Over the years many customers have found themselves in front of an important decision for their cabinet box material selection: Particle board or plywood. One of the most frequently asked questions we get at Cabinets Quick is what’s the difference between these two materials, and is plywood really superior to melamine aka particle board?

So let’s talk about melamine first. Melamine is basically the outside two layers, it’s thermally fused onto a particle board core and forms a hard outside layer. Because there are so many different colors and finishes available melamine is called melamine even though it has a particle board core.  Particle board is actually wood chips glued together, then compressed into a board. Many people have a bad experience with particle board because they’ve experienced a low-quality board or have been misled with something that looks like melamine but is actually called “printed paper” and the density of the particles is much less than what we use, value engineering at its best.  

Particle board is made by taking wood chips recycled from the lumber industry and then compressing them. Vendors like Ike use a 60-pound density board, this board is less compressed and it’s less likely to hold up, along with that the outside show/finish layers are very thin or not melamine. We use 90 pounds density boards which means that the board is compressed to 90 pounds of pressure per square foot. This is a commercial-grade board, at Cabinets Quick, we also use a board with pine in the core as compared to others who use different fillers.

Some pros to melamine are that it comes in a lot of different colors and finishes. It also is very cost-effective and has a wipe-clean surface. The surface won´t age and it’s able to wipe clean and stand up to abuse or harsh environments. Some of the cons are it has a bad reputation, it is also heavier than plywood and it’s not as strong as plywood.

Then you have the different kinds of plywood, but before we talk about plywood, there is a material that is a combination of plywood and melamine. This board has a plywood core with melamine outside faces. Many people want to have a white interior but don’t want to have the particle board core of melamine. This is an in-between material with the best of both worlds. In terms of cost, this is still the same cost if not a little bit more than a regular pre-finished maple plywood. 

Now let’s take a look at the different plywood materials, plywood is made out of layers of thin wood and then the ply layers are stacked together with glue between each ply holding everything together. Then the two outside show/finished layers are pre-finished with an environmentally friendly UV coating or left unfinished to be custom finished later. 

Some of the pros and cons to using pre-finished maple plywood: A pro is that plywood is a little bit stronger than melamine, it is also lighter than melamine. The screw-holding strength is about equal to both melamine and plywood with plywood being slightly stronger. A con is plywood dings and dents easily on the faces and the surface will age because it is real wood.

Let’s take a look at what pre-finished maple plywood is. When a sheet/board of plywood is purchased, we can get it as a natural unfinished maple veneer on the outside to show layers, generally used when the customer wants to have a custom-stained finish. The alternative to this is to have a board with a finish already on it. We call this pre-finished maple plywood because the material comes to our factory with a durable UV finish on it. This is very cost-effective because the cabinets don’t have the expense of having finished applied after it’s made.