Materials, Hardware & Compliance
Board, face and edge — treated as three separate decisions
Most overseas cabinetry problems trace back to one of three things: a carcass board that was never moisture-rated, a face finish specified for looks rather than use, or an edge band chosen to save money in a wet area. We specify all three explicitly.
Carcass boards
Carcasses are built from moisture-resistant particleboard as standard, and from plywood where the panel will be visible from the side or where a project specifies it. Moisture-resistant board is not waterproof board, and we do not describe it as such: it resists the humidity of an Australian kitchen or bathroom, it does not tolerate a leaking tap behind a sink for a month.
For bathrooms, laundries and any run that sits against a wet wall, we specify a moisture-rated board and raise the kickboard so the panel edge is never in contact with a mopped floor. This is a small detail that decides whether a vanity fails in year three or year fifteen.
Door and drawer faces
The face is where a kitchen is judged, and it is also where the most money is either well spent or wasted. We produce painted MDF profiles, melamine and laminate faces, timber veneer, and thermoformed or acrylic faces. Each has a place: painted profiles suit renovations where the doors will be repainted in fifteen years; laminate and melamine suit rental and multi-unit work where the face has to survive a tenant; veneer suits rooms where the grain is the point.
Where a project specifies a face we cannot produce to the required standard, we say so at the sample stage. Shipping a face that will delaminate in an Australian summer is not a saving.
Edge banding
We use ABS edge banding as standard, matched to the face finish rather than a generic white tape, and we thicken the band on exposed edges. The edge is where moisture enters a panel, and it is also where cheap cabinetry is most obviously cheap on close inspection.
Edges are banded after cutting, not during it, so the band is not thinned by the saw. On wet-area panels we specify a sealed edge rather than an open one.
Finishes schedule at a glance
- Carcass standard
- Moisture-resistant particleboard, 16 mm / 18 mm
- Formaldehyde rating
- E0 (AS/NZS 1859.1) · Japan F☆☆☆☆ / JIS A 1460
- Wet-area carcass
- Moisture-rated board with sealed edges
- Edge band
- ABS, face-matched, thickened on exposed edges
- Door faces
- Painted MDF profile, melamine, laminate, veneer, acrylic
- Hardware standard
- Soft-close hinges and runners throughout
The formaldehyde rating above is the grade we build to. Board brand names, batch test values and certification numbers are issued with the shipment documentation once the supplier declaration is provided.
Frequently asked
- Is the board you use waterproof?
- No, and no particleboard is. Moisture-resistant board is designed to resist ambient humidity in kitchens and bathrooms. It is not designed to survive standing water, a leaking fixture or an unsealed slab edge. Where a project needs a genuinely water-tolerant panel — under a laundry tub, for instance — we will specify a different substrate rather than pretend.
- Can I specify a particular board brand?
- Yes. Send the specification and we will confirm whether we can source it, what the lead time impact is, and whether the brand's Australian distributor restrictions apply to a direct import.
Next step
Still something unclear
Send the project details and we will answer against your actual situation rather than a generic note.