Finish Flooring Applications a Bright Spot for Decorative Wood Panels

Cleveland OH, April 4, 2022 – While demand for decorative wood panels will remain flat or decline in most applications by 2024, a new Freedonia Group analysis finds that finish flooring will be an exception, growing over this period:

• Gains will be driven by the rising use of flooring made from hardwood plywood because of its aesthetic and performance properties, which will lead consumers to specify it over less durable materials.
• Design trends are increasingly calling for use of hardwood and wood-look flooring throughout the home, including in rooms where carpet and tile once predominated.

Other design trends, however, are having a moderating effect on decorative wood panel demand. The continued popularity of open floor plans is reducing the number of doors installed per home, and interior wood paneling remains relatively unfashionable as a wall covering, with homeowners instead turning to products such as wallpaper and tile to add interest to their wall spaces.

Finish Flooring Applications to Prevent Declines in Decorative Wood Panel Demand

Demand for decorative wood panels is expected to stay mostly flat through 2024. Faster gains will be restrained by:

• a decline in demand for panels used in doors due to weakness in commercial building construction and the rise in popularity of open floor plans
• stagnation in cabinets demand due to volatility in the residential market and weakness in construction of the commercial buildings in which these products are most commonly installed, combined with reduction in the amount of particleboard used per cabinet

Preventing declines in decorative wood panels demand will be an increase in their use in finish flooring.

Want to Learn More?

Decorative Wood Panels, now available from The Freedonia Group, presents historical data (2009, 2014, 2018, and 2019) and forecasts for 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024 and 2029 for decorative wood panel demand in current US dollars (including inflation) and in square feet on a 3/8-inch basis. Demand is presented by product and applications.

Products:

• hardwood plywood
• particleboard
• hardboard (also called high density fiberboard, or HDF)
• medium density fiberboard (MDF)
• low density fiberboard (softboard)

Applications:

• cabinets
• finish flooring
• doors and windows
• interior paneling
• siding