What is solid wood furniture and why is it good? What is the difference between wooden furniture and solid wood furniture? Furniture from this material: the main advantages.

Often from furniture manufacturers and sellers you can hear the expressions "solid wood", "natural wood" and so on. But what exactly is an array of wood and how natural is it? We'll figure out.

Coming in furniture store, the buyer often has to deal with the phrase "this product is made of natural solid wood." This can also be read in technical description, and hear the memorized phrase from the sales assistant. However, few people understand this terminology and do not attach any meaning to the words. What ? Can it be unnatural? What is the difference between a solid array and a glued one? What are lamellae? You will receive answers to these and other questions in this material, where a specific definition of each of the terms is given. This information may be useful to you when choosing furniture, interior doors, floor coverings and other wood products.

What is a tree array

Solid wood is considered to be a material that consists entirely of natural wood. The raw array may look like bars, boards or wooden canvases, from which the furniture product is then made. An array can be made different ways, but always only from whole pieces of wood, and not from sawdust, shavings and other waste. This is the key difference between solid wood and other wood-based materials such as chipboard, MDF and fiberboard. Solid wood products are considered the most elite, as this material is of high quality and environmental friendliness. At the same time, it is distinguished by its high cost, which gives the furniture made of natural wood an elitism. Having dealt with the definition of a tree array, you can move on to its types and methods of production.

solid array

On the external attractiveness of natural wood products big influence renders the existing surface texture. The presence of knots, cavities and other formations adversely affects appearance furniture. Because of this, it follows that perfectly clean pieces of wood are considered to be of better quality, but they are much more difficult to pick up. A piece of such wood is called solid, therefore, like the array itself.

Solid wood furniture belongs to the elite category, which is confirmed by the corresponding high cost and prestige. The high price is formed not only due to the cost of solid wood, but also due to the accompanying expensive fittings and finishes. If you want to purchase a product made of natural wood, but you are not ready to pay significant amounts, you can opt for another type of solid wood - glued.

Glued array

When sawing freshly cut trees, it turns out great amount small pieces from which it is impossible to make solid bars or boards, but it is also impractical to use sawdust. The same can be said about boards with some defects in the form of knots or cracks. From such materials, a glued array is made, which is also called furniture, or, if it has the shape of a bar, a eurobeam.

The glued array consists of several layers of wood, which are fixed together with a special adhesive. Each of these layers is called a lamella. An important feature of lamella bonding is the alternation of the longitudinal and transverse directions of the fibers. The prestige of furniture made of glued wood is less than that of solid wood, but at the same time it is much higher than that of products made of chipboard and MDF. Although the massif is glued, it is a real tree, and not glued chips and sawdust like chipboard or MDF. In some respects, the glued array is superior to the solid one. To tell the truth, real solid wood furniture must be solid, but many manufacturers are increasingly using cheaper raw materials in an attempt to attract customers with a lower cost.

Thus, when choosing solid wood furniture, you should not pay attention to beautiful signs such as “natural wood furniture”, “made from wooden beam" etc. In fact, such products consist of real wood, that's just main question in the technology of its production: a solid board or glued lamellas. That is what you should focus on.

Differences between solid and glued array

Natural wood requires compliance with all rules technological process in the manufacture of furniture. Drying is the most important and difficult stage, which has a significant impact on the quality and durability of products. If the materials are stored or dried incorrectly, the product may crack in the future and lose its attractiveness. In this regard, glued solid wood furniture is much less picky, it shrinks and cracks much less often.

The second criterion, which is different for these types of products, is strength. Thanks to multidirectional wood fibers, the strength of glued products is higher than that of solid ones. Of course, the type of tree species. Another advantage of laminated timber is the lower cost. Among the shortcomings, it is worth noting the presence of an adhesive, and, as a result, less environmental friendliness. Some manufacturers, in an effort to save money, use not the highest quality glue, which can emit harmful fumes.

Summing up, we can conclude that the wood mass is the most environmentally friendly and durable of natural materials, which is widely used in the manufacture of various furniture. When choosing between glued and solid wood, you should rely on your own capabilities and desires. The presence of glue in the glued array is not critical, since it is much less than in lower quality materials such as chipboard and MDF.

If the furniture is made of natural wood, it means that it is expensive and lasts for decades. Almost half of us think so. Is it true? To what extent does a natural tree (array) justify the money spent on it? We will find out what advantages and disadvantages solid wood furniture has - when its purchase is justified, and when it is worth preferring the purchase of furnishings from MDF, chipboard and other wood-shaving materials.

Is solid wood furniture bad?

Of course not. The disadvantages, which we will now discuss, take place only in cases where the array itself is not of very high quality.

Among the most common problems is changing the geometry of individual solid wood parts. Simply put, the tree cracks (more often) or swells (less often). If the table, cabinets and shelves in the kitchen or office began to creak, if the doors and shelves are difficult to close / slide in, if gaps appeared between the pieces of furniture, the furniture began to dry out. This happens if the furniture gets into a room with too dry air. But most often - the array before the manufacture of furniture was not properly prepared.

But the microclimate is to blame for the swelling of the furniture - and not enough good wood processing with varnishes and impregnations.

Furnishings made of dense and heavy wood are less prone to swelling / drying out. The same oak furniture will last even in a dry or excessively humid microclimate for years.

The array is not repairable. If something happened to him, you will have to change the entire damaged part. The only exceptions are minor scratches and abrasions: sanding can often restore youth to wood.

Finally - the price. Good furniture for an cabinet made of solid wood is much more expensive than an unpretentious set of a table, chairs and a pair of cabinets made of chipboard or MDF. But if you are interested not only in quality, but also in prestige, practicality and the opportunity, once you have bought furniture, not to think about changing it for many years - choose a tree, that is, an array.

Advantages of an array

Important digression! Solid wood is not a piece of wood carved from a tree trunk. Most often today, countertops, shaped elements, power parts of furniture - the frame - are made from the so-called. glued wood. Separate pieces (lamellas) glued together under pressure are called an array. There are exceptions to this rule - but they are quite rare.

A well-prepared array is not afraid of either moisture or dryness. It is durable, quite light (if we are not talking about precious woods, like red, sandalwood or teak, some varieties of oak). These properties are automatically transferred to solid wood furniture: it is durable and reliable for a long time, does not dry out and does not absorb moisture from the air.

And another very important clarification: the production of exclusive wooden furniture often involves the rejection of the use metal fasteners. Only glue and tongue and groove joints. Why? Fasteners and parts must have the same coefficient of thermal expansion. Due to this, even the drying and swelling of the wood does not affect the strength of the furniture and the service life too much.

To the strength of the array as a material for the manufacture of good business and luxury furniture, we will, of course, add beauty. Not a single laminating film can exactly repeat the unique pattern and texture of natural wood. If the tree is skillfully processed with varnishes, impregnations and stains, a deep juicy pattern on the countertop, facade or walls will become the best decoration your office, kitchen or living room.

The array, as we can see, is good. It is important that it be correct array, well dried and protected from moisture, scratches and bumps - then neither chipboard nor MDF can compete with it.

Solid wood bookcase good tree speaks of the good taste of its owner and the ability to surround himself with worthy things. In our convenient place, you can very quickly assemble almost any piece of furniture from the materials you need, immediately find out its cost and order it to any city in the country.

But first, let's understand why the tree array − best material for the manufacture of furniture for home and office, as well as children's furniture.

Array properties and types

We can say that solid wood furniture is furniture made of natural wood. Such furniture will last longer than any other.

The tree array is divided into two types:
solid array- solid wood, the most expensive material, it is used to make premium furniture for luxurious interiors.

Glued array made from pieces of wood. High-quality pieces of wood are glued together in layers - they are called "lamellas". Products from glued solid wood, of course, are less valuable than from solid wood. They're cheaper, but they're still real wood, not something that just looks like wood. Moreover, the glued type of the array has its own advantages. For example, such an array is resistant to external influences due to the redistribution of loads in different pieces of the product.

The glued array is also divided into two types:
1. all-lamellar (consists of longer and wider parts)
2. spliced ​​(consists of many smaller parts)

Solid wood products are rightfully considered the highest quality, environmentally friendly and expensive. Solid wood furniture requires careful attention to the microclimate in the house: it can, for example, swell slightly from humidity or shrink from heat. Solid wood furniture is heavier compared to other materials - it's natural wood!

For those who, for one reason or another, solid wood furniture is not suitable, there is a modern, practical and more economical option.

Tree species and their features

Types of solid wood differ in hardness: the harder the wood, the more expensive the furniture made from it. Soft wood products are easier to damage during delivery, assembly and operation.

Spruce array
The softest array is spruce: it is easy to process, sticks together perfectly, but the structure of spruce wood is rather inexpressive. Most often made from spruce decorative elements for furniture.

In the Scandinavian countries and in Russia, furniture is mainly produced from solid pine, birch and beech.

Solid pine
Thanks to the golden pleasant structure of solid pine, furniture from it reflects light beautifully. Pine furniture is preferred when furnishing cottages and summer cottages, but also in modern interior light amber pine would be quite appropriate.

Solid birch
Solid birch has a light natural color and fibrous structure - it perfectly absorbs dyes, so furniture of any color can be created from solid birch. Birch is durable and can be used to create anything, including children's furniture and library items. bookcases.

Solid beech
Solid beech furniture is a kind of compromise between price and quality. Beech has a high wood hardness and a fine, uniform texture. Solid beech is easily stained, ranging from light yellow-pink to brown-red, similar to the coloring of precious woods.

Solid ash
The massif of an ash-tree - gentle light yellow material with silky gloss. Solid ash furniture is expensive and ideal for interiors decorated in any style.

Solid oak
Oak - hard and valuable breed tree. The solid oak has a beautiful texture with the release of wood fibers, the colors are yellow-brown various shades. Oak furniture is strong and reliable, and its price is usually very high.

An array of rare tree species
The hardest and most refined types of solid wood are solid mahogany, or mahogany, and black, or ebony. They are used to make exclusive interior items commissioned by rich connoisseurs of things for centuries.

Reasoning about these concepts of solid wood furniture and wood furniture is inherently ...

When people talk and exchange information, they designate the same concepts in the conversation. But what is meant in the end? One and the same or different?

This is my discussion in the video. Look. If you have questions, ask. I will answer with pleasure.

If you want to really understand the difference between the concepts of “wooden furniture” and “solid furniture”, then you should first find out what wood materials exist. We all logically think that wood furniture is traditionally made from natural wooden boards obtained from oak, birch, pine, maple, etc.

Skillful hands craftsmen turn these rough boards into elegant furniture.

The quality of the original lumber (solid edged boards) directly affects the service life and aesthetic characteristics of wood furniture. Not only the indicators of wood drying are important, but also the conditions in which the tree itself has grown. Excessive humidity, drought, frost and even chemical emissions significantly degrade the quality of the boards, and hence the furniture. Therefore, one must understand that high-quality lumber is quite expensive and furniture made from such material belongs to the category of elite.

To reduce the cost and speed up the process of furniture production, modern wood materials were invented. For example, furniture plywood, which is made from re-glued sheets of birch or other types of wood. It has a high strength index and an appearance similar to natural board. The plywood end has a characteristic striped cut that can be decorated wooden slats and thereby completely imitate a tree.

But in some cases, with a certain design, the striped end remains open and is itself a decor for furniture details.

Often used in wood furniture making veneer of various breeds: oak, birch, cherry and the most exotic species from around the globe: American Walnut, Gabon from Equatorial Guinea, Bibolo from Africa, Goiabao from Brazil, etc. The use of veneer gives great opportunities for furniture design and again reduces the cost of production. Using relatively inexpensive wood materials (plywood or MDF), you can get an exclusive look, thanks to the richness and variety of exotic veneer textures.

A good example of the use of veneer, peeped from “photo report of making a wooden bed”. Oak veneer is glued onto sheets of birch plywood and used as a panel for the headboard. All other structural elements are made entirely of solid oak.

Veneer allows you to create a specific pattern on the facade elements of furniture. The classic rectangle or rhombus is sewn together from triangular pieces of birch veneer. This design detail makes the appearance of this desk more exclusive and respectable. If you are interested in what and how this one is made desk, see full photo production report in 163 pictures.

“Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) is a board material produced by dry pressing of finely dispersed wood chips with high pressure and temperature. Carbamide resins modified with melamine are used as a binder. This ensures very low formaldehyde emissions comparable to those of natural wood.” (Wikipedia)

Here is the answer! The use of wood chips as a raw material gives manufacturers the full right to pass off MDF as wood material. MDF parts are also glued with veneer and do not differ in appearance from natural wood. But only outwardly, since in all other respects such furniture is significantly inferior to furniture made from natural solid wood or plywood. The service life of furniture made of veneered MDF is the same as that of any other furniture made of chipboard and does not exceed 10 years. But often commercial furniture manufacturers, passing it off as wooden furniture, put prices much higher and comparable to solid wood furniture. And such examples can be found not only among domestic manufacturers, but also among Western suppliers, including those from Italy.

The quantity of quality sawn timber has dropped sharply over last years rapid development furniture industry. And as a result, manufacturers go to a variety of tricks to reduce the cost of the process of making wood furniture. It is not possible for an inexperienced consumer to understand what exactly the bed, table or sideboard he likes is made of! Of course, there is an option: pull out the screw, scratch it, hit it with a hammer! But who will allow you to do this in the store ?! Such incidents occur already during the operation of the purchased furniture, when there can no longer be any question of quality assurance.

In the course of our research, we have reached a dead end, which does not give an exact answer to the question posed. What is the difference between wooden furniture and solid wood furniture? It remains to hope for the honesty of the manufacturer and seller, who will be able to clearly and in detail explain to you what the furniture you want to purchase is made of. But usually marketers simply say that this furniture is “wooden” or “solid wood”, without much emphasis on the specifics of the details. That is, without delving into the essence, I would say that for a commercial furniture manufacturer and an ordinary consumer, these two concepts are similar and do not differ from each other in any way. But you already know what the catch is and doubts have arisen in you?! And you will get to the bottom of the truth if you dig deeper, where the very essence of things and specifically furniture is always hidden.

If you have questions about solid wood furniture or any other, ask. I will answer with pleasure.

Saying "an array of wood" non-specialists put into the meaning of this phrase the idea of ​​a dense forest. Experts mean by this name natural wood used in production. For example, when they say that furniture is made of solid wood, they mean that this furniture is made of natural wood. Such furniture will last much longer than any other. For example, MDF furniture.

Wood can act as the main raw material in the manufacture of various wood products. But at the same time, having undergone processing and connection with other components, it loses the properties inherent in the array, without ceasing to remain a tree. Thus, answering the question "what is solid wood", we can say with confidence that it is 100% natural wood.

The range of solid wood products is diverse. Starting with finishing materials and ending with furniture. Finishing materials obtained from solid wood are used in the decoration of wooden housing construction. To such finishing materials include: floor board, block house, lining, timber imitation. It is made from an array and moldings. It refers to; plinth wooden, platband, layout, baguette. Made from solid wood and products such as hollow baths, doors, stairs, balusters, railings and handrails. Basically, coniferous wood is taken for the manufacture of these products. Like spruce or pine. Often lining is made of linden, aspen, ash. Sometimes they make it from more exotic trees. For example, cherry.

For the manufacture of furniture, various types of wood are used. It is also made from pine and birch. But it is preferable to make furniture from more valuable, hardwoods. For example, oak, walnut, mahogany. Such furniture is more expensive, but much better in quality, and its appearance is much more respectable than that of furniture made from less valuable species.

Sometimes, for the manufacture of furniture, the width of a natural wood board is not sufficient. Then the glued array is used in the manufacture. Such an array is called furniture array or furniture board. It is currently widely used. It is obtained by gluing and splicing parts of natural wood. It can be made so that the layer does not contain a single knot. It is possible to distinguish such material from a natural array at the junctions. The strength of such a material is quite large.

Other products are also made from glued and spliced ​​array. Almost the entire range of products, which is also produced from ordinary wooden board. The difference between such products is not only in appearance, but in price. Since spliced ​​products are subjected to additional processing, they have a higher price.