Kickers advantages and disadvantages of different materials

What are the advantages and disadvantages of different materials for kickboards and why?

eg laminate, brushed aluminium (?) etc, stainless. Sorry if this has been posted before.

What do you consider a better quality product, outside of the aesthetics which are a personal preference.

The material listed would be just a personal choice of the look your after, the question is what material are they laminating these onto ? Most seem to just use pineboard laminated or even worst MDF with the finish of choice but the edges are unsealed and will draw up moisture easy. Get an off cut of pineboard and stand it on its edge in a small tray of only a few mm's of water and watch it drink and swell. A decent cabinet maker uses Plywood for their substrates and kickboards.

Totally agree with above, here is a photo of the plywood kickboard we make.

Thanks for your replies.

So if the kicker is say brushed aluminium it will be affixed onto a different material eg MDF, pineboard, plywood?

I just rang the first place we are quoting with, they use plywood so that is good. I think they are pretty decent.

Yes, brushed aluminium is only a laminate that is 1mm thick and needs to be bonded to a substrate.

Stainless steel kickers are expensive. Brushed aluminium laminate looks good and is much cheaper and looks good, this is our kitchen...

Thanks for your replies, Charlston your kitchen looks great. I do like the brushed aluminium as well.

Hi charlsto, just wondering what colour your cabinets are? And the finish?

Hi muptra, our cabinets are polar white in the silk finish. Essastone new basmati bench but you can't really see that

Hm, what about for dark cabinetry, what colour kickers do you think would go well?

We have the same as the base cabinets


Using a phone. Please excuse typos and autocorrect issues. And brevity.

Thanks Yvonne, that makes sense.

Saves an extra decision

Using a phone. Please excuse typos and autocorrect issues. And brevity.

I personally like the kickers the same colour as the doors because i dont want peoples eyes looking down to a feature thats on the floor.

anyone used mirrored kickers?