Question from Maggie
Hi! I am considering buying a media stand from Crate&Barrel and they say it is made of solid wood, engineered wood and veneer. Can you please tell me what engineered wood is and what chemicals might be found in it and in the veneer? Thank you!
Debra’s Answer
First, “solid wood” is a piece of wood that has been cut all in one piece from a branch or trunk of a tree.
“Engineered wood” is a piece of wood that has been made from smaller pieces of wood glued together with adhesives. The pieces of wood can be wood strands, particles, fibers, or veneers or even whole small trees. Particleboard and plywood are both engineered woods.
Engineered wood products do have some environmental advantages. They are made from the same hardwoods and softwoods used to manufacture lumber, so sawmill scraps, wood with defects, and other wood waste can be used. (Engineered cellulosic products are also now made from other “waste” materials such as rye straw, wheat straw, hemp stalks, or sugar cane residue–these contain similar cellulosic material, but from vegetable fibers rather than wood.)
Though these products conserve resources by use the wood efficiently, they are more expensive to produce than solid lumber in terms of time, money, and energy.
There is also a concern about the toxicity of the adhesives used, which can release formaldehyde. The types of adhesives used are:
“Veneer” is a paper-thin layer of wood that is cut from a single log, by “peeling” the log from the outside in. It’s like if you took a carrot and peeled it with a vegetable peeler by going around and around the carrot, rather than lengthwise. This good-looking piece is glued on to engineered wood to make it look nice on the outside. For example, go to a home improvement store and ask for “furniture grade plywood”. You’ll see the layers of engineered wood, but on the outside, there is a very pretty layer that has a pretty wood grain. That’s the veneer.
