# drawer bottom plywood or hardboard?



## JesseTutt (Aug 15, 2012)

I know that a drawer bottom is usualy 1/4" plywood. I was wondering why hardboard is not used?


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## tenontim (Feb 24, 2008)

You can use hardwood, just glue up the board so the grain runs from side to side. You'll have to make an elongated hole, to allow for seasonal movement of the wood. Usually the bottoms are made 3/8" - 1/2" thick and the edges are tapered to about 1/4".


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

eeehhhhhh, are you talking hardboard or hardwood? If it's hardwood, you've entered the realm of awesomeness. In my worthless opinion, there's nothing that screams quality more than a solid drawer bottom (and a dust panel). I'm a drawer bottom freak and I did a French bottom on a nightstand I built. It was a huge pain in the arse but every time I open the drawer, I think, "Oh yeeeaaaahhh". I'll just straight up tell you that I think hardboard is just horrible. Go hardwood…be a star


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## teejk (Jan 19, 2011)

I think hardboard is used frequently on cheaper pieces (IKEA stuff). Only major drawback I can see is you are toast if you scratch below the top paper coating and get into the sawdust layer.


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## Cosmicsniper (Oct 2, 2009)

Hardboard is actually great for this, but it's not something you'd do on the fancy stuff. For that you'd use veneered plywood, nice Baltic birch plywood, or even hardwood…which gets Bertha really excited!


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## fge (Sep 8, 2008)

1/4" plywood for us


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## Grandpa (Jan 28, 2011)

I have actually used melamine for bottoms in vanity drawers. I like it for that. I have oak faces and 1/2" Baltic birch sides. Now for fine furniture I use playwood because solid wood is not stable and it will push the drawers apart if you fit it very tight. Dust panels? You bet!! All fine furniture has dust panels between the drawers. Would think of not using dust panels. I use 1/4 inch plywood for that.


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## jumbojack (Mar 20, 2011)

I have used hardboard….eh meh, looks cheap but it functions well and you can glue it in. I use ply more often but true 1/4 is getting increasingly hard to find. Glued up hardwood and even softwood (pine)is like bertha says awesome! I got it to the 1/4" mark standing in up and running it across the TS…. worked great.


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## nwbusa (Feb 21, 2012)

1/2" Baltic birch for my drawer bottoms. Yep, I overbuild.


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## NiteWalker (May 7, 2011)

1/4" baltic birch plywood is my preference.
3/8" for medium duty drawers, 1/2" for heavy duty.


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## Grandpa (Jan 28, 2011)

nwbusa, I have a friend that is a professional contractor and at one time owned and operated a furniture factory. He was telling me about getting hurt trying to hang some upper cabinets by himself. He said he used backs in his cabinets…...3/4 inch plywood backs. I just shook my head and walked away. anything I would have said would have been ….well, not good.


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

Used the hardboard once or twice. Seen too many old drawers with it. Any weight, and they will bow. Never, ever seen a flat hardboard drawer bottom. It may start flat, but will de-form quickly.

Plywood? i used 1/4" Luann all the time. Little under 1/4" thick? So is my dado set. Yep, dado set is that worn down in width. I keep the better looking pieces of Luann for items that show, the run-of-the-mill and worse go in the drawer's bottoms. After a drawer is full of clothes, how can you tell what the bottom looks like.

Let's see, I've SOLD over 130 chest-of-drawers, with an average of five drawers each. That's a lot of bottoms….


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## Rick Dennington (Aug 27, 2009)

No hardboard in my drawers…....


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

Hardboard is great stuff but its too ugly for many
cabinet applications. You can get "markerboard" 
which I use for cabinet backs and it works nicely
for drawer bottoms too.


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## DamnYankee (May 21, 2011)

Hardboard will not hold up to weight over time, particularly if the larger the drawer. Hardboard will also peal/fall apart if it gets wet.

1/4" ply or luann works better.

HardWOOD is best.


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## Tootles (Jul 21, 2011)

I've just salvaged some wood from some old drawers. They had hardboard (high density fibre board) in the bottom - and apart from some stains, it is still fine. So it can be used, it is functional and quite tough, even if it is not pretty.


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## bondogaposis (Dec 18, 2011)

I use 1/4" MDF all of the time, works great and is actually a 1/4".


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## CharlieM1958 (Nov 7, 2006)

*" It was a huge pain in the arse but every time I open the drawer, I think, "Oh yeeeaaaahhh". "*

Better to have that reaction every time you look in your drawers than to be disappointed and say "Is that all there is?"

Seriously though, hardboard for a drawer bottom is perfectly fine if you are just making a functional piece like a shop cabinet. But I wouldn't do it on anything meant to be prominently displayed in my (or anyone else's) home.


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## JesseTutt (Aug 15, 2012)

Thanks All!

Yesterday when I posted the question I was building a couple of drawers for the shop. As I was pulling out the 1/4" ply I kept finding 1/4" hardboard and was just wondering about the use of hardboard. Since these drawers were for the shop I am glad I went with the ply, I usually fill up shop drawers and don't want them to sag.


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## teejk (Jan 19, 2011)

jumbo…true 1/4" ply is hard to find but I find that to be an advantage. when assembling drawers (HB dovetail fronts, dadoed backs), the last thing I need is to fight a snug bottom as I try to beat the glue clock. In fact I've lately added a thin spacer between the dado blades when I run the bottom dadoes. The amount of "slop" is minimal.

now as I read the above, I see that some people might think I don't like snug bottoms…that's only true for cabinet drawers.


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## Finisher (Jul 18, 2012)

In my opinion, hardboard is a poor choice for drawer bottoms. It looks cheap and will wear poorly after a few years. We use 1/4 and 1/2 baltic birch. Stays flat and true over time, looks great and impresses the client.
(Most of the older drawers I have seen using hardboard looks like they have a tendency to hold moisture and mold)


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

Bandit brings up a good point about large solid hardwood bottoms. My French-bottomed nightstand is something like 18" wide and holds a gun and a TV remote. It's captured in deep side dados but it really has some impressive seasonal movement. It's also captured in a drawer front dado to prevent bowing (like it would, lol). However, the bottom joint is dead in the center, so I wouldn't stand on it. I used SpaceBalls and they're getting pretty squashed, lol. I used hickory for the center panel (sacrilege, I know) b/c I wanted something contrasting. 
.
I think plywood makes the most sense, especially if you can get quality ply locally (I can't). Stable. I just can't get the pretty stuff.
.


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## CharlieM1958 (Nov 7, 2006)

*"My French-bottomed nightstand is something like 18" wide and holds a gun and a TV remote."*

I'm wondering if you ever shot the TV when you just meant to change the channel….


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## HerbC (Jul 28, 2010)

Bertha,

If you had installed the bottom with the grain running across the drawer width then wood movement in that direction would have been inconsequential. The front of the bottom could have been captured in the drawer front groove. The rear drawer panel could have been ripped smaller to allow the drawer bottom to slide under the back panel, thereby allowing room for expansion of the panel. If needed, the bottom could be attached to the back using a small screw through a slot in the bottom panel.

Herb


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

Most of the drawers in my shop have "dry erase" board for the bottoms. It is bright white which makes it easier to see into the drawers and is slick and easy to wipe clean.


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## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)

I like 1/2 baltic birch.

On special ones, I glue leather on 1/2 BB, and it looks awesome.


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## BHolcombe (Sep 19, 2012)

3/8 is enough to remove the flimsiness of a bottom on a longer drawer. I would stick with plywood.


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## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

Hardboard aka Masonite is used on cheap furniture for drawer bottoms and furniture backs. Any drawers I've seen with hardboard bottoms will sag to the point where they fall out. I've fixed many drawers and always replaced the bottoms with plywood in dadoed grooves. The real cheap drawers have the hardboard nailed to the bottom edges of the drawer.


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