Is Melamine Better Than Laminate?

Melamine/Laminate, same thing right?

Like many industries, woodworkers like to use different names for the same thing. Whilst it’s common for a seasoned pro to unpick the differences between a carcass gable, side or cheek when making furniture, sometimes people simply use the wrong name for the product they are looking for. Laminate can be one of those products.

We notice lots of people use the word laminate when they don’t necessarily mean laminate. Often a melamine board is what they want. Here we break down the differences.

What is a melamine board?

A melamine-faced chipboard (MFC) is a furniture spec sheet material made using chipboard (sometimes MDF) and faced with a decorative surface, perfect for everyday furniture making.

MFC is made by applying a decorative paper to the face of a chipboard sheet. This paper might be a colour, woodgrain or designer pattern, whichever it is, the paper is applied to the board using melamine resin, hence the name.

Melamine is extremely durable and although the face of a melamine board might only be 0.3mm thick, it offers a very hard-wearing surface for many interior projects, from bookcases to wardrobes, and kitchens to utility rooms.

Once the staple of low-end, mass furniture makers, in the 90’s it might have had a reputation for being cheap and low quality. These days the quality of a melamine board is usually excellent, and the price remains extremely competitive when compared to other methods of furniture construction.

Where do Laminates come in?

Going just on appearance, the difference between a laminate and a melamine board can be hard to spot which is probably why people sometimes muddle the two names, but it really comes down to the thickness of the decorative/surface layer.

The decorative face of a melamine board is paper-thin at around 0.3mm, but a laminate (HPL) is around 0.8mm thick before it gets bonded to an MDF or plywood core board. At nearly 3 times as thick as melamine and made with loads of pressure and resins, a laminate is incredibly strong and durable, tough enough for most testing commercial applications.

Do I need a Melamine or Laminate board?

To help you make the choice, here are some headlines;

Benefits of using a melamine board over a laminate

• Melamine panels are available in a huge range of finishes and are abundant in the supply chain. Off-the-shelf.
• Melamine boards are generally low cost. They offer exceptional value for money.
• Melamine is durable and hard-wearing, making it suitable for most domestic and some commercial furniture.

When would a laminate be a better choice?

• Laminates are a great choice for hard wearing commercial applications.
• They make better worktops for kitchens and commercial office environments due to their hard-wearing qualities.

If laminates are more durable, what’s the catch?

There’s always a catch, and with laminate there are three things main areas to consider; cost, timescales and minimum order quantities.

Having a strong, durable product is never a disadvantage, but this strength comes at a cost. The price of a pressed laminated board can be 50%-100% more than a comparable melamine sheet, so they’re not the cheapest option.

Secondly, because a laminate sheet is specially pressed to order, the timescale for ordering specially pressed laminates is often 2 or 3 weeks which when compared with ‘next day delivery’ for most melamine boards, can be a sticking point for some projects.

Lastly, specially pressing a board is labour intensive and therefore to be efficient in production, companies which undertake this process usually stipulate minimum order quantities for pressing. Minimum order quantities are often 5 sheets, which can be too many for smaller projects. The last two points are important to remember, especially after you’ve started your project. If you make a mistake or your client changes their mind about something, then ordering one or two sheets so you can quickly wrap things up, might not be possible.

To summarise

The long and short of it comes down to two main questions, do you need the commercial-grade durability of a laminated board? And does your budget match the high price point of a laminate? If the answer is yes to both of those questions, then a laminate could be for you.

In most other situations, If you’re making interiors and furniture for the domestic market (luxury or budget) then a melamine board will nearly always be the perfect choice and perfectly durable enough for the job, but for a really tough specification panel, you won’t beat the strength and durability of a laminate.