Rethinking MDF
I can be naive and maybe a little too trusting at times. I’ve always believed that if it’s sold in the store, it must be safe for us. This includes when buying furniture and fabrics — items I frequently purchase for clients.
In the past, it had never crossed my mind that I should do deep research into products to determine if they are safe for families. We live in a country with relatively high environmental and social standards, and I’ve always assumed that all products are thoroughly researched for personal and environmental safety. While I think this is generally the case, I do think with our rapid and constantly evolving information age, certain products remain in the market well past when they should. Or at the very least, they remain on the shelves and in our homes without sharing key product information with the consumer that would help those make an informed decision to buy or not to buy. One of those such products is MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard).
I’ve known about MDF for as long as I can remember and it’s definitely evolved. It was originally produced as a way to use up vast amounts of waste from the wood industry and today it’s production has grown exponentially and is commonly used for cabinetry, trim (including baseboards, window casing, shiplap), and lots of furniture. It’s everywhere! It has always seemed like a great product that helps with deforestation. In the last 5 or so years, it’s definitely become the dominant cabinet door product, particularly with the increased popularity of painted finishes. Many cabinet makers believe that painted MDF doors are superior to wood doors because of the one-piece construction, thereby reducing the chances of the painted doors cracking with moisture changes. While it might be true that the doors don’t shift with expansion and contraction, do they withstand the wear and tear of daily life of families. Do they stand the test of time, the same as wood cabinets? Let’s be truthful, I believed that this was the way to go and continued to sell this to my clients over the years. It hasn’t been until recently that I’ve delved deeper into understanding this product.
I always perceived MDF baseboards and casing to be inferior to a wood product, particularly in the early 2000’s. I remember the house we lived in after Alex was born had a builder grade MDF base throughout the house and everytime I bumped the vacuum on the base, a huge chunk would fall off. It happened all the time. When it first started to happen, I was shocked because I had never experienced this before. We had always typically lived in older homes with wood trim and cabinets. While it was apparent at this point in time that the quality between MDF and wood trim wasn’t the same, this hadn’t been my experience with MDF cabinet doors. That is until this past spring when the doors on my ensuite vanity started to crumble. How could MDF doors be superior to wood as so many professionals are saying, when mine are clearly falling apart after only 6 years and with looking after them? At that point, I started to delve deeper into MDF and what I found was eye opening to say the least.
As I’ve discussed previously, MDF is an engineered wood product that has been more recently used to replace wood in interior construction because it’s typically a more cost effective option. An adhesive used to bond these wood particles together is most commonly a form of a formaldehyde: an adhesive that emits VOC’s into the atmosphere (volatile organic compounds). These VOC’s are not only unhealthy for humans on a micro level, on a macro level they contribute to climate change. While formaldehyde is still used, with greater regulations from the Canadian Government and others around the world, the emissions are less, but still there. The good news is that these regulations target all products where wood composite is used today, but what about the products that we brought into our house years ago when these regulations didn’t exist? More so, what types of VOC’s are emitted into the air by these products and what happens when this debris is thrown into landfills? Think about my old baseboard from my first house, or the numerous vanities, and IKEA kitchens that end up in landfills? Were the regulations as strict as they are today? On top of that if MDF products have a shorter lifespan like my ensuite cabinet doors, even if they emit a reduced amount of VOC’s in the atmosphere, the simple fact is, they are still going to have to go into landfill!
This summer, I had a great conversation with my sister-in-law, who works in the world of environmental science. It was the perfect time for me to ask an expert about what she thought to be the best ways to reduce the environmental impact in the construction world. “Reuse, and refinish as much as you can”, she told me and ultimately become much more stringent with what goes into landfill. Wise words, from a wise environmentalist. She’s not saying don’t fix up your house, but do your best to buy quality pieces, and do your best to refinish, repurpose for years to come. So when you go to buy your next piece of furniture or install a new kitchen, think about what you are putting into your house. Is it made well, is it a composite wood put together using formaldehyde resins? Will it last, or is it a quick fix? Is there something in your house that can be refinished and serve the same purpose?
Climate change is here and we are all experiencing it first hand. It’s not going away. Many of us have been rethinking fast fashion, but somehow forget to apply that same thinking to our homes. Let’s work together to make fast and cheap renovations that use harmful and poor quality products also a thing of the past. We need to for our own overall health and our planet.
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If you have MDF in your home — don’t fret! I have it too, we all do. We all make the best decisions that we can, with the information that we have. The intent of this article was to bring to light some of the information that I’ve been learning on my journey to becoming a more sustainable designer, so that we can all move towards making informed decisions.