melamine abs board is known a chipboard. It's widely use in all kitchen cabinet, wardrobe & etc.

Melamine abs is good against termite infection.

Chipboard/melamine abs is not water resistant board. It will get warp & twisted when expose to moisture. Melamine is replacement of plywood/hardwood product, due to lighter and cheaper material.

Melamine board produce good quality finishes compare to normal plywood with laminate finishes. It depend on individual budget. If you like real wood feel, you can go for real wood. There are 3 type of real/solid wood

1) Veneer finish.
Basically you will see real wood finish but hollow sound on your cabinet door. Cost will be much cheap than 1 & 3

2) Solid wood finish.
You will use real wood ie. nyatoh, merbau, mengis, oak wood, which look a bit oldies style.


3) Solid wood in veneer finish
Same as item no. 1 but you will feel solidness of the cabinet door and it's heavy.

What material they use in solid veneer finish?
There are many ways to produce a solid wood feel with veneer finish/laminate finish.
They can use either

a)pure compress plywood

b)compress chipboard

c)mixture of compress plywood & MDF board


What board they use if you looking at high gloss finish?
They can either use coated chipboard or MDF board


What is MDF board?
Medium-density fibreboard (MDF) is an engineered wood product formed by breaking down hardwood or softwood residuals into wood fibres, often in a defibrator, combining it with wax and a resin binder, and forming panels by applying high temperature and pressure.[1] MDF is more dense than plywood.

MDF is more solid & heavier than chipboard. If MDF is treated with sealer, it's a water resistant board. MDF board can produce high quality finishes compare to coated chipboard. MDF is much more expensive than chipboard.




kitchen counter top.

Never use post form or HPL laminate chipboard. It will not last if the counter top wet all the time. Use man made stone known as corian or solid surface. It's better for maintenance and repairable to all deep scratches and cracks. The bad side of solid surface, it's not high temperature heat resistant. Never put a hot pan on top of solid surface, or else you will end up seeing a burn mark on your counter top.

This post has been edited by vexus: May 9 2010, 02:28 PM