I am a manufacturer who builds Ready To Assemble sofas using only 100% solid oak frames. Although there are some parts of the frames that are best made from solid hard wood, there are many parts that would be equally strong if made from a good hardwood plywood or engineered wood.

I am now developing a new sectional for the line, and although I specified to my engineer that the frame had to be 100% solid wood, he keeps telling me that because of the precision required for this particular frame (requiring ganging pieces together) that it will have to be built from hard-wood plywoods cut on a CNC router.

I asked how much more it would cost to built the pieces with solid oak and was told that cost was not the issue. Solid wood just would not be as good a material in this particular application.

So now I have to figure out what I am going to be doing about all my marketing materials that say we only use 100% oak frames.

Jeff Frank
www.simplicitysofas.com