Cheap and nasty chipboard shelving unit

[graduate_owner]

Hi everyone,
Yesterday my daughter asked me to fix her set of bookshelves. The back had come off. Now it's a while since I dabbled with chipboard 'furniture' - I assembled our MFI kitchen about 17 years ago. I was amazed when I looked at the poor quality of this bookshelf - at first I thought the back was made from cardboard. It was actually chipboard, but the thinnest I'd ever seen, in 3 pieces held together with adhesive tape. So the repair consisted of pushing the floppy back panel into side slots and nailing in place (until the next time).

I have not yet made any furniture for the home - just garden planters etc - but if I couldn't do better than this I think I'd sell my kit and take up knitting. The thing is though, the bookcase actually looks quite nice until you get up close and look at the knock down joints etc. I can understand why people buy these things, and of course they are really cheap to buy (about £20) but as for durability, well, enough said.

I don't have a problem with chipboard in the kitchen, it's stable despite the steam etc, but anywhere else in the house I think it's just cheap and nasty - just a personal opinion.

Anyone agree?

K

 

[barkwindjammer]

Yep there is some nasty stuff out there, some of the laminated chipboard I've seen has air at its core :shock: , we have a wardrobe in a spare room that was racking so bad that I had to stiffen it up, it now has two hacksaw (yes hacksaw) blades screwed onto the back behind the backer board to act as corner bracings

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I found long ago that the answer with cheap flat pack stuff is to glue everything that it is possible to glue when assembling from new - this stops the drawer bottoms and wardrobe backs etc. falling out afterwards. Throw the glue that comes with them away. At least then you are working with flat, square stuff. Ish!
I suspect the core of some chipboard is full of voids and larger chips to keep the weight down.

 

[No skills]

How about knitting a book case? that would be impressive.

Man made boards are a necessary evil, they are cheap stable and can be made from rubbish - so its a win win situation for manufacturers and joe public that as a majority arent fussed what its made from as long as its priced right looks ok and does the job intended. I think that a lot of people would like better furniture made from quality wood with good joinery but wont make the leap of paying 3 or 4 times the price of something that can be brought for much less that still does the same job.

Obviously theres a bit more to it :wink: but I'm off to bed.

 

[henton49er]

Anyone agree?

Absolutely!! Have got rid of all chipboard furniture, but kept some better bits for making jigs, shelves in the shed etc. Much prefer real wood (both new and antique).

 

[James-1986]

I think people have lost touch with what good quality is and fail to understand why it can be very good value for money. So much rubbish out there, its not even fit for burning on the stove!

 

[DrPhill]

I am not sure where I picked up the phrase, but I always think of this material as 'donkey ***** covered in plastic'.

Another low quality 'man made' material that makes me wince is 'laminate' flooring where the 'wood' is actually a printed picture of wood. And the 'oak' is still priced higher than the 'rustic pine'. Perhaps it takes more ink to print.

 

[andersonec]

With the diminishing rain forests causing so much concern and endless tons of timber being burned needlessly (check large development sites, tips etc.) then to me it makes sense to recycle and use this to make furniture which is affordable to those who do not have shed loads of money, not everyone drives a 4x4, those who can afford real wood buy it.
What people must realise is when they purchase this stuff is that the instructions are not written in blood, additional things can be done to increase the strength and durability of the item, people tend not to think for themselves and carry on blindly, you cannot deviate from the instructions, as something is being put together and it seems a bit flimsy then add another couple of screws, add a bit of glue, whatever it takes to make it a bit stronger.
Some of the early chipboard stuff is now becoming very collectible, G-plan and the like.
What is wrong is for someone to buy cheap furniture and then say it's rubbish, it's been produced to cut costs and provide work for people who are in no position to do any better.

Andy

Andy

 

[graduate_owner]

I agree with many of the comments regarding recycling waste wood, providing accessibly priced items etc, but the thing that gets me is that they don't have to be made in such a shoddy way. I know many people may not be able to afford G Plan and the like, but surely manufacturers don't HAVE to cut every possible corner. As I said, the shelves actually look quite good, although I would still rather make my own even if I used the cheapest softwood available. But why make the sides and shelves out of 19mm board, and then spoil the whole stability of the thing by making the back out of about 3mm board? With knock-down joints to hold things together, there's a lot relying on the back for stability, and 3mm board in 3 sections just doesn't do it, especially when there's only 4 nails holding it in it's grooves.

If these shelves had been made with a decent rebate on the backs of the side panels, (as some used to be) and were supplied with one decent sheet of veneered ply (which would probably double the price, and make the packaged item more bulky which would increase the price even more) then the customer would have a useable item which would withstand moving around etc. Perhaps the stores could offer 'upgraded' versions and then customers would have the choice - to buy cheaply or very cheaply.

The shelves in question are not really repairable so as to last - I just did a temporary repair job. To effect a proper repair needs a fair bit of fiddling around, and my daughter needed the shelves back for storage, so it was a case of bash in some more nails. Not a satisfying experience.

K

 

[No skills]

They do have to I'm afraid, their greedy bastids. It will only be the smaller or individual manufacturers that would want to give customers a suitable or 'better' product.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

No....Sorry, we're greedy bastids - we're the ones who want first rate stuff at third rate prices.
As Andy said earlier - use you brains when assembling anything.

 

[petermillard]

Quite. A set of shelves retailing at twenty quid will have passed through many hands, and a little bit of margin will stick to each; it wouldn't surprise me if the shelves are being made for less than a fiver, so it should be pretty obvious, as with anythign that's built to a price, that the materials and fixings aren't going to be first-rate, don't you think?

 

[RogerS]

.... who do not have shed loads of money, not everyone drives a 4x4, ....

Not all 4x4 drivers have shed loads of money. For many, like me, a 4 x 4 is a necessity.

Anyway, you're applying your own value set here and seem to imply that only people with 'a lot of money'...whatever that means ...will buy 'real wood'. That is nonsense.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Chipboard bookcases: We couldn't afford to house all our books, otherwise! Definitely a necessary evil, here.

Fixing them: Fix a 3/4 x 3/4 batten to the back edges of a couple of shelves (back edge, underneaththe shelf). They give you something properly solid to screw the back sheets onto (round headed screws with washers), and hardly show. Stain to taste if that's an issue, and/or fix to upper side of higher shelves instead.

I hate IKEA, and I won't visit it--I send the wife (who likes it(!)) with any SKUs required--but I have to accept it serves a porpoise. Or a horse, depending what's officially on the menu.

Anyone tried mending knackered frame+panel doors that some moron dip-stripped?

Ours still sweat caustic in the summer :roll: . The only good news is that I get to make some more eventually .

E.

 

[Cowboy _Builder]

Anyone tried mending knackered frame+panel doors that some moron dip-stripped?

Ours still sweat caustic in the summer :roll: . The only good news is that I get to make some more eventually .

E.

Yes , i did four if France a couple of weeks ago ....Took them apart cleaned off what remained of the glue ,the caustic did a good job of getting rid of most of it ,sanded,then reassembled using cascamite now they are better than new ,i also did 3 others the same 3 years ago and they are still as good as when i left them ....I have never had a problem with dipped doors as long as they are done correctly .... The secret is after stripping leave them to soak in a bath of clean water for a good few hours to get the caustic out then dry them slowly and flat with weight on ,most dippers just rinse of with a hose or at best pressure wash them then leave them leaning against a wall to dry .

 

[cambournepete]

For the price Ikea bookcases are excellent value for money.
There is no way I could afford to buy or make bookcases using real wood and so they serve a purpose and look ok.
They've even survived the journey to New Zealand, so can't be all bad

 

[Eric The Viking]

Anyone tried mending knackered frame+panel doors that some moron dip-stripped?

Ours still sweat caustic in the summer :roll: . The only good news is that I get to make some more eventually .

E.

Yes , i did four if France a couple of weeks ago ....Took them apart cleaned off what remained of the glue ,the caustic did a good job of getting rid of most of it ,sanded,then reassembled using cascamite now they are better than new ,i also did 3 others the same 3 years ago and they are still as good as when i left them ....I have never had a problem with dipped doors as long as they are done correctly .... The secret is after stripping leave them to soak in a bath of clean water for a good few hours to get the caustic out then dry them slowly and flat with weight on ,most dippers just rinse of with a hose or at best pressure wash them then leave them leaning against a wall to dry .

Of course you're right (and you're not a cowboy!).

These were done about seventeen years ago by idiots unknown. As I said, I don't think they actually rinsed them afterwards (much) and they didn't remove ANY of the furniture, not even the hinges. I didn't really look properly when we were buying the house and have regretted it ever since. Here are some of the worst parts of some of them:

In that first picture, the red oval is where the muntin tenon shows. There's a gap of around 1/8" where the timber has shrunk. Almost all of the bigger bits of joinery are split, the lock mortices are full of rust, and the wood structure has completely collapsed behind some of the door knobs (see picture). That big stain in the lower image is, I think, caustic still weeping from softer parts of the wood.

I have twelve like this, well, in various stages of collapse, ranging in size from 82"x32" downwards.

Sigh.

E.

 

[graduate_owner]

As soon as the opportunity allows, I shall try Eric the Viking's idea (thanks for that) - it will certainly give somewhere for fixings to hold to. I shall also add a thin plywood panel to the back, which will add to the 'rigidity' provided by the existing chipboard. That should make them pretty sturdy, and as I already said, they actually look quite attractive. They would be quite useful if it wasn't for that penny-pinching back panel.

As I said in my original posting, I understand why people buy these items. I agree that for many families, craftsmanship in real wood is not an option, and so veneered chipboard serves a useful purpose. I'm not against people buying chipboard items, (free country). It's not the buyers I'm going on about, it's the manufacturers. I just think manufacturers should take some responsibility for their products and make items which are reasonably durable, even if they are cheap. These shelves were not durable, in my opinion, but it wouldn't have taken much to make a vast improvement. Even a couple of chipboard cross braces to fix to the back would have helped enormously, and I don't think that wouldn't add much to the overall cost.

Does anyone remember those truly hideous side tables that MFI once sold. A circular top screwed to 2 interlocking chipboard panels for legs. It wasn't even veneered - just bare chipboard!!. They sold a tablecloth to drape over it which reached the floor and served to hide the entire monstrosity. It certainly needed hiding.

I remember looking at kitchen units in MFI, (yes, we did shop there for kitchen units, but that's all) and there was a really nice looking 'kitchen dresser' unit - a chipboard kitchen base unit with light oak doors, and a chipboard shelving unit on top with oak trim, rails, turned spindles etc. It really did look nice, but those two pieces were selling for about £180. We decided against it, and later saw a brand new pine dresser at an auction. It didn't sell. We offered the auctioneer £150 for it, and we still have it several house moves later. It is still as sturdy and as servicable as when we bought it, and will last my life out, and some. I've also bought the wife a really, really nice pine dressing table complete with 3 mirrors for £45, again at auction, although that was a used item - old, but not quite antique.

The second hand route could well offer an alternative to self assembly chipboard for people who can't justify buying new - it was for us. Nearly all our furniture is good quality second hand stuff that didn't cost a fortune, will last for years, and may even become valuable in years to come. And I'm not ashamed to say that it's second hand. I just wish I had the time and the skills to make my own, but if ever I do make some furniture, it will not be made out of chipboard.!!

Rant over and done with.

K

 

[mind_the_goat]

People have been trained to replace 'furniture' every few years now with new stuff, otherwise there would be no room for the big furniture sheds. Furniture is now a consumable item for many. There was a time when redecorating meant a coat of paint and new wall paper, now everything gets changed every few years. Ever noticed how much furniture ends up in the skips at the local recycling centre, I get a chill thinking of the longer term impact of this behaviour every time I go there.

 

[graduate_owner]

I used to live near an auction rooms (hence my purchases) and they sometimes did whole house clearances. Most chipboard items were taken to the yard at the back of the auction rooms where one of the workmen would pull the doors off, kick out the back panel, then collapse the unit by pushing the side panels over. Then they'd be stacked flat ready for the tip.

I used to collect them foc before it rained and use the boards for shelving in my shed (shed, not house) - they were great after strengthening with some 2x2.

The point is that they took up so much auction room space and usually did not sell anyway, that it just wasn't worth their while to try selling them. As Mind-the-goat says, people want new, so why bother with used stuff? Land fill here we come.

K