A cabinet is engineered, not just a look.

Cabinet specification is deciding a cabinet as an engineered product — its core material, hardware grade, ventilation, LED and driver access, profiles and service gaps — not just its look. In Sibu's humidity and termite-active climate, the core and hardware you choose by moisture zone decide whether a cabinet lasts or swells and fails.

ELS specifies the cabinet: core by moisture zone, hardware grade, ventilation and drainage logic, LED and driver access, profile details and service gaps — written as a cabinet sheet. ALUMAX supplies and installs its defined product families when they suit the specification. ELS may specify ALUMAX products where appropriate, but an ELS design is not constrained by the ALUMAX catalogue. Design and specification on one side; supply, production and installation — each its own quoted line — on the other.

For a simple, like-for-like cabinet or wardrobe in a dry zone, ALUMAX can handle the product directly — no ELS layer needed. Involve ELS when the job is more complex: wet kitchens, mixed moisture zones, LED and appliance coordination, or when several trades and an approved scope need to line up before anyone quotes.

A dry kitchen handles display, light storage and appliances, so board cores and finish-led choices are usually fine — as long as ventilation, electrical points and LED driver access are planned. A wet kitchen sees heavy cooking, washing and standing water, so it needs moisture-stable or aluminium cores, sealed edges, drainage falls and hood ducting. Using dry-kitchen logic in a wet kitchen is one of the most common — and costly — mistakes in Sarawak homes.

Sibu sits in a humid, termite-active region. Unsealed board cores wick moisture and swell; timber and untreated board can be hollowed out by termites before it's noticed. For wet and high-risk zones we lean toward non-cellulose cores such as aluminium, with sealed edges, raised legs and drainage — so the carcass isn't food for termites and isn't sitting in water.

Strip lighting, drivers and concealed fittings fail eventually. If access wasn't planned into the cabinet — driver bays, access panels and serviceable LED channels — a simple repair means tearing the cabinet apart. Specifying access up front is cheap; retrofitting it is not. That's exactly the kind of decision a cabinet specification settles before fabrication.

Cabinet specification is delivered under the ELS Design & Specification service, from RM1,600 (excl. SST). The figure scales with scope — how many zones, cabinets and coordination points are involved — and the final cost is confirmed after site measurement. ALUMAX then supplies the product to the approved specification, with installation carried out by the appointed service team and quoted separately. The Design & Specification starting fee is the price for one room. Four rooms RM5,600. Each room beyond the fourth is RM1,600.