MDF Shortage?

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Author Message David G. Axt, CCS, CSI ,SCIP Senior Member Username: david_axt Post Number: 1845 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Tuesday, January 05, 2021 - 12:41 pm:    My architectural client forwarded me a letter from the casework subcontractor. The sub said that due to MDF shortages that they would like to use particleboard instead for school casework. Has anyone heard of recent MDF shortages? David G. Axt, CCS, CSI, SCIP Specifications Consultant Axt Consulting LLC Ellis C. Whitby, PE, CSI, CDT, AIA, LEED Senior Member Username: ecwhitby Post Number: 538 Registered: 03-2003 Posted on Tuesday, January 05, 2021 - 02:52 pm:    Not personally, but doing a web search (DuckDuckGo) brings up several articles and blog comments. Lynn Javoroski FCSI CCS LEEDŽ AP SCIP Affiliate Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 2252 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Tuesday, January 05, 2021 - 04:18 pm:    Make sure to check the AWI new standards before OKing this substitute. The two materials have different characteristics which may have an impact. Dan Helphrey Senior Member Username: dbhelphrey Post Number: 65 Registered: 12-2018 Posted on Tuesday, January 05, 2021 - 06:25 pm:    I'd make them use Baltic birch ply before I'd let them use particleboard. Ed Storer Senior Member Username: ed_storer Post Number: 95 Registered: 05-2009 Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2021 - 08:18 pm:    I've specified particleboard for commercial and healthcare casework for years for everything but countertops. Why was MDF specified? Either way, I would call BS on the assertion that MDF is harder to get than particleboard, both have gotten more expensive during the pandemic. I think that the shortage was not the product, but the $$ in the bid. I apologize for replying to an old post. Ed Storer, CSI Member Emeritus John Bunzick Senior Member Username: bunzick Post Number: 1850 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Monday, June 07, 2021 - 03:58 pm:    I'm not sure on this one. Lumber prices have skyrocketed, so feed stocks for panels probably have, too. I don't know how readily production facilities can be switched from MDF to particleboard, if at all. I also don't know whether the feed stock for MDF differs from PB - probably? Taken together, I could see shortages of one but not the other. But in the end, Ed may be right - MDF was simply a lot more money than expected, not that it wasn't available. David J. Wyatt, CDT Senior Member Username: david_j_wyatt_cdt Post Number: 335 Registered: 03-2011 Posted on Monday, June 14, 2021 - 01:24 pm:    The shortage was recently commented on by our contacts at Masonite. The wood door industry eats a lot of MDF and it is straining other sectors.