A mover called me for a service call on one of his clients. Furniture had gone from one home, then into storage, and then finally into the new condo. The customer said their was something wrong with the bottom of one side of his piece. He swore that the wood was "swollen" and seemed to be getting worse every day. Upon inspection we found the piece to have been made in a central American country. A newer technology was being used in making 4 x 8 foot sheets of wood faced sheets. It seems that some type of water based resin was combined with what we call "chipper wood" to make these sheets. So what is chipper wood? Ever see wood cutting crews taking down trees? They take the smaller stuff and put it through a chipper/shredder and that wood usually is used for mulch here in the US. Well, in poorer countries that chipper wood does not get processed into mulch. Instead it goes to the factories for processing into "chipper wood." So this stuff is struturally sound well, at least until you get it wet....then the swelling begins and the chips start disassembling themselves. You know we see church pews and other items made with early plyboards dating all the way back to the mid 1800s here in the US. It was made by knowledgeable craftspersons that new what it would take to get a durable and long lasting product. Maybe the furniture you already own is of better quality than that $10000 chipper entertainment unit.....
