Know What Type of Furniture You Are Buying

Have you ever wondered what the actual material used in that piece of furniture you were considering buying? It is very important to see beyond the picture you see in deciding if the quality and construction is worth your investing in the item for your home. Even though the item may look like it is “solid hardwood”, when you take a closer look and investigate what material is actually used you may be surprised to find out what it really is.

Many low cost products are made with artificial laminates. The laminates are made with a substrate such as particleboard or a medium density fiberboard (MDF), and then covered with a thin imitation wood grain layer made out of vinyl, foil, or paper. The substrate is made from wood chips, small pieces of cardboard or paper, and then pressed with glues to hold it together. These items are initially okay to “look” at but if you go to move them they usually break apart and wind up in the trash hopper. Once the hardware pulls out of the holes they cannot be reattached because the material is “ripped and torn” apart. They are the “lowest quality”.

The next type of construction is with veneers. Veneers are thin slices of wood that are usually bonded to particleboard or MDF. They give the appearance of a solid piece of wood but because of the thin layer, they often “chip” off to the under layer particleboard or MDF. Hardwood veneers can also be bonded to solid wood or plywood. This construction gives you the “look” but doesn’t hold up as well as true solid wood.

Solid wood is the best quality that you can find for your furniture. The wood is sawed directly from the tree into boards and kilned dried to a proper moisture content. It can then be cut and ripped to specific sizes. It may also be edged-glued together to make wider boards. The glue lines of these panels are actually stronger than the wood grain itself. This is the type of furniture that Manchester Wood has been producing for over thirty years now. Our furniture can last for generations. It can easily be repaired because it is “solid” with no cheaper substrate in the center of the part.
The products you will find on our website are all made from solid white ash or soft maple hardwood that is carefully harvested from surrounding forests in the northeastern part of the United States.

Our solid hardwood products are available at our Manchester, Vermont Store (4357 Main St) and our Granville, New York Factory Outlet (1159 County Route 24). You may also order online from our website: ManchesterWood.com.

To learn more about our American hardwoods, please go to the Hardwood Manufacturers Association website at http://www.hardwoodinfo.com/.