Cheers, Naomi
Are melamine kitchen doors better than laminate????
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Cheers, Naomi
Laminating of doors is not cost effective and has no physical advantage over a melamine door unless you require a special edge profile or similar, in which case most consumers lean towards thermolaminate or two pack in favour of rolled edge doors.
Benchtops are still laminated as they need to be made using High Pressure Laminate and are often post formed, which can only be done with laminates.
Sheen is a fine product and looks great - we specify a lot of it.
Cheers,
Earl
Does this mean that polytec cupboards are one piece, rather than the flat front and then an edge strip?
Polytec thermolaminate (vinyl wrap) doors are machined boards covered in a moulded vinyl skin which is one piece over the front and edges, the interstice (join) is only visible from the back side of the board where it joins the base board.
Both materials have their pros and cons depending on your environment/circumstances/requirements.
Cheers,
Earl
For perth kitchen/bathroom/laundry
cheers
I will start off by saying that I am biased - a large part of my opinion is from an Industrial Design point of view (designing for manufacture and use) where my focus is on Greatest Suitability of Material For The Task, and this means comparing them to the options, not just evaluating a single choice.
Of the most commonly used door finishes: Melamine, Thermolaminate and Two Pack I believe Thermolaminate to be the least appropriate for use in an environment that is frequently hot, damp or both.
Melamine is a sheet of colour bonded directly to the board using a phenolic resin - it is very difficult to remove the colour from the board, in fact the board is more likely to break apart and stick to the resin.
Thermolaminate is a very thin sheet of vinyl which is heated then moulded over a shaped board covered in glue - it is quite easy to separate the two materials, especially when heated, and vinyl is relatively soft compared to phenolic resin or two pack polyurethane.
Melamine:
Pros - Extremely durable; Easily machined; Large range of colours and finishes; Lower cost (than the alternatives).
Cons - Can only be flat; Joins between surface and edging material can be detected if looked for.
Thermolaminate:
Pros - Can be used on shaped doors and profiled edges; Wrap covers entire front of door including the sides in single surface;
Available in many finishes and textures including simulated woodgrain.
Cons - Not as durable as Melamine or Two Pack; Requires extra precautions on installation to maintain warranty; Is sensitive to heat and moisture with a tendency to delaminate if exposed to high heat or steam; 7 year warranty with MANY disclaimers; High cost (compared to Melamine).
My personal issues with Thermolaminate regard the sensitivity of the material to certain extremes that I would find normal in an everyday kitchen environment.
If used on boards next to an oven then a special heat shield needs to be fitted to protect the laminate from the heat that comes out of an oven door when it is opened.
If you use a kettle or toaster on a benchtop that is below a set of vinyl wrap finished wall units there is a (good) chance the boards will bubble and peel - this also constitutes a condition that voids the warranty as you have exposed the vinyl directly to heat.
For me a kitchen is first and foremost a working environment where doors and boards get bumped, slammed, scratched and exposed to heat and water, sometimes at the same time (steam).
A bathroom is an area where there is also a lot of hot water, often in vapour form.
Of course both areas need to look good to the user.
Melamine is currently enjoying a resurgence now that a larger range of Sheen and gloss boards are available, along with a greater trend toward more minimal kitchen design featuring lots of flat surfaces with square edges.
There are also a lot of designers, fabricators and consumers that have specified, worked with and used Thermolaminate for years without any of the above mentioned problems, and more luck to them.
In the last couple of years I have not personally dealt with a single cabinetmaker or installer here in Queensland who will work with Thermolaminate if given the choice of another material (and my preferred two fabricators flat out refuse to touch it).
If you really want high gloss, shaped doors with a single finish all round my recommendation would be to spend that bit extra and go for a good two pack finish instead - and two pack is now more competitive with vinyl than ever.
I hope this helps.
Cheers,
Earl
When we built the house we are in now, vinyl laminate was all the go, we paid extra to have it.
We had the doors replaced a few years ago as LOTS of them were peeling, they said at the time it was a bad batch of glue, but reading the above...maybe not
Thanks for the in depth explanation, but can I push the envelope a little more- whats a two pack finish? And its pros and cons?
There are three conventional methods of getting a profiled finish on kitchen doors and boards.
1/ Moisture Resistant Medium Density Fibre Board (MRMDF) machined to shape and Thermolaminated (vinyl wrap).
2/ MRMDF machined to shape and painted.
3/ Solid timber or plywood doors machined to shape (and either waxed/oiled or painted).
Most common in contemporary kitchens are Thermolaminated, as previously discussed, and Painted boards.
If choosing a painted finish I consider it important to select the most durable coating available, and this is most frequently achieved by using Two Pack paint.
Two Pack paint is a (often pigmented) resin or polymer mixed with a hardening agent; when the two are combined a chemical reaction takes place which causes the resin to bond to the surface it is applied to and harden into a solid shell - very much the way strong resin glues such as Araldite work; called Two Pack because there are two compounds involved.
Two Pack originally found popularity in the automotive industry as a strong, durable and good looking finish for painted metal parts but has since been taken up by many other fields where a strong smooth painted effect is desired.
Two Pack Polyurethane has become a paint of choice for furniture painting and is the most frequently used paint in kitchens these days. Once cured the paint is very stable and quite chemical resistant - it is water proof and heat resistant, but like car paint, can chip and scratch if mishandled. However it is much easier to repair a damaged two pack panel than either Melamine or Thermolaminate.
Polyurethane is applied with a spray gun in a professional workshop and often baked in a special oven to speed up the hardening process. The paint is rubbed back between coats, which can be very labour intensive with highly detailed mouldings and profiles.
Polyurethane can be either Matt, Satin or Gloss; the end finish is a result of the final spray coat, not the sanding back, and is measured in percentage of gloss i.e. Satin is frequently referred to as 50% gloss.
Pros: Strong; Very Smooth; Durable; Can be any colour; Chemical resistant; Can be applied to fine detail; Repairable.
Cons: Relatively brittle, can chip and scratch if mishandled; More expensive than Melamine or Thermolaminate.
I really like the look of a good Two Pack kitchen but would not put it on the top of my list - I still consider Melamine to be the most sensible and cost effective finish if a kitchen has to have doors and boards. I would rather spend the money on other areas such as flooring, lighting, appliances and fittings.
Cheers,
Earl
I'm going back to my joiner to get a quote for melamine rather than the vinyl wrap quote provided (I had no idea there were even other options, it wasn't even discussed!).
Thanks again, Earl, and I hope you've not been badly affected by the floods.
Pippi
I got new kitchen with Thermolaminate. the other day i spilled boiling water on kitchen bench that came down to cabinets and vinyl came off from cabinet.
What fantastic information you have taken the time to provide for those of us still trying to decide on kitchen finishes.
Very much appreciated!!!
As previously said, our thoughts are with you regarding the recent floods and hope your doing OK.
Thanks also for your thoughts, we are among the lucky ones who were not affected by the recent floods, there are a lot of people around who are going to be doing it quote hard for a while and I hope they all get their lives up and running again as soon as possible.
We have chosen Polytec Melamine Classic White Sheen for our Kitchen. This came at standard price and satisfied us wanting glossy doors. The Polytec thermolaminate upgrade in glossy finish was around $3,500. I hope the melamine and the colour we have chosen looks good. If anyone has pictures of the same in Classic White Sheen, please send me a link or PM me.
Owner builder - new to forum (1st post)
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