Ready-to-assemble furniture [RTA]

Ready-to-assemble furniture (RTA), also known as knock-down furniture or flat pack furniture, is a form of furniture that is purchased in multiple pieces and requires assembly. This form of furniture generally arrives in a box and contains instructions for the buyer to follow in order to assemble it after purchase.

History

Ready-to-assemble furniture was first invented by Gillis Lundgren, who was a Swedish draughtsman. Lundgren developed the idea when he needed to fit a table into his car. According to reports, Lundgren broke the legs off his table so he could fit it in the car and then reassembled the table at home. He then discussed the idea with his employers at IKEA and the company later built its entire business around the concept.
Ready-to-assemble furniture is popular among consumers that wish to save money on their furniture purchases by assembling the product on their own and no need for delivery cost. In addition to saving the consumer money, flat pack furniture is generally simple to assemble and requires only the use of simple tools.
Merchants benefit from selling ready-to-assemble furniture because furniture that is already assembled tends to be bulky and more expensive to store and to deliver. Since the furniture does not need to be assembled in the factory, ready-to-assemble furniture is also less expensive for the merchant to purchase. Due to these many factors, selling flat pack furniture is a more cost effective method of conducting business.
Ready-to-assemble furniture is typically packaged in a kit form with the pieces packaged in one or multiple boxes. The kit may contain a number of flat parts, fasteners, screws, fixings, and other parts that are needed to assemble the furniture.
A furniture assembly industry has grown from otherwise desirable furniture being sold only in ready-to-assemble form. Consumers engage a service provider to come to their home and assemble the furniture they have purchased.

 Uses

Ready-to-assemble furniture can be purchased for a number of purposes:

• Living room furniture
• Office furniture
• Bookcases
• Tables
• Beds
• Lounge-ware
• Outdoor furniture
• Swingsets
• Patio sets
• Kitchen cabinets
• CD/DVD storage racks

Tools

Ready-to-assemble furniture may include basic tools that are necessary for assembly.
Some ready-to-assemble furniture does require the use of additional tools that are not included in the packaging. There are several tools that may be needed to assemble flat pack furniture:

• Screwdriver
• Hammer
• Hex key

Tips Before You Buy Wood Furniture

Before you go shopping for wood furniture, there are questions you should answer for yourself. This guide can help you zero in on the basics of buying wood furniture. Budget, wood, construction, finish, and quality should all be considered before you make a final decision to buy.

What is your budget for wood furniture pieces?
Though you may not stick to it, a budget for purchasing furniture is a good guideline when you begin shopping. If you appreciate quality construction, fine woods, and unique design you may be tempted to spend more for these features. And you may decide that your budget deserves to be readjusted if you fall in love with something special. But a budget can keep you in line so you don’t spend all your available funds on one piece.

Where will this piece of wood furniture be used?
Does the size and scale of a piece fit into your space? A huge farm table may be your idea of a dream dining room, yet if space is tight it can be a better alternative to go with a more appropriately scaled piece. Round tables can take the edges, and inches, off – leaving more room to get around. And big armories are prized for storage, yet still must fit into the physical and visual space in the room. If your home is large then you’ll usually want to avoid tiny pieces of furniture.

What style of decorating do you like?
If you’ve already found your favorite style of furniture – congratulations! Yet, more and more decorators and homeowners are using an eclectic style — meaning mixing a number of styles — within a room. Pieces of different styles in one room can appear more “collected”, adding interest to the space.

What kind of wood do you like?
All wood furniture is made from either hardwood (trees that lose their leaves seasonally) or softwood (from trees that keep their leaves year round). Oak and teak are hardwoods that really are hard and heavy. Fine hardwoods like walnut, mahogany, maple, cherry, or oak are found in the most expensive pieces. Softwoods like are used in less formal pieces.

Is the wood solid, bonded, or veneer?
"Solid walnut" furniture means that all exposed parts of the piece are walnut. But the frame and inner parts may be made of other, less-costly wood. Because timber cut from trees is not the size or shape required for furniture, bonding is used to join pieces together. Thin layers of fine, decorative wood can be bonded to the face of furniture pieces. This centuries-old technique is called veneering.

What kind of finish is on the wood?
The finish on furniture can enhance the natural look of wood or change it completely. A finish of oil or wax lets the wood shine. For more durability, lacquer or varnish is applied when the piece is manufactured. Distressed furniture can be natural (as with an old piece) or man-made (via sanding or beating the wood with chains). Painting, gilding, and inlays can change the look of a wood piece as well. The finish of case goods should be smooth to the touch and any table leaves should match

Do the components work properly?
Drawers should be smoothly finished, fit well, and slide easily, stopping flush. They should have interior dust panels to keep contents clean. Doors on cabinets should open and close easily with hardware that is of high quality, installed securely. Interior lights should be easy to access. If the piece is to be used as an entertainment center or computer station, holes should be drilled for electrical cords. Be sure that the legs of a table are even and that the table does not “rock.”

Maintain Wood Furniture

How to Maintain Wood Furniture

Wood furniture is popular for its beauty, strength and durability in the home.While some exotic or antique woods require special care and maintenance, most wood furniture today is easy to clean and maintain.All it takes is a little care and a few simple steps to keep your wood furniture in great shape and looking its best.
The Wood Finish Determines the Care

The finish on wood furniture determines the type of care and maintenance it needs.There are differences between the proper methods to clean soft (oiled) finishes and hard finishes like oil varnish or polyurethane.

If you are buying your wood furniture new then ask the store about the finish so that you will know what kind of cleaning and care is needed.If you are not sure of the finish, you can test it to determine what it is.

Pick an inconspicuous spot to do the testing so that you do not inadvertently leave unsightly marks.

Start with a few small drops of linseed oil rubbed gently over the wood.

If it is absorbed into the wood then the wood has an oil finish and you can stop testing; if it beads up, however, the wood has a hard finish and you should proceed with the next step.

Acetone for wood
Wood Furniture Care and Maintenance

Take a few small drops of denatured alcohol and apply them to the wood.If the finish is made of shellac, it will dissolve quickly, but if it is made of varnish, the reaction will be much slower.

Use the proper cleaners and polish-wood stool furniture

Once you have determined the finish on your wood furniture you can select the correct cleaner and polish for that type of finish.

Never mix different types of polish or use a polish that is not made for the specific type of finish on your wood.In general, you only need to polish every three to four months to maintain your wood furniture in good condition.Polishing too often or applying too much polish at any one time can lead to a cloudy, filmy build up that detracts from the look and feel of the wood.

General Cleaning and Care

General cleaning and care of wood furniture is the same regardless of the finish on the wood.Avoid using wet cloths or mops, as this will stain and damage the wood.Dust your furniture regularly using a soft cloth or a vacuum cleaner with a dust brush attachment.This will keep the build up of dirt to a minimum and help prevent scratches and ground-in grime.

Always use coasters, place mats or other protective materials when placing anything on top of your wood furniture.If water or other liquid is spilled on the wood, wipe it up immediately with a cloth.Never place hot objects directly onto the wood of your furniture as this can discolor the finish and leave a permanent mark in the wood.

Protect your wood furniture from excessive exposure to sunlight, heat, cold or excessively damp or dry environments.Use sheer curtains on windows to shield decorating and furniture from sunlight, and use either a humidifier or de-humidifier as needed to keep the air in the room from becoming too dry or too damp.

PLYWOOD:

Plywood is a manufactured wood, made by gluing together a number of thin veneers or plies of softwood or hardwood. It is used mostly in commercial sites, purely because it is a strong durable substance. A common reason for using plywood instead of plain wood is its resistance to cracking, shrinkage, twisting/warping, and its general high degree of strength. Also, plywood can be manufactured in sheets far wider than the trees from which it was made. It has replaced many dimensional lumbers on construction applications for these reasons.

Types Of Plywood.

A number of varieties of plywood exist for different applications. Softwood plywood is usually made either of Douglas fir or spruce, pine, and fir (collectively known as spruce-pine-fir or SPF), and is typically used for construction and industrial purposes.[1] Plywood is one of the most widely used wood products. Plywood is flammable, flexible, cheap, workable, recyclable, and can usually be locally manufactured.
Plywood is basically very thin sheets of wood glued together. The thin layers of wood are peeled from trees. These layers of wood are called veneer. The veneer is then glued together to make plywood. The grain of plywood only runs one direction, so it is very hard to bend it the opposite way of the grain line. Plywood is softwood. A common reason for using plywood instead of plain wood is its resistance to cracking, shrinkage, twisting/warping, and its general high degree of strength.
Hardwood plywood is used for some demanding end uses. Birch plywood is characterised by its excellent strength, stiffness and resistance to creep. It has a high planar shear strength and impact resistance, which make it especially suitable for heavy-duty floor and wall structures. Oriented plywood construction has a high wheel-carrying capacity. Birch plywood has excellent surface hardness, and damage- and wear-resistance.
[2]
Decorative plywood is usually faced with hardwood, including red oak, birch, maple, lauan (Philippine mahogany) and a large number of other hardwoods.
Plywood for indoor use generally uses the less expensive urea-formaldehyde glue which has limited water resistance, while outdoor and marine-grade plywood are designed to withstand rot, and use a water resistant phenol-formaldehyde glue to prevent delamination and to retain strength in high humidity.
The most common varieties of softwood plywood come in three, five or seven plies with a metric dimension of 1.2 m × 2.4 m or the slightly larger imperial dimension of 4 feet × 8 feet. Plies vary in thickness from 1/10" through 1/6" depending on the panel thickness. Roofing can use the thinner 5/8-inch plywood. Subfloors are at least 3/4-inch thick, the thickness depending on the distance between floor joists. Plywood for flooring applications is often tongue and grooved. The mating edge will have a "groove" notched into it to fit with the adjacent "tongue" that protrudes from the next board. This prevents one board from moving up or down relative to its neighbour, so providing a solid feeling floor when the joints do not lie over joists. Tongue & groove flooring plywood is typically 1" in thickness.
High-strength plywood, known as aircraft plywood, is made from mahogany and/or birch, and uses adhesives with increased resistance to heat and humidity. It was used for several World War II fighter aircraft, including the British-built Mosquito bomber which was nicknamed the wooden wonder.
Certain plywoods do not have alternating plies. These are designed for a specific purpose. One such plywood is known as "Bendy Board". This is very flexible and is designed for making curved parts. In the UK this is known as "Hatters Ply" as it was used to make gents stovepipe hats in Victorian times. However these may not be termed plywood in some countries because the basic description of plywood is layers of veneered wood laid on top of each other with the grain of each layer perpendicular to the grain of the next.
Marine plywood is specially treated to resist rotting in a high-moisture environment. Marine plywood is frequently used in the construction of docks and boats. It is much more expensive than standard plywood: the cost for a typical 4-foot by 8-foot 1/2-inch thick board is roughly $75 to $100 US or around $2.5 per square foot, which is about three times as expensive as standard plywood.
Marine plywood can be graded as being compliant with BS 1088, which is a British Standard for marine plywood. There are few international standards for grading marine plywood and most of the standards are voluntary. Some marine plywood has a Lloyd's of London stamp that certifies it to be BS 1088 compliant. Some plywood is also labeled based on the wood used to manufacture it. Examples of this are Okoume or Meranti
Other types of plywoods include fire-retardant, moisture-resistant, sign-grade, pressure-treated, and of course the hardwood and softwood plywoods. Each of these products is designed to fill a need in industry.
The adhesives used in plywood have become a point of concern. Both urea formaldehyde and phenol formaldehyde are carcinogenic in very high concentrations. As a result, many manufacturers are turning to low formaldehyde-emitting glue systems, denoted by an "E" rating ("E0" possessing the lowest formaldehyde emissions). Plywood produced to "E0" has effectively zero formaldehyde emissions[3].
In addition to the glues being brought to the forefront, the wood resources themselves are becoming the focus of manufacturers, due in part to energy conservation, as well as concern for our natural resources. There are several certifications available to manufacturers who participate in these programs. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), and Greenguard are all certification programs that ensure that production and construction practices are sustainable. Many of these programs offer tax benefits to both the manufacturer and the end user.[4]

Wood

Wood is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers (which are strong in tension) embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression. In the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of trees (and other woody plants). In a living tree it transfers water and nutrients to the leaves and other growing tissues, and has a support function, enabling woody plants to reach large sizes or to stand up for themselves. Wood may also refer to other plant materials with comparable properties, and to material engineered from wood, or wood chips or fiber.
People have used wood for millennia for many purposes, primarily as a fuel or as a construction material for making houses, tools, weapons, furniture, packaging, artworks, and paper. Wood can be dated by carbon dating and in some species by dendrochronology to make inferences about when a wooden object was created. The year-to-year variation in tree-ring widths and isotopic abundances gives clues to the prevailing climate at that time.




Types Of Wood :
Hardwoods :
Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees (more strictly speaking non-monocot angiosperm trees). It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.
Hardwood contrasts with softwood which comes from conifer trees, which usually are not broad-leaved. Hardwoods are not necessarily harder than softwoods. In both groups there is an enormous variation in actual wood hardness, with the range in density in hardwoods completely including that of softwoods; some hardwoods (e.g. balsa) are softer than most softwoods, while yew is an example of a hard softwood. The hardest hardwoods are much harder than any softwood. There are about a hundred times as many hardwoods as softwoods.

Structure

SEM images showing the presence of pores in hardwoods (Oak, top) and absence in softwoods (Pine, bottom)

Hardwoods have a more complex structure than softwoods. The dominant feature separating "hardwoods" from softwoods is the presence of pores, or vessels^[1]. The vessels may show considerable variation in size, shape of perforation plates (simple, scalariform, reticulate, foraminate), and structure of cell wall (e.g. spiral thickenings).

 

Applications: 
Hardwoods are employed in a large range of applications including: construction, furniture, flooring, cooking, utensils, etc. Solid hardwood joinery tends to be expensive compared to softwood. In the past, tropical hardwoods were easily available but the supply of some species such as Burma teak and mahogany is now becoming restricted due to over-exploitation. Cheaper "hardwood" doors, for instance, now consist of a thin veneer bonded to a core of softwood, plywood or medium-density fibreboard (MDF). Hardwoods can also be used in a variety of objects but mainly for furniture or musical instruments because of their density. Different species of hardwood lend themselves to different end uses or construction processes. This is due to the variety of characteristics apparent in different timbers including, density, grain, pore size, growth pattern, wood fibre pattern, flexibility and ability to be steam bent. For example, the interlocked grain of elm wood  makes it suitable for the making of chair seats where the driving in of legs and other components can cause splitting in other woods.

Cooking:
 
There is a correlation between density and calories/volume. This makes the denser hardwoods such as oak, cherry, and apple more suited for camp fires, cooking fires, and smoking meat as they tend to burn hotter and longer than softwoods such as pine or cedar.

Softwood

The term softwood is used to describe wood from conifers. It may also be used to describe these trees, which tend to be evergreen, notable exceptions being bald cypress and the larches.
Softwood is the source of about 80% of the world's production of timber, with traditional centers of production being the Baltic region (including Scandinavia and Russia) and North America. The term softwood is used as opposed to hardwood, which is the wood from angiosperm trees. Softwoods are not necessarily softer than hardwoods. In both groups there is an enormous variation in actual wood hardness, with the range in density in hardwoods completely including that of softwoods; some hardwoods (e.g. balsa) are softer than most softwoods, while the hardest hardwoods are much harder than any softwood; this is not surprising as there are about a hundred times as many hardwoods as there are softwoods. The woods of longleaf pine, douglas fir, and yew are much harder in the mechanical sense than several hardwoods.


Applications:

 In general softwood is easy to work: it forms the bulk of wood used by humans.

• Prime material for structural building components.
• Furniture
• Millwork
• Raw material as pulp in the production of paper and paperboard
• Printmaking
• The finer softwoods find many speciality uses.

CLICK HERE FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF WOOD.