Screw-fixing damages and screw-holding performance in particleboard exposed to the kitchen environment in the selected area of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor

Particleboard being the main building material for kitchen cabinet in Malaysia houses has shown some installation problems. The damages observed during installation are in the form of split holes, loose holes and delamination. Almost all of the sites visited have shown some damages of the particleboard during the screw fixing activities. Screw-holding performance test was done in the same condition checked at the selected site. The medium-class to upper-class residential building in Malaysia is generally equipped with air-conditioning units in order to provide thermal comfort to its occupants. It is usually limited to living room, dining room and bedroom. However, kitchens are sometimes being controlled thermally with air-conditioning units and thus are included as the material conditioning in this study. In collaboration with Signature Kitchen Sdn. Bhd., twenty-eight (28) houses in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor selected were monitored and recorded for its average temperature and relative humidity (RH). The particleboards for the screw-holding performance tests were set to an air-conditioned room environment (20°C and 65% RH) and on-site environment (31.3°C and 72% RH). The screw-holding performance test were done on the face and edge surface. It was found that the properties have passed the European Standard (EN). It is concluded that the damages during installation was not cause by the kitchen environmental condition or the quality of particleboard.