What is a tree array. Definition of a tree array and its types. What is an array in furniture From an array not

Often from furniture manufacturers and sellers you can hear the expressions "solid wood", "natural wood" and so on. But what is an array of wood really and how natural is it? We'll figure out.

Coming to a furniture store, the buyer often has to deal with the phrase "this product is made of natural solid wood." This can be read in the technical description, and you can hear a memorized phrase from a sales assistant. However, few people understand this terminology and do not attach any meaning to the words. What ? Can it be unnatural? What is the difference between a solid array and a glued one? What are lamellae? You will receive answers to these and other questions in this material, where a specific definition of each of the terms is given. This information may be useful to you when choosing furniture, interior doors, flooring and other wood products.


What is a tree array

Solid wood is a material that consists entirely of natural wood. The raw array may take the form of bars, boards or wooden sheets, from which a furniture product is then made. An array can be made in various ways, but always only from whole pieces of wood, and not from sawdust, shavings and other waste. This is the key difference between solid wood and other wood-based materials such as chipboard, MDF and fiberboard. Solid wood products are considered the most elite, as this material is of high quality and environmental friendliness. At the same time, it is distinguished by its high cost, which gives the furniture made of natural wood an elitism. Having dealt with the definition of a tree array, you can move on to its types and methods of production.


solid array

The visual appeal of natural wood products is greatly influenced by the existing surface texture. The presence of knots, cavities and other formations adversely affects the appearance of the furniture. Because of this, it follows that perfectly clean pieces of wood are considered to be of better quality, but they are much more difficult to pick up. A piece of such wood is called solid, therefore, like the array itself.

Solid wood furniture belongs to the elite category, which is confirmed by the corresponding high cost and prestige. The high price is formed not only due to the cost of solid wood, but also due to the accompanying expensive fittings and finishes. If you want to purchase a product made of natural wood, but you are not ready to pay significant amounts, you can opt for another type of solid wood - glued.


Glued array

When sawing freshly cut trees, a huge number of small pieces are obtained, from which it is impossible to make solid bars or boards, but it is also impractical to put them into sawdust. The same can be said about boards with some defects in the form of knots or cracks. From such materials, a glued array is made, which is also called furniture, or, if it has the shape of a bar, a eurobeam.

The glued array consists of several layers of wood, which are fixed together with a special adhesive. Each of these layers is called a lamella. An important feature of lamella bonding is the alternation of the longitudinal and transverse directions of the fibers. The prestige of furniture made of glued wood is less than that of solid wood, but at the same time it is much higher than that of products made of chipboard and MDF. Although the massif is glued, it is a real tree, and not glued chips and sawdust like chipboard or MDF. In some respects, the glued array is superior to the solid one. To tell the truth, real solid wood furniture must be solid, but many manufacturers are increasingly using cheaper raw materials in an attempt to attract customers with a lower cost.

Thus, when choosing solid wood furniture, you should not pay attention to beautiful signs such as “natural wood furniture”, “made from wooden beams”, etc. In fact, such products consist of real wood, that's just the main question in the technology of its production: a solid board or glued lamellas. That is what you should focus on.


Differences between solid and glued array

Natural wood requires compliance with all the rules of the technological process in the manufacture of furniture. Drying is the most important and difficult stage, which has a significant impact on the quality and durability of products. If the materials are stored or dried incorrectly, the product may crack in the future and lose its attractiveness. In this regard, glued solid wood furniture is much less picky, it shrinks and cracks much less often.

The second criterion, which is different for these types of products, is strength. Thanks to multidirectional wood fibers, the strength of glued products is higher than that of solid ones. Of course, the wood species used plays a role. Another advantage of laminated timber is the lower cost. Among the shortcomings, it is worth noting the presence of an adhesive, and, as a result, less environmental friendliness. Some manufacturers, in an effort to save money, use not the highest quality glue, which can emit harmful fumes.

Summing up, we can conclude that the solid wood is the most environmentally friendly and durable of natural materials, which is widely used in the manufacture of various furniture. When choosing between glued and solid wood, you should rely on your own capabilities and desires. The presence of glue in the glued array is not critical, since it is much less than in lower quality materials such as chipboard and MDF.

For some reason, it is believed that solid wood furniture is necessarily expensive. And in general, only very wealthy people can afford such a “premium-class purchase”. Therefore, many are afraid to order such products. We will try to dispel these misconceptions and tell in this article in more detail what solid wood furniture is and why it is worth buying.

Some background information

"Massive" is called a solid canvas of natural wood, from which furniture is made. In a normal environment, conifers or hardwoods have 40-60% moisture, but such indicators are not suitable for production. That is why after sawing the boards are sent to a special workshop where they are dried. “At the exit”, the pine massif has 8-10% moisture content - this is optimal for “cutting” the board and then assembling cabinet furniture. After that, it is impregnated with a composition that protects against drying out and harmful insects. This is followed by stain - with its help, the surface of the wood acquires a unique color. By the way, you can never predict in advance what shade of wood will turn out after staining. Humidity, its temperature and light in the room each time affect differently. Finally, the final stage is varnishing. It contains UV absorbers. Thanks to this, the surface of solid wood furniture retains its rare beautiful color and natural look longer.

What other advantages, besides the above, does solid wood furniture have? Let's list the positive qualities in order.

Benefits of buying solid wood furniture

  • 100% environmentally friendly product. The entire array must be checked for compliance with quality. Knots and other irregularities are considered marriage and do not fall into the canvas for the manufacture of furniture. The tree undergoes a minimum of chemical treatments and is considered very clean according to GOST 18288-87. No harm to health, only benefit!
  • High strength. Due to the special interweaving of the fibers, the array is a very dense material. He is not afraid of mechanical damage. Even if there was an impact, not a trace would appear on the surface. Such furniture lasts an average of 15-20 years, remaining as beautiful and practical as before.
  • Feeling warm all year round. Solid wood furniture has a very low thermal conductivity. Thanks to this, even a very light touch gives a pleasant warming sensation. Deciding to buy a solid bed, you can fall asleep in a pleasant atmosphere of warmth and comfort!

Mentioning the advantages, it is impossible not to write a few words about the disadvantages. First of all, it is the uniqueness of the array. As mentioned above, it is almost impossible to achieve the same color for different products. Therefore, when buying solid wood furniture, be prepared for the fact that the furnishings will be slightly different from each other in shade.

Further, a long production time. Processing an array can take up to 10 days - that's why the furniture can "ride" to you for as much as 2 weeks. This must be treated with understanding. The standards of manufacture are such, and they cannot be changed. But you will receive high-quality furniture that fully satisfies your desires!

And finally, the price. Yes, solid wood furniture is somewhat more expensive than the same product made of laminated chipboard. However, there are models that can "argue" with this statement! So, an ordinary pine bed costs almost the same as its "colleague" from chipboard, but with the addition of additional elements - drawers, MDF frames on the body, and so on. Therefore, the price of solid wood furniture is not a hindrance to buying at all!

We hope that after reading the article, solid wood furniture in Moscow has ceased to seem to you something inaccessible. Call us to buy it cheap!

Solid wood is wood that is devoid of various impurities and adhesives. In order to make furniture, you can use valuable or ignoble breeds.

Such products are chosen not only because of the increased level of safety and durability. This is where you can get acquainted with the furniture, which has a wonderful appearance.

Array in furniture: main features

To process wood, you have to spend a lot of money. That is why solid pieces are rarely used in the furniture manufacturing process. This item should be taken into account if you have looked after a cabinet made of solid wood of any kind. Of course, you can buy a product from whole pieces, but get ready to spend a considerable financial amount.

That is why manufacturers are trying to replace such material with a glued array. These are slabs of wood, which were obtained by gluing individual pieces of wood. For the production of an array, you need to hire only a real professional. That is why the finished products are of very high quality, and in their manufacture all technologies were observed.

Thanks to this material, you can get furniture that is much cheaper. Sometimes technologies are combined, producing the main structural parts from glued solid wood, and elements for decoration from solid material.

The method of making furniture can be easily calculated if you carefully examine the fibers. If natural material was used, then they do not have clear boundaries and do not break off in the most unexpected place. The borders of the glued material look like someone has outlined them. In addition, its fibers are "torn", which can be seen with the naked eye.

Furniture from this material: main advantages

You figured out what an array is. However, is it really necessary to spend money on the purchase of such furniture?

It has a number of significant advantages:

  • such furniture is characterized by an increased level of strength;
  • items will last a long time if properly cared for;
  • solid wood furniture is environmentally friendly, because it does not emit harmful components into the air;
  • with the help of such products you can decorate any interior, because they look very presentable;
  • the tree has a special energy with which you can bring positive emotions into your apartment;
  • solid wood furniture smells very pleasant, so your home will be filled with a sophisticated aroma.

These are the main points that relate to solid wood furniture. If you make a choice in favor of such products, you will get a lot of pleasant impressions, because your home will become cozier and more beautiful.

What is the difference between the concepts of wood furniture and solid wood furniture, see the video:

If the furniture is made of natural wood, it means that it is expensive and lasts for decades. Almost half of us think so. Is it true? To what extent does a natural tree (array) justify the money spent on it? We will find out what advantages and disadvantages solid wood furniture has - when its purchase is justified, and when it is worth preferring the purchase of furnishings from MDF, chipboard and other wood-shaving materials.

Is solid wood furniture bad?

Of course not. The disadvantages, which we will now discuss, take place only in cases where the array itself is not of very high quality.

Among the most common problems is changing the geometry of individual solid wood parts. Simply put, the tree cracks (more often) or swells (less often). If the table, cabinets and shelves in the kitchen or office began to creak, if the doors and shelves are difficult to close / slide in, if gaps appeared between the pieces of furniture, the furniture began to dry out. This happens if the furniture gets into a room with too dry air. But most often - the array before the manufacture of furniture was not properly prepared.

But the microclimate is to blame for the swelling of the furniture - and not enough good wood processing with varnishes and impregnations.

Furnishings made of dense and heavy wood are less prone to swelling / drying out. The same oak furniture will last even in a dry or excessively humid microclimate for years.

The array is not repairable. If something happened to him, you will have to change the entire damaged part. The only exceptions are minor scratches and abrasions: sanding can often restore youth to wood.

Finally - the price. Good solid wood office furniture is much more expensive than an unpretentious set of a table, chairs and a couple of cabinets made of chipboard or MDF. But if you are interested not only in quality, but also in prestige, practicality and the opportunity, once you have bought furniture, not to think about changing it for many years - choose a tree, that is, an array.

Advantages of an array

Important digression! Solid wood is not a piece of wood carved from a tree trunk. Most often today, countertops, shaped elements, power parts of furniture - the frame - are made from the so-called. glued wood. Separate pieces (lamellas) glued together under pressure are called an array. There are exceptions to this rule - but they are quite rare.

A well-prepared array is not afraid of either moisture or dryness. It is durable, quite light (if we are not talking about precious woods, like red, sandalwood or teak, some varieties of oak). These properties are automatically transferred to solid wood furniture: it is durable and reliable for a long time, does not dry out and does not absorb moisture from the air.

And another very important clarification: the production of exclusive furniture made of wood often involves the rejection of the use of metal fasteners. Only glue and tongue and groove joints. Why? Fasteners and parts must have the same coefficient of thermal expansion. Due to this, even the drying and swelling of the wood does not affect the strength of the furniture and the service life too much.

To the strength of the array as a material for the manufacture of good business and luxury furniture, we will, of course, add beauty. Not a single laminating film can exactly repeat the unique pattern and texture of natural wood. If the tree is skillfully treated with varnishes, impregnations and stains, a deep rich pattern on the countertop, facade or walls will be the best decoration for your office, kitchen or living room.

The array, as we can see, is good. It is important that it is the right array, well dried and protected from moisture, scratches and impacts - then neither chipboard nor MDF can compete with it.

Reasoning about these concepts of solid wood furniture and wood furniture is inherently ...

When people talk and exchange information, they designate the same concepts in the conversation. But what is meant in the end? One and the same or different?

This is my discussion in the video. Look. If you have questions, ask. I will answer with pleasure.

If you want to really understand the difference between the concepts of “wooden furniture” and “solid furniture”, then you should first find out what wood materials exist. We all logically think that wood furniture is traditionally made from natural wooden boards obtained from oak, birch, pine, maple, etc.

Skillful hands of the craftsman turn these rough boards into elegant furniture.

The quality of the original lumber (solid edged boards) directly affects the service life and aesthetic characteristics of wood furniture. Not only the indicators of wood drying are important, but also the conditions in which the tree itself has grown. Excessive humidity, drought, frost and even chemical emissions significantly degrade the quality of the boards, and hence the furniture. Therefore, one must understand that high-quality lumber is quite expensive and furniture made from such material belongs to the category of elite.

To reduce the cost and speed up the process of furniture production, modern wood materials were invented. For example, furniture plywood, which is made from re-glued sheets of birch or other types of wood. It has a high rate of strength and appearance similar to a natural board. The plywood end has a characteristic striped cut, which can be decorated with wooden slats and thereby completely imitate wood.

But in some cases, with a certain design, the striped end remains open and is itself a decor for furniture details.


Often used in wood furniture making veneer of various breeds: oak, birch, cherry and the most exotic species from around the globe: American walnut, Gabon from Equatorial Guinea, Bibolo from Africa, Goiabao from Brazil, etc. The use of veneer gives great opportunities for furniture design and again reduces the cost of production. Using relatively inexpensive wood materials (plywood or MDF), you can get an exclusive look, thanks to the richness and variety of exotic veneer textures.


A good example of the use of veneer, peeped from “photo report of making a wooden bed”. Oak veneer is glued onto sheets of birch plywood and used as a panel for the headboard. All other structural elements are made entirely of solid oak.

Veneer allows you to create a specific pattern on the facade elements of furniture. The classic rectangle or rhombus is sewn together from triangular pieces of birch veneer. This design detail makes the appearance of this desk more exclusive and respectable. If you are interested in what and how this desk is made of, see the full photo production report in 163 pictures.

“Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) is a board material produced by dry pressing finely dispersed wood chips at high pressure and temperature. Carbamide resins modified with melamine are used as a binder. This ensures very low formaldehyde emissions comparable to those of natural wood.” (Wikipedia)

Here is the answer! The use of wood chips as a raw material gives manufacturers the full right to pass off MDF as wood material. MDF parts are also glued with veneer and do not differ in appearance from natural wood. But only outwardly, since in all other respects such furniture is significantly inferior to furniture made from natural solid wood or plywood. The service life of furniture made of veneered MDF is the same as that of any other furniture made of chipboard and does not exceed 10 years. But often commercial furniture manufacturers, passing it off as wooden furniture, put prices much higher and comparable to solid wood furniture. And such examples can be found not only among domestic manufacturers, but also among Western suppliers, including those from Italy.

The quantity of quality lumber has been drastically reduced in recent years by the rapid development of the furniture industry. And as a result, manufacturers go to a variety of tricks to reduce the cost of the process of making wood furniture. It is not possible for an inexperienced consumer to understand what exactly the bed, table or sideboard he likes is made of! Of course, there is an option: pull out the screw, scratch it, hit it with a hammer! But who will allow you to do this in the store ?! Such incidents occur already during the operation of the purchased furniture, when there can no longer be any question of quality assurance.

In the course of our research, we have reached a dead end, which does not give an exact answer to the question posed. What is the difference between wooden furniture and solid wood furniture? It remains to hope for the honesty of the manufacturer and seller, who will be able to clearly and in detail explain to you what the furniture you want to purchase is made of. But usually marketers simply say that this furniture is “wooden” or “solid wood”, without much emphasis on the specifics of the details. That is, without delving into the essence, I would say that for a commercial furniture manufacturer and an ordinary consumer, these two concepts are similar and do not differ from each other in any way. But you already know what the catch is and doubts have arisen in you?! And you will get to the bottom of the truth if you dig deeper, where the very essence of things and specifically furniture is always hidden.

If you have questions about solid wood furniture or any other, ask. I will answer with pleasure.