Relative Veneer Costs January 2010
Please see the accompanying “Relative Veneer Cost Chart”, updated in January of this year. Note that sliced red oak is now the same price as rotary cut natural birch. As we all know sliced red oak is a much more uniform (in color) veneer than rotary cut natural birch, since “natural” birch veneer can legitimately include any and all colors of veneer that naturally occur in the wood of a birch tree. The color of birch wood can vary wildly. The heart wood, commonly called “red birch” in the veneer selection process, is a dark reddish color and the sap wood, called “white birch”, can be nearly snow white to a warm yellow color. Doors with natural birch veneer can even have all “white” veneer on one side of the door and all “red” veneer on the other or a red blotch in an otherwise “white” face. The key word here is “natural”. All birch trees naturally include both “red” and “white” colored wood. Red oak and white oak, on the other hand, are two different species of trees.
Also note the location of sliced white birch on the chart; it is now almost as expensive as sliced walnut. Many specifying authorities seem to operate under the assumption that if the word “birch” is included as their veneer selection that it will always be inexpensive. Since there is less yield from a given log, plain slicing is more expensive than rotary cutting and selecting out veneer pieces with only “white” wood in them means that you have excluded even more veneer, the “red” wood, from the log. If you must have “white” veneer, then a selection of rotary cut white birch will be much more economical than sliced white birch, as rotary white birch is around 18% less, due to the greater yield from the cut.
Another common mistake we see specifying authorities making is their selection of a “white” veneer & then using a dark finish on it. If you’re using a dark finish then you can safely use “natural” birch and save some money. One of the most important early considerations is: what color are the doors and woodwork to be?
For painted flush wood doors the most economical veneer is medium density overlay. MDO is less expensive than paint grade birch. Moreover, if you specify a premium grade painted door, under AWI Quality Standards, it must necessarily have MDO faces; MDO provides a superior surface for painting over a paint-grade veneer.
We’ll be most happy to assist you all your wood door specifications. Visit our website at www.phillips-langley.com or our blog at phillipslangley.wordpress.com.
Tags: birch, door veneers, MDO, veneer prices, wood doors, wood species, wood veneer
February 24, 2011 at 8:05 pm |
[...] that this information is still current, so please feel free to refer to the original post here. There is a chart that graphically shows the price differences, as well as some discussion in that [...]