cabinet construction - plywood box v. particle board
lat61
14 years ago
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sombreuil_mongrel
14 years agoRelated Discussions
Particle Board versus Plywood boxes - does it really matter?
Comments (4)My husband does lawn maintenance on several lots and properties for a high end home builder. I met with the local cabinet company that supplies this home builder with all it's cabinetry work and the salesman shared with me a lot of the ways the home builder saves money and still provides a "high end" kitchen. The most important thing was that the builder uses particle board instead of plywood on everything but the end cabinets. He does full extension drawers on some, but not all cabinets. He doesn't even use the soft close hinges or drawer slides. I have seen several of the model homes from this builder and they are stunning, especially the kitchens. If the cabinet company offers a warranty on it, then all the better. I really don't think it's something you'll spend a lot of time thinking about once they're installed. Therefore, I would think you'd be fine with the particle board, except maybe doing the ends, sink cabinet, or the heavy drawers in plywood, as previously mentioned. HTH!...See MorePlywood or particle board cabinets?
Comments (3)There are some places where it may make sense to do plywood (e.g., cabinets where there is danger of contact with water---even high quality particle board won't do well with a leak). However, particle board and MDF are more dimensionally stable, and of course are cheaper. For what it's worth, my parents put in both high-end cabinets with plywood boxes and low-end particle board cabinets (custom in the kitchen, IKEA in the laundry room) when they did their remodel three years ago. While they are enjoying both, they were surprised to find that the plywood boxes had problems in summer humidity that caused some sticky doors and such, while the particle board didn't react. Not a huge issue, but just underscores that one isn't always better than the other....See Morecabinet construction - plywood box v. particle board
Comments (29)I seem to have gotten confused on the Shenandoah construction thicknesses. For one, sides are 1/2". So disregard whatever I noted if you're considering this line. Funny, I'm looking over these nearly 40 year old junkers that are still standing. They were even uninstalled and shuffled around 30 years ago. The cheap wood grained laminate doors had been replaced. The sides and back seem to be a 1/4" particle board type product. Some of it also looks like luan but is painted and might be particle board. One shelf is loose and I can see the particles on the box side. Particle board 3/4" shelves chipping along the edge but strong. It seems to be solid 3/4" framing for the faces and hanging rail. They are still standing and doing their job! The side panel on the sink base has popped out and it's really bad construction otherwise. The boxes were painted and doors replaced so they don't look as bad as all that. The painted raised panel replacement doors have held up well for nearly 30 years. They look to be solid wood. The only real damage to the finish is on the raised panel edge of the two drawer fronts under the counter. They've lost finish and are chippy because the counter's drip edge doesn't project out far enough. I'm very surprised to see that situation on a lot of store display installations. The cabinets are just about even with the 25" counter edge. That's bad news for finishes. I'll be getting 26" counters for a good drip edge to protect the finish below. Right, the finish will probably not last 30 years and I'll have to deal with repainting whatever I get. I doubt the stains these days hold up that long either. A lot of them look layered and baked on like the paints to me. But hopefully the cabinets themselves will be decently built and still holding together well. I don't know why that would change unless someone was hanging on the doors or overloading areas with very heavy items, as livewire mentioned. The older builder type homes from 40-50 years or so ago seem to get there. They can just look dated at this point. Maybe they all do this but Shenandoah is calling their mdf type cabinets 'engineered wood' which I think is misleading since it makes it sound like standard construction is plywood....See More"Semi-custom" Cabinets - MDF / Plywood dilemma, conflicting advice
Comments (17)This has been discussed longer than I've been around here. (more than a decade) First you are much more likely looking at furniture board-aka particle board than MDF. The vast majority of cabinets do NOT use MDF but an enormous number of KD's, salesman, even contractors will refer to it as MDF. (but depending on type of each they would be on practically equal footing with particle having an edge over most of what is actually used for MDF in cabinets-there are over 100 variations for each) I currently only have one brand of frameless cabinets that offers Particle Board- they also offer ply and every other brand I have at the moment uses plywood sides. I went to great lengths to get that brand specifically for the particle board option. What I tell my customer- once you are at the middle price point, top end at the box store (Kraftmaid, Shuler...) there is no point in paying for plywood except: on exposed ends if that is what it takes to get veneer, and sometimes for shelves greater than 30" wide that will be VERY heavily loaded. So I'm telling them that when they go shopping somewhere else they should be looking at a less expensive options than some of what I have. When I worked at a place that had more particle board options available I told people exactly the same thing. I used to post the physical stats from the National Plywood Association for both- for all but bending under load, particle wins. Search back a few years if you want to see those. My own kitchen is particle board frameless because that is what I wanted and fit my budget. If I were to spend more I would not burn $$ just to be able to say I have plywood. There are far more important aspects to cabinets quality than "pepsi or coke" ply or furniture board. AND once you have settled on a price point there is more to picking who you work with than which brand-who provides it for you counts for more. As to the cabinets themselves- the most important aspect of a middle of the road or better brand is customer service and QC, finish is next, methods of construction and volume come in there (how rushed are the people on the glue line is my favorite thing to see when evaluating a brand- a really accurate indicator of how things will turn out in the long run). Jakuvall...See Morebudge1
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12 years ago
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