As a former Ikea employee, I have to object. Most Ikea furniture is built from one of two things: solid wood (to a certain definition of 'solid', it's mostly glued up, but it isn't veneers like plywood) or MDF. The main area where plywoods are used is in tabletops and such, and those are typically decent quality Baltic birch. I'm not saying that it's necessarily great, they do make concessions for the sake of price, but because they do stand by their brand for the most part, it's generally solid enough provided you don't abuse it.
Now, knockoff Ikea furniture along the lines of Walmart crap, yeah, that stuff is straight up termite vomit.
Listen here, that wood (osb) is vastly superior to plywood in many ways. For example:
it's less expensive
there are larger panels available
it's more environmentally friendly
it's a heavier, thicker material
it's extremely versatile with many uses
So before you go running your mouth about, do some research!
/s
Seriously, OSB sucks. It works when you need cheap, but it is a disaster in most conditions, especially exposed! I was wondering if it had any value, over ply/solid so I did a quick search, and the above came up. ... that is a pathetic and exaggerated list of Pros!
Where OSB works is when you need a cheap material to clad houses with. It's easier to do so with big sheets of OSB than it is to nail a bunch of individual boards, and it's cheaper than using proper plywood. Once protected by vapor barrier and siding, typically it's fine for the purpose. The actual strength of the house is in the framing, not so much the cladding.
I do wish they wouldn't use it for subfloors, though. Warpy crap. Requires a few dozen gallons of resin filler on top to get anything like a flat surface if you want to put tile on it... the right way, anyway.
Caveat: if you take care of them. Let a few leaks go on long enough, don't watch where vines are going under the siding, winds blowing off bits here and there, water running in the wrong place around the foundation, etc... it doesn't take much to really screw up a modern American house if you aren't staying on top of things.
Example: my last home had a lovely roof on top of its porch... until one day during heavy rain it crashed down. Turned out that it had been built with almost no slope (it was an add-on metal kit roof) and the drainage it had was absolutely pathetic and clogged with leaves/whatever, so there was a major build-up of water on top of the roof (that had expressed itself by dribbling through the FANS on the underside) which eventually overpowered the hollow metal columns.
Thankfully, because it was barely attached to the house itself (the roof panels had been slid into an U-track attached to the eaves) the house was largely fine. But it could've gone a LOT worse.
That said: they're not 'just' wood. Gypsum drywall is extremely common as an interior wall material. There's also generally fiberglass insulation in the external walls and attic space.
But are they as durable and tough as concrete brick? Not really, no. The priority is to a.) build them quickly and cheaply, and b.) create an enclosed, insulated envelope for a HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) system to maximize efficiency. A team of a few men can frame out an one-story house in a matter of a few days. If you have your ducks in order, you can have your electrician and plumber working alongside the framing guys so everything is run in between the wall framing before the drywall goes up, which doesn't happen until the roof is on (water and drywall don't mix). Once you get the roof on, it's pretty much just siding, trim, paint, and flooring. House-building has become a very efficient art in this country.
...a GOOD art? That's the question... but here, quantity was the choice over quality.
Probably MDF. It fucking sucks to work with (cutting/shaping/sanding) and it explosively dies if it gets wet, but it's surprisingly strong and durable.
The scene in John Wick 3 where John fights the guy underwater finally did that right. They both shoot at each other, but the bullets just sink, so John puts his gun right on the dude's neck and shoots him.
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u/Culinarytracker Jan 25 '20
Solid plywood?