28-Key Serviced Apartment, Bangkok, Thailand

Project Snapshot

The Brief

The operator had fitted local ready-made cabinets and hit three failures inside two years: swollen vanity bases, mould on wardrobe backs, seized drawer runners. The brief was blunt — “build to hotel duty, not residential.”

Three Real Problems

1. 75–85% humidity, year round. Standard particleboard does not survive two monsoon seasons in a Bangkok bathroom.
2. Three times the wear of a home. Short-stay guests are not careful; doors cycle dozens of times a day, drawers get yanked.
3. Aggressive cleaning. Housekeeping sprays chlorinated cleaner directly onto surfaces; ordinary edge banding lifts within months.

Our Solution

• Whole-unit moisture upgrade — not just bathrooms. Every carcass in moisture-resistant plywood, back panels taken from 5 mm to 9 mm with both faces finished. Mould starts at the back panel.
• Vanity — 250 mm off the floor on an aluminium drip tray. Integrated upstand so water cannot run down the door face. 5° fall on the cabinet base with an overflow weep hole.
• Wardrobe — 20 mm ventilated gap between back panel and wall, on adjustable feet rather than flat against the plaster. First shelf up from the bottom is removable and replaceable if it ever gets wet.
• Kitchenette — 18 mm calcium silicate heat barrier under the induction zone. All drawers upgraded to concealed soft-close runners rated 30 kg.
• Luggage/storage — 600 mm deep unit at the entry, luggage above, shoes below, bumper strip inside the door.
• Common pantry — Specified for commercial use, 40 mm worktop nosing, full aluminium foil lining inside the sink cabinet.

Chemical Resistance Test

Before shipping we soaked edge joints in 5% sodium hypochlorite for 72 hours. Standard EVA banding lifted; this project was switched to PUR hot-melt banding, which showed no failure.

QC & Delivery

Both shipments were 100% pre-assembled. The lift car caps at 2.1 m, so all full-height units were built as stacked sections joined on site with connector plates, with the joint concealed inside the ceiling cornice.

Results

18-month review: no hinges replaced, no mould, four drawer runners cleaned after debris jams. The operator awarded us their second property — 36 keys.

Client Feedback

“Our housekeeping team sprays bleach on everything. The first set of cabinets peeled within a year. These have not moved.”