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Building Cupboards- Pine or Spruce-What the difference?

September 12th, 2009 Leave a comment Go to comments

Although pine and spruce appear very much alike the two materials are different to work with when you are building cupboards. Because there are different styles of cabinets the amount of this type of material needed to fabricate a kitchen is going to differ.

Plastic laminate cabinets that are face-frame style will require much more of this type of board than cupboards that have a European design.

Kitchen cabinetry that have real oak, cherry, maple or ash face-frames may require very little pine or spruce.

Most authentic European cabinetry will use the material the most in the toe base areas.


Either board type can be used in the fabrication of counter-tops. Counters get build-up pieces that are made from the boards, back-splashes and wall cleats for attaching the countertops to when they are installed.

The difference between pine and spruce is very simple when fabricating cabinets. Pine is not nearly as brittle and will not split like spruce does.

When working with spruce it’s going to be necessary to pre-drill every hole before you sink a screw through it, if you don’t it will split every time. Pine on the other hand only requires that pilot holes be drilled occasionally.

Because of this difference you can pretty much tell by common sense which one of the board types is going to be the strongest.

Based on our observations derived from examining the difference in the materials we prefer to use pine when we are fabricating and installing our cupboards.

Categories: Cabinet Making
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