MDF for DIY Dummies

MDF vs plywood

Most things fall within some sort of hierarchical classification. Take, for instance, cars: cars, along with trucks and motorcycles, are a members of a class called "vehicles." The class called "cars" may include (among others) sedans, convertibles, coupes, hatchbacks... If you ask someone for the types of cars, you would reasonably expect the answer to include "sedan" but not "truck." The hierarchy of engineered wood products includes MDF (medium-density fiberboard), but if you ask someone like Kevin Kasarski to list "Types of MDF Wood," the journalism grad's ignorance might lead to an answer that is... wrong.

You see, Kasarski ended up getting the hierarchy of engineered wood products wrong. Oh, he was pretty close in his opening definition of MDF:

"MDF, or Medium Density Fiberboard, is used for many different building projects and sold at most hardware stores."

After that, however, Kevin got confused. According to this freelancer, the "types of MDF wood" include particle board, fiber board, and "laminated board." Unfortunately for his readers, however, those are other types of engineered wood products. Had he consulted even Wikipedia, Kasarski would have learned that the "types" of MDF include regular, light, moisture-resistant, and fire retardant.

His ignorance, led Kevin to share such misinformation as,

• "Fibre Board: Fiber board is manufactured at a lower temperature in typically a dry process. MDF fiberboard is manufactured using different types of resins and bonding agents. All fiber board is bonded using formaldehyde resins, typically urea or phenol formaldehyde." – Well, that's true. The problem isn't that fiberboard isn't a type of MDF, MDF is a type of fiberboard. PS: You just gotta love the three different versions of "fiberboard" in two sentences!

"Laminated Board: ...another type of MDF... manufactured using different wood grains. Each layer of wood product is then glued together... The more commonly used types include plywood and blackboard. Because of its high density, blackboard can be made into chalkboards." – And now Kasarski thinks that plywood is a type of MDF [see image above], not to mention "chalkboard"? Sorry, dumbass, chalkboard is hardboard with a coating of special paint. Sheesh. "Particle Board: ...one of the more commonly used types of MDF. Particle board uses a variety of raw materials that are broken down and processed to create particles in many different sizes and shapes. All of the different particles are then bonded together and finished using a resin binder." – Most sources will tell you that particleboard is actually LDF: low density fiberboard.

Kasarski compiled that crapalicious list because he couldn't understand that his one reference was listing different members of the engineered wood class, of which one is MDF. His content editor (and everyone else at Leaf Group, apparently) was equally ignorant, leaving us to wonder who really deserves the Dumbass of the Day award. We'll say Kevin...

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