"GROVER" wrote in message
ps.com...
On Jul 29, 3:45 pm, "Mail Man Bob" wrote:
I am going to install some kitchen cabinets. The structural parts are
plywood, front are solid, but most of the rest is particle board. The
mfr
calls it something else (furniture board?), but it's plain old particle
board as far as I can tell.

The particle board pieces are cover with something - either laminate or
plastic - except any places that are not visible.

I know of 2 people personally who had dealings with new kitchen
cabinets -
one in apt , other in a house - and both suffered allergic reactions to
the
binding chemicals - formaldehyde or other.

Going to all-plywood or all-wood construction sends the price to a
different
orbit, since this would essentially be doing a 'custom' job. So for
cost,
we have to use as standard a material as we can.

My thought is to coat the uncovered surfaces with some kind of sealer -
either a primer or water seal product - to seal in any vapors inside.

Long story, I know.... but 2 questions...

1 - Can someone recommend the best type of sealer? I have seen water-
and
oil-based at Home Depot, as well as various primers, etc.

2 - I heard something recently about the govt outlawing carcinogens in
particle board. Anyone know about that?

Whew! That's a long one. (The longer the better. :O)

Thanks.

Bob

While on a work assignment in Germany many years ago, I was made aware
that the German building code which governed casework, required that
all exposed edges of melamine board ( particle board substrate) be
covered. Presumably for the formaldehyde outgassing problem mentioned
here. The German cabinet makers used edgebanding at that time,
Joe G


Thanks, Joe. Do you know where to get edgebanding?