineered products such as Plywood, Oriented Strand Board (OSB), and P-Lam I-Beams used in the construction of new homes.

While there are many different varieties of engineered wood materials, we'll focus our discussion on the three main engineered wood products used in the construction of our cabinetry.  

Furniture Board - Furniture Board is a composite material made by combining wood particles with a binder and compressed together.  Since the sheet is a composite of wood fibers that are distributed in a random orientation there is little or no directional movement.  Due to the tight tolerances that are needed in cabinet construction, using an engineered wood product such as Furniture Board for the actual cabinet box is a preferred method of cabinet construction.  Exposed finished ends are finished with a species specific wood veneer and finished to match your cabinet order. 

Medium Density Fiberboard - Medium Density Fiberboard or MDF is an engineered wood product that's made up of wood fibers which are combined with an adhesive under pressure and formed into boards and panels.  Due to the use of the wood fibers MDF is heavier and denser than Furniture Board which makes it a perfect material to be used as a substrate or core material in our Traditional styled Foil doors (available in Crestwood and Alectra) as well as our new Contemporary styled doors available in Alectra (Foils, Acrylic, High Pressure Laminate and slab Veneer doors).

Plywood - Plywood is a series of wood veneers, sheets of wood cut from a log, glued together in a cross grain pattern making a composite sheet.  Because of the cross grain pattern, plywood is more stable that solid wood.  By alternating the grain pattern in each layer of the veneer, gives the board or panel more rigidity and stability.  Exposed plywood faces are finished with a species specific wood veneer and finished to match your order. 

 

At Dura Supreme our composite wood panel products (plywood and furniture board) which are used in the construction of our cabinetry are made with recycled wood fibers for structural strength and stability.  Our panel material meets stringent CARB (California Air Resource Board) emissions standards for formaldehyde, and is considered an Environmentally Preferable Product (EPP) meeting ANSI/HPVA HP-1 standards.

In my next blog post, we will discuss the different joinery methods that are used to create Dura Supreme cabinetry.

Related Posts:

• Cabinetry Construction: Deconstructed! Part 1
• Cabinetry Construction: Deconstructed! Part 3
• Cabinetry Construction: Deconstructed! Part 4