My research tells me formaldehied MDF is high
Randy and I have so much fun designing and building our house. Part of the joy that we had a fantastic carpenter hired to do the building. All we had to do was to decide about 300,000 along the road.
We design to our house to be energy efficient. We also make water-efficient games. We specified renewable materials are used for our counters and floors. [I have all of these will share in future articles.] What all these decisions needed to have a house built, the way you want it, exhausting.
The exhaustion led to a number of mistakes. We did not go for low VOC paints, for example, we use low VOC urethane. I do not have a low VOC adhesive for the countertops are not. But the trim was our biggest mistake.
And window trim was painted by the direction we’re sure to go. Wrong! Why? Because we do not like painting wood builder and not like working with the finger joint trim. Yes, this is our home and we had been to do it our way, but we are tired. Remember that exhaustion issue I mentioned? I do not have the energy to stand up against him, so I let him talk me into using MDF – medium density fiber. Bad time to have exhausted.
My research tells me formaldehied MDF is high, a chemical I’ve tried to avoid, especially inside. The preservative is not the kind I want in my life. Formaldehied are poisonous to people – heck, to every living being. Why do manufacturers do things like what?
Formaldehied-free versions of MDF was available, but at a much higher cost. We decided to add crown molding to our list of pruning works, the cost really starts to make a difference. We have seized our budget on our decision.
Wood crown molding, even Poplar / Aspen – the least expensive wood trim what to buy – was more expensive than what we feel we wanted to pay. And the builder still balked at painting wood. So we collapsed.
Our builder has assured us that the exposed surfaces should be painted and that the formaldehyde was found in Right. I was too tired to fight him on the logic, so I let slip. Darn it!
The good news is that formaldehied, that is unstable in the air, half-life of 10-30 days, probably closer to 10 days end of the scale. Since we are in the house, in the spring we have a chance to leave windows open most of the time, the introduction of contaminated indoor air for out Lewe. Most of the formaldehyde is probably off surprisingly by the time we closed the house for winter. Shu!
The bad news is that MDF does not wear well. It chips and scratches easily. I learned many years later that when you first MDF that will not easily tight, but it does not affect the chip. Wear something that by that pressure on the edge of the trim-edge chips, they leave ugly cardboard color. Even the rope pulling on our honeycomb window blinds chip travels when they refused in the wind.
MDF is also considered to be dimensionally stable. Ours. Most seams, especially those on the right side of the house, does not appear, because the product has shrunk. The beautiful green sea punctuated by white lines where the seams are gapped. It’s not really the look I was looking for.
My strong opinion about MDF frame is not to use! Never, ever. Even if the product is formaldehyde free and the surface is properly prepared, it’s just too fragile for the average home. We use our house lights and it still chips and gouges. What if our children or dogs? The trim would probably be destroyed by it.
Avoid using MDF for the environment and maintenance issues. Do not make the mistake I made. Avoid toxic products off-gas in your home or office. What you can get greener by other choices.
