Compare MDF and PVC

The main prob­lem of mod­ern fur­ni­ture is its price. Inte­ri­or items made from nat­ur­al mate­ri­als that are envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly and safe are too expen­sive. And after buy­ing an apart­ment, there is often sim­ply no mon­ey left for sol­id wood fur­ni­ture.

There­fore, it is nec­es­sary to choose less expen­sive mate­ri­als. And in the low­er price seg­ment, options such as MDF and PVC are lead­ing. These are plates made of wood chips or polyvinyl chlo­ride, which are dis­tin­guished by their low price, visu­al appeal and good — for their cost — price char­ac­ter­is­tics. But which of the two mate­ri­als should be pre­ferred?

In this mate­r­i­al, we will fig­ure out what is the dif­fer­ence between MDF and PVC — and which is bet­ter.

MDF (medium density fibreboard)

MDF (medi­um den­si­ty fiber­board) is a fair­ly mod­ern mate­r­i­al from which both fur­ni­ture and dec­o­ra­tion and inte­ri­or items are made. For exam­ple, lam­i­nate, inte­ri­or doors and par­ti­tions are made from it, as well as tables, facades of cab­i­nets, bed­side tables and much more.

MDF is made from wood shav­ings. It is pressed under high pres­sure into slabs, which are then cov­ered with either a lam­i­nat­ing film or veneer pan­els. There are two dif­fer­ent tech­nolo­gies for the pro­duc­tion of MDF:

1. Chips are pressed with­out the use of binders, but with addi­tion­al heat­ing. As a result, resin is released from the tree, which pro­vides a tight con­nec­tion. Such MDF boards are as envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly and safe as pos­si­ble, but at the same time they are not very reli­able, since there are very few binders;

2. Car­bamide resin with a melamine mod­i­fi­er is added to the chips. This sig­nif­i­cant­ly increas­es the strength of the plate, while main­tain­ing the envi­ron­men­tal friend­li­ness of the mate­r­i­al.

So, regard­less of the pro­duc­tion tech­nol­o­gy, MDF boards have an E1 formalde­hyde emis­sion class — approx­i­mate­ly the same as that of nat­ur­al wood. Because of this, they are much safer than fiber­board or chip­board. They have a formalde­hyde emis­sion class — from E2 to E4, which makes them harm­ful to the res­pi­ra­to­ry sys­tem.

At the same time, MDF has extreme­ly low mechan­i­cal strength. The mate­r­i­al can crum­ble even from small impacts, dis­tor­tions and loads. The sec­ond dis­ad­van­tage is an unat­trac­tive appear­ance — MDF is not paint­ed and has a uni­form col­or of saw­dust.

To solve these prob­lems, MDF boards are fur­ther processed, which is most often car­ried out in two ways:

1. Lam­i­na­tion. A poly­mer or paper web is applied to the sur­face of the plate in one or more lay­ers. It can be dyed, tex­tured, or pho­to-coat­ed;

2. Veneer­ing. Veneer is applied to the sur­face of the plate — thin sheets of nat­ur­al wood.

3. Mul­ti-lay­er lam­i­na­tion is used, for exam­ple, in the pro­duc­tion of lam­i­nate. In this floor­ing, MDF is just the base. Addi­tion­al­ly, there are sta­bi­liz­ing, pro­tec­tive and dec­o­ra­tive lay­ers, which are made of poly­mer­ic mate­ri­als. Also, this tech­nol­o­gy can be used in the pro­duc­tion of inte­ri­or doors, par­ti­tions and even fur­ni­ture.

4. Veneer­ing is used in sit­u­a­tions where resis­tance to mechan­i­cal abra­sion is not required. At the same time, the veneer increas­es the strength under impact and sim­i­lar impacts, and also has some (not too sig­nif­i­cant) load-bear­ing prop­er­ties. In gen­er­al, veneered MDF boards are durable, reli­able and durable, but they are more expen­sive than lam­i­nat­ed ones.

In gen­er­al, MDF is char­ac­ter­ized as fol­lows:

1. The basis is a slab of pressed saw­dust;

2. The strength char­ac­ter­is­tics depend on the coat­ing tech­nol­o­gy, but in gen­er­al they leave much to be desired. Fur­ni­ture and par­ti­tions made of MDF, even when veneered, last 5–7 years;

3. They are high­ly envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly. They prac­ti­cal­ly do not emit harm­ful sub­stances into the air, includ­ing formalde­hyde — its emis­sion is com­pa­ra­ble to that of nat­ur­al sol­id wood;

4. Well suit­ed for use in chil­dren’s rooms, not too — in bath­rooms and kitchens, as they are sen­si­tive to mois­ture.

Like oth­er wood-based mate­ri­als, MDF can be fur­ther processed to improve per­for­mance. For exam­ple, it can be impreg­nat­ed with spe­cial sub­stances that pro­vide fire resis­tance, water resis­tance and biosta­bil­i­ty. How­ev­er, with com­pre­hen­sive lam­i­na­tion of the plate, addi­tion­al pro­cess­ing is not nec­es­sary.

It is worth not­ing that due to its struc­ture MDF has excel­lent air and vapor per­me­abil­i­ty. This pro­vides a com­fort­able micro­cli­mate in rooms fenced off from the rest by plates or doors made of this mate­r­i­al.

And final­ly, MDF has a major advan­tage when used in apart­ment build­ings. This mate­r­i­al excel­lent­ly “quench­es” the sound — again, thanks to the porous struc­ture. Its sound­proof­ing prop­er­ties are so good that high-qual­i­ty acoustic cab­i­nets are made of MDF.

So in rooms behind MDF doors and with lam­i­nate floor­ing it will be very qui­et and calm. This is anoth­er plus for using these mate­ri­als in nurs­eries and bed­rooms.

In gen­er­al, mod­ern MDF post-pro­cess­ing tech­nolo­gies make it pos­si­ble to get rid of these short­com­ings. For exam­ple, after lam­i­nat­ing with acrylic or melamine resin, the mate­r­i­al becomes resis­tant to mois­ture and water, and its strength becomes very high. So, it is this post-pro­cess­ing tech­nol­o­gy that is used in the pro­duc­tion of class 34 lam­i­nate.

PVC (polyvinyl chloride boards)

PVC (polyvinyl chlo­ride) is one of the vari­eties of plas­tics, which is wide­ly used as a fin­ish­ing and struc­tur­al mate­r­i­al. More pre­cise­ly, for these pur­pos­es, not PVC itself is used, but mul­ti­lay­er boards based on it.

One of the most com­mon forms of PVC pro­duc­tion is three-dimen­sion­al pan­els with an inter­nal cel­lu­lar struc­ture, the so-called PVC lin­ing. They are used in dec­o­ra­tion, both inter­nal and exter­nal. Such a wide scope of use is due to three impor­tant advan­tages of the mate­r­i­al:

1. Mois­ture resis­tance. The mate­r­i­al is not dam­aged either by con­tact with high humid­i­ty air, as in bath­rooms, or by direct wet­ness. Both the struc­ture and appear­ance of the pan­els are pre­served;

2. Easy to install and light weight. The place­ment of PVC pan­els does not require the use of any spe­cial equip­ment, or even the addi­tion of load-bear­ing prop­er­ties to the base due to the low mass of the fin­ish­ing mate­r­i­al;

3. Diverse design. The pro­duc­tion tech­nol­o­gy of PVC pan­els allows you to give them absolute­ly any appear­ance — from imi­ta­tion of wood tex­ture or tiles to full-fledged pho­to print­ing.

At the same time, volu­mi­nous PVC pan­els (“lin­ing”) have extreme­ly low mechan­i­cal sta­bil­i­ty. They are eas­i­ly dam­aged by any blows, cov­ered with scratch­es and cut. They also do not have bear­ing prop­er­ties. But they can bend while main­tain­ing per­for­mance.

How­ev­er, PVC has a very impor­tant draw­back — this mate­r­i­al is not at all resis­tant to heat. Already at +60 degrees, it begins to deform. But most impor­tant­ly, when heat­ed, PVC releas­es harm­ful and tox­ic sub­stances that enter the air and have tox­ic prop­er­ties.

As a result, PVC should not be used in chil­dren’s rooms and kitchens, placed in direct sun­light or near heaters or radi­a­tors. With cau­tion, it is rec­om­mend­ed to use this mate­r­i­al for sheath­ing pipes with hot water — although, of course, its tem­per­a­ture is usu­al­ly 60–75 degrees.

PVC is not resis­tant to low tem­per­a­tures. In frost from ‑15 degrees and below, it becomes very brit­tle, eas­i­ly breaks even with the weak­est mechan­i­cal shocks. If inter­nal stress was cre­at­ed in the PVC pan­els dur­ing the cladding of the facade — for exam­ple, when fix­ing with self-tap­ping screws — then when it gets cold, they can crack.

On the oth­er hand, when used in the nor­mal tem­per­a­ture range from ‑10 to +60 degrees, PVC pan­els are safe and com­fort­able.

In gen­er­al, PVC is char­ac­ter­ized as fol­lows:

1. Base — plas­tic plate (vinyl chlo­ride poly­mer, 57% chlo­rine, 43% eth­yl­ene);

2. In any case, the strength char­ac­ter­is­tics leave much to be desired, but due to the high wear resis­tance and duc­til­i­ty in the absence of mechan­i­cal shocks and sim­i­lar dam­age, the pan­els can last for­ev­er;

3. They have low envi­ron­men­tal friend­li­ness. Safe only when used in a cer­tain tem­per­a­ture range (up to +60 degrees) and in the absence of con­tact with direct sun­light or heat­ing;

4. Well suit­ed for use in bath­rooms, as they are resis­tant to mois­ture; it is bet­ter not to place them in kitchens and nurs­eries because of the emis­sion of harm­ful sub­stances when heat­ed.

The PVC used in the dec­o­ra­tion also has an attrac­tive appear­ance. Its tex­ture can mim­ic the nat­ur­al sheen of mate­ri­als includ­ing lac­quered wood, ceram­ic slabs or nat­ur­al stone. How­ev­er, PVC pan­els for facade dec­o­ra­tion are usu­al­ly sim­ply paint­ed with light-absorb­ing paints in a uni­form tone and can­not boast of such visu­al appeal.

The dis­ad­van­tages asso­ci­at­ed with low envi­ron­men­tal friend­li­ness appear only if the PVC is heat­ed. At room tem­per­a­ture, this plas­tic is safe. In addi­tion, it is odor­less and does not irri­tate the skin.

It should be not­ed that “pure” PVC is used in the dec­o­ra­tion, design and man­u­fac­ture of fur­ni­ture is extreme­ly rare. Usu­al­ly, var­i­ous addi­tion­al sub­stances are added to its com­po­si­tion, includ­ing plas­ti­ciz­ers, soft­en­ers, heat sta­bi­liz­ers, soft­en­ers, and even lead. All of them addi­tion­al­ly increase the dan­ger of the mate­r­i­al — but only when heat­ed, when the PVC struc­ture is dras­ti­cal­ly destroyed.

Which is better — MDF or PVC?

It should be not­ed that these mate­ri­als are used for sev­er­al dif­fer­ent pur­pos­es. Struc­tur­al solu­tions are usu­al­ly made from MDF — par­ti­tions, doors, fur­ni­ture facades. And from PVC — fin­ish­ing mate­ri­als: lin­ing, plates and so on.

The dif­fer­ence is also man­i­fest­ed in the chem­i­cal com­po­si­tion. MDF is pure wood with the addi­tion of bond­ing resins (or even with­out them at all), while PVC is plas­tic.

So let’s com­pare them!

In gen­er­al, it is bet­ter to play it safe and not use PVC for fin­ish­ing kitchens and chil­dren’s rooms. And in oth­er cas­es, it is rec­om­mend­ed to build on the planned scope of use.