Plywood Vs. Particle Board

Most cabinet boxes (Called carcasses in Europe) are made of either plywood or particle board.

Plywood boards are made using layers of wood which are attached to each other and particle board is made using small chips of wood which are adhered to each other.

It is typical in America that a consumer would request an “all wood” cabinet. Since real wood cabinet boxes are very tough to make it is very rare that the boxes would be made of real solid wood. Team7 is among a few manufacturers who truly do make real wood boxes. In most cases when a consumer requests a wood box, the kitchen supplier would reply to this request by supplying a plywood box.

Plywood is not solid wood, because it is layers of material. The layers are also not necessarily solid wood and are typically various types of engineered material. In America, plywood has an image of being stronger and more durable to humidity and water, but this is not necessarily true.

There are various types of plywood ranging from high end marine grade plywood to cheap industrial plywood, which of course vary tremendously in price and quality. The same applies to particle board as there are different quality levels of particle board.

The American kitchen industry does not make an attempt to educate consumers about the differences and about the fact that actually in most cases a good particle board is more durable than plywood. Instead, since consumers perceive plywood as better and more expensive, American cabinet manufacturers go along with this misconception and simply charge more for plywood boxes!

The European kitchen industry which is far more advanced, uses almost exclusively particle board. It is all about how the cabinet is engineered and how the board sides and edges are wrapped which would determine how durable the cabinet will be. In most cases, as you can see here in the Nobilia Quality control video, properly engineered particle board can withstand water and changes in humidity much better than plywood.

Plywood cabinets which are not properly engineered and laminated would buckle within minutes of contact with water, verses well made particle board cabinets capable of withstanding direct contact with water for hours.

So assuming that plywood is better than particle board is actually not true!

Regardless of this, at German Kitchen Center we do offer plywood options through our European and American partner manufacturers.