Wood board materials and panels

You will find a large selection of sheet materials in the hardware store or at the timber trade. Here we list the most common and tell for which applications they are good and less suitable.

There are many types of wood board materials, but we can divide them into two main groups: construction boards and furniture and carpentry panels.

Construction plates

Almost every do-it-yourselfer who ever works on his house will work with construction plates. There is a wide choice available and each type has its own applications and sets its own requirements for processing and finishing. As the name implies, construction plates serve mainly for the construction and not ‘for the beautiful’. If you use them for visual work, a finish with a paint layer will often be necessary.

Plywood and plywood

Plywood and plywood consist of three or more thin layers of wood glued together. The wood used can be either hardwood or softwood — for example, poplar or birch. Plywood is also suitable for the construction of partitions, table tops, floors and all kinds of interior paneling.

Read more: wood panels nz

Chipboard

Chipboard consists of compressed and glued wood chips. It is a fairly heavy board material with little structural strength. On the other hand, it costs relatively little. Chipboard is often used to level floors for laying laminate or carpet. It is less suitable for visual work with its coarse structure. And one more thing: working with chipboard makes your tools dull.

Hardboard

A thin sheet material, made of high-pressure pressed wood pulp. It often has a smooth and a rough side. Hardboard is cheap and also looks cheap. Therefore, it is usually used for leveling floors, as a bed base or as a back panel of cabinets, all applications where it is kept out of sight. It is an easy to process material, which you can also attach in curved shapes.

Tip: Hole board — a hardboard plate with all holes — is useful for hanging all kinds of things, such as tools in your hobby room .

Softboard

Softboard is made by pressing wood fibers under less high pressure. This produces a light sheet material, which is easy to process, but has no structural strength whatsoever. Except for pin boards, it can be used as an underlay.

MDF

MDF stands for Medium Density Fireboard. It is made by pressing and gluing wood dust under high pressure. The result is a smooth plate that can be seen as wood and can be painted or lacquered well. MDF is also easy to mill , but if you are going to screw it, it is wise to pre-drill the holes to avoid splitting. MDF cannot be used outside, but indoors there are many applications: from all kinds of furniture to paneling and moldings.

Concrete plex

This plywood variant gets its name from the original application: formwork for pouring concrete. Concrete plywood consists of layers of spruce or poplar wood, finished with a smooth and waterproof layer of epoxy resin. This makes it suitable for outdoor applications. Consider, for example, homemade garden furniture. Concrete plywood is quite heavy and relatively pricey.

OSB

OSB (Oriented Strand Board) is a coarse sheet material, made of glued wood shavings. Due to the rough aspect, it is not suitable as furniture material, but it is an inexpensive solution as an underlay for parquet floors or wall constructions. OSB plates are available with tongue and groove.

Underlayment

Underlayment plates consist of layers of glued pine or pine wood. It is a strong and relatively inexpensive construction board, which is widely used for floors and walls. The somewhat coarse structure makes it less easy to finish.

Furniture panels and carpentry panels

Unlike construction panels, these panel materials are specifically designed for furniture, and the appearance is as important as the structural properties.

Furniture panels

Furniture panels are chipboard finished with a plastic coating. This top layer is often white, but there are all kinds of designs available. Popular are the ‘just real’ wood designs, where you can even feel the wood grain. After sawing, you can finish the cutting edge with edge band in the same design. Stick this on the edges with an iron.

Tip: The top layer of furniture panels shatters quickly. Always use a sharp, fine-toothed saw to minimize this risk and cut with gentle movements.

Carpentry panels

Carpentry panels are the only ones in the list that consist of solid wood. They are made by gluing slats together into panels of various thicknesses and sizes, and are available in pine, spruce, beech, oak and other woods. Carpentry panels are a strong and easy-to-use material for furniture. Finished with oil, varnish or transparent stain, they retain their natural look.