First published: 20 January 2021 @ 8:48 pm
Spotting high quality furniture construction is easy if you know what to look for. You can find a great deal of furniture on the market that is poorly constructed.
This is because most people don’t know how to spot quality construction. In this article, we will give you tips on how to spot high quality furniture construction.
1. Hand-Held Hardware
The first thing you should look for when looking at a piece of furniture is the hardware used to put it together. The best quality hardware will be hand-held and will have a very precise fit.
Hand-held hardware means that the screw or bolt used to put the piece together is hand held by an individual who works in the factory where the piece was made. It does not mean that they are hand-made by an individual who has been working in his or her shop for years.
This type of hardware is easily spotted because it has a clean fit and no excess space between each screw or bolt head and its corresponding hole in the woodwork it goes into.
if you see any over-sized holes or gaps, then chances are that someone else assembled this piece of furniture using standard hardware from a big box store, like Home Depot or Lowes, and you should look for a better quality piece.
2. Use of Hardwood Plywood and Not Particle Board
The next thing you should look for is plywood and not particle board. Plywood is made from thin layers of wood that are glued together to make a very sturdy, durable product.
Particle board is made from sawdust and glue that has been pressed together into a solid piece of wood. This is a very cheap way to make furniture but it doesn’t last very long because it can easily warp or crack.
The best way to tell if you have particle board furniture is to knock on the wood and listen for a hollow sound, like knocking on a wall in your house. If you hear this sound, then you have particle board furniture and should look for something better.
3. Furniture Should Have Sturdy Joints
Next, when looking at furniture construction, you should look at the joints between the pieces of woodwork used to build the piece of furniture you are looking at.
The best joints will be mortise and tenon joints which are held together by interlocking notches and grooves in each piece of wood that is joined together to make the joint.
These joints can be seen when you look at the corners of the furniture. The corners should be held together by pieces of wood that have notches and grooves cut into them. These joints are very sturdy and will hold up for a long time.
4. No Gaps Between Woodwork
Another thing to look for when inspecting furniture construction is to look for gaps between the woodwork that is used to build the piece of furniture you are looking at.
The best quality furniture will have no gaps between each piece of wood used to build it. If you see any gaps, then there is a good chance that someone put this piece together using hardware from a big box store like Home Depot or Lowes, and it probably isn’t very sturdy or well-made.
5. Use of Quality Wood and Not MDF or Other Composite Wood Products
The next thing you should look for when inspecting furniture construction is the type of wood used to build the piece of furniture you are looking at.
The best quality furniture will be made from solid hardwood and not from MDF (medium density fiberboard) or any other composite wood product such as plywood, particle board, etc…
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