Durability difference between beech wood and rubber wood for restaurant chairs
Durability is the ability of any product or thing to survive for a longer period of time and not wear out quickly. When we think about buying wooden restaurant chairs, we must take the durability factor seriously. These days, there are plenty of cheap restaurant chairs hitting the market. Their construction and style are similar; however, the quality of the raw material is different. Historically, European Beech wood is the industry standard and has been for the past 30 years. Beech wood offers numerous benefits to woodworkers: it is a heavy and dense wood, it is easier to work with, and its color and stain are relatively consistent. Only in the last few years has rubberwood made its way into the commercial market. Primarily used in inexpensive home furnishings, rubberwood has become increasingly common in the commercial furniture industry due to its lower price.
However, rubberwood restaurant chairs do fall apart. This is not nonsense. Once removed from its native subtropical environment and exported to the US, wood expands and contracts due to its innate wicking properties, causing the frame to swell and contract and eventually break. Also, like pine, rubberwood likes to move around quite a bit. By moving, it refers to the way wood likes to bend and twist. Saddle joints are susceptible to this problem.
The difference between rubber wood and beech wood is in the grain of the wood. Rubberwood has a complete absence of grain, while Beechwood has some grain. Rubberwood is not a very light colored wood and attempts to color it will result in some yellowish tints. Most of the time you will see rubberwood in some dark color which can mask the color. Lastly, rubberwood is lighter than beechwood. In a standard chair, it weighs about 2 pounds less. When you hit wood, it sounds like you’re hitting rubber.
If you are going to enter the furniture market, you should pay special attention to the durability factor and you should not forget the furniture seller about the materials used to make the chair before you buy it. It is nothing more than the material used in the manufacture of furniture that always matters the most.
Many large restaurant chains use laminate tables because they are cheaper and more durable than solid wood tables. Solid wood tends to warp or level water rings, and will wear away after continuous chemicals wear away the top layer.
