Man made boards

BLOCKBOARD

- Core of softwood strips bonded together with adhesive & covered with sheet of plywood on either side. Plywood faces usually beech/natural woods

- Building material/furniture manufacture

- High quality

- Strong & heavy, unlikely to warp or twist

CHIPBOARD

- Small chips of wood bonded together with resin & formed into sheets with compression

- Not as strong as plywood/blockboard, not expensive

- Not water resistant

- Often covered with plastic laminate/wood veneers & used in cheap furniture

HARDBOARD

- Made from pulped wood fibres. Pupl is put under pressure until fibres bond to produce a tough board

- Standard hardboad is smooth on one side & rough on the other

- Not as strong as other boards

- Used for hidden furniture parts, e.g back of a cupboard

MDF

- Made of fine wood dust & resin pressed into a board

- Quality board, relatively cheap

- Can be worked, shaped & machined easily

- Paint can be applied without need for an undercoat or primer (although finishes better with MDF primer)

- Used in building, shop fitting & furnuture trades

PLYWOOD

- Veneers of timber with each grain layer at right angles to each other & bonded together by resin & pressure

- Composite material

- Unlikely to warp or split due to layering construction

- Supplied in range of sizes & thicknesses

- Softwood ply used in construction industry for walls, roofs & floors

- Hardwood ply used for quality laminate flooring, kitchen units & some furniture

- Can be manufactured so it is extremely wide, making it a popular material in construction industry