MDF. Affordable alternative?

[story]

Ikea prices have stayed relatively static (for now), while basic material costs like timber or MDF sheets have skyrocketed. If Ikea furniture doesn't fit, buy it anyway and make it fit; without a trade card the "Ikea hack" is currently the cheapest way of getting the raw materials.

This has also been in my eyeline.

 

[teuchter]

Ikea prices have stayed relatively static (for now), while basic material costs like timber or MDF sheets have skyrocketed. If Ikea furniture doesn't fit, buy it anyway and make it fit; without a trade card the "Ikea hack" is currently the cheapest way of getting the raw materials.

yes - refer to the work of A380 here:

Show us yer house and house-related meddlings

Put a thatched frame around it. :) Dry stone wall surely.

www.urban75.net

not sure how easy to find out the VOC content of the particle board type stuff that Ikea uses though.

 

[Sweet FA]

So I need to build shelves.

Have you looked at places like etsy?

I had shelves made from reclaimed wood and pipework for the front room a few years ago which I then fitted.

 

[A380]

yes - refer to the work of A380 here:

Show us yer house and house-related meddlings

Put a thatched frame around it. :) Dry stone wall surely.

www.urban75.net

not sure how easy to find out the VOC content of the particle board type stuff that Ikea uses though.

I did think about posting my usual comment that often you can get IKEA furniture for less than the cost of the materials. But I have no idea about the whole MDF off gassing issue and IKEA's material and how that would align with the OP's views. If you can trim IKEA stuff to fit in any spaces it is often the chepest way.

Personally I don't worry about MDF, my knowlege about how materials off gas suggests that any risk would be minor, cumulative and only really a probabilistic issue for people working with the material in question for protracted periods. But thats not based on much TBF.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

yes - refer to the work of A380 here:

Show us yer house and house-related meddlings

Put a thatched frame around it. :) Dry stone wall surely.

www.urban75.net

not sure how easy to find out the VOC content of the particle board type stuff that Ikea uses though.

And the work of Zapp Brannigan

Show us yer house and house-related meddlings

 

[teuchter]

Don't know if this is any use to you, story. I've been wanting to make shelfage and other stuff out of pallets. Cos you can get pallets that aren't treated with nasties. This is five years old but given me some food for thought, need to check some of the info though.

Where to Find Cheap or Free Pallets - The Handy Mano

I've done stuff with pallets.

Even worse than other types of re-used wood. I got a pretty large quantity of pallet boards, for next to nothing, definitely loads cheaper than the cost of something more sensible to achieve the same task.

So I didn't even have to disassemble the pallets but still had to get loads of large annular ring nails out, many of them rusty or missing heads. Despite pallets themselves being an impressively standardised thing it turns out that the boards themselves can be any number of thicknesses or widths.

And only about 10% of them are anything approaching straight or flat.

And you basically have no idea what they've been treated with or had spilt on them over time.

 

[WouldBe]

I've done stuff with pallets.

Even worse than other types of re-used wood. I got a pretty large quantity of pallet boards, for next to nothing, definitely loads cheaper than the cost of something more sensible to achieve the same task.

So I didn't even have to disassemble the pallets but still had to get loads of large annular ring nails out, many of them rusty or missing heads. Despite pallets themselves being an impressively standardised thing it turns out that the boards themselves can be any number of thicknesses or widths.

And only about 10% of them are anything approaching straight or flat.

And you basically have no idea what they've been treated with or had spilt on them over time.





View attachment 344589

Great job.

 

[Boudicca]

My cabinet maker friend has been required by architects to use Ikea wardrobe carcasses to make built in furniture, although he insists on replacing the cardboard backboard with plywood. The advantage of this is that you can then use all the Ikea internal fittings.

 

[cesare]

My cabinet maker friend has been required by architects to use Ikea wardrobe carcasses to make built in furniture, although he insists on replacing the cardboard backboard with plywood. The advantage of this is that you can then use all the Ikea internal fittings.

A neighbour had this done, and we're thinking of doing same for wardrobes.

 

[Saunders]

I was idly thinking about whether it might be possible to cobble together a kind of patchwork quilt of wardrobes. Strip them back individually and somehow connect them together /to the wall. In my early morning reverie I imagined having sufficient skills tools time and luck for this to result in a cool clever quirky eclectic wall of wardrobe.

This made me laugh because that’s exactly what I do all the time. And then reality bites.
Hope you find a good solution and get the shelving and storage you want.

 

[rubbershoes]

Pallets come up for free on FB marketplace quite frequently

 

[story]

Have you looked at places like etsy?

I had shelves made from reclaimed wood and pipework for the front room a few years ago which I then fitted.

View attachment 344543View attachment 344544View attachment 344545

I did consider the copper piping + decent boards /scaffold boards thing. It has fallen down but not off the list.

 

[story]

So I asked my local builders merchant (Acre Lane Timber) about the zero formaldehyde MDF and they can get it for me but the cost!

1 x 18mm x 2440mm x 1200 mm

Normal MDF £41
Zero MDF £133.90


So for this particular project* we‘re using hardwood faced ply.

Obviously zero formaldehyde MDF is simply not possible.




*The cupboard under the stairs for the stairs for the upstairs flat. Taken off the door and taken down some of the facing wall in order to push the space back. The door will be cut down and repurposed as a cupboard door for deep storage at the back end (Christmas decorations, the oil filled radiator during the summer, that kind of stuff). In front of that, the gas and lekky stuff (which is on the exterior wall) is being boxed in with access doors for taking readings, shutting off the gas, all the necessaries. The remaining space will have hanging rails for coats and jackets. Underside of the stairs will be lagged to minimise noise and then boxed in, directional down lights put in. Probably some hooks on the joists that support the utility meters for scarves and other hanging things. And I’m hoping to find a piece of kit for the front that will fit perfectly and hold shoes, boots etc. It will have casters so I can easily swing it out. Might have to build it or might find the perfect thing at Ikea, or maybe customise something i find in BHF or similar. The whole space will be open at the front. I don’t need to have everything behind cupboard doors, I like having stuff out where I can see it. Taking down that half wall and pushing back the space has already made that bit of the flat so much largerm whereas before it was all quite squashed. The front door to my flat is right there and I now have something that approximates an entrance hall. I want to get a hinged curtain rail with thermal curtain for the front door. When that’s swung open it will cover the wardrobe space. So far it’s all going well. My builder is a pal and he likes a clean neat finish, he also likes to repurpose or reuse stuff rather than throw it out and buy new. I’ll do all the painting.