A small Petaling Jaya joinery, deliberately stayed small.
TheStar365 began in 2014 in a 90 m² unit behind Damansara Utama with one shared bandsaw and one customer. Eleven years on we still work out of that same row of units — just three of them now — because the day we became a factory is the day the work stopped being interesting.
Why we only build outdoor structures
Plenty of joineries can build a kitchen. Far fewer have spent a decade learning how chengal moves between a 26 °C night and a 34 °C afternoon, or how a roof shingle should be undercut so monsoon rain doesn’t track sideways into the rafter.
Outdoor timber is unforgiving — a poorly-sealed joint shows itself within two wet seasons. So we kept narrowing the catalogue, year by year, until we were left with the things we knew we could deliver to year-ten condition: pavilions, pergolas, decks, swing arbors. Six structures, done properly.
What we do differently
- Single-PM ownership. The person who walks your plot writes your quote and is on-site at install. No handovers between sales and operations.
- Workshop dry-fit. Every load-bearing structure is fully assembled in our shop before it ships. You can come and see it standing.
- Kiln before install. Timber sits in our kiln until it’s at 12–14% MC — the moisture window where Malaysian gardens won’t fight it.
- Aftercare schedule. A written, dated PDF for each structure: when to re-oil, when to check fixings, when to call us. Three free visits in the first three years.
- FSC-only timber. All hardwood is sourced from certified Sarawak and Pahang concessions. Receipts available on request.
Eleven years, plainly counted.
The team you’ll meet
Yusof and Vivian co-founded the workshop in 2014. Yusof runs the build floor and supervises every dry-fit; Vivian handles the design language, finishes and the aftercare programme. Sarah leads on-site installs and is the person you’ll call if a typhoon clip ever needs replacing.
We don’t use sales staff. The first conversation you have with us will be with a maker, not a salesperson — which is also why we’ll occasionally tell you the structure you have in mind isn’t quite right for your plot, and gently propose something else.
What we don’t do
We don’t paint softwood pine and call it a feature. We don’t sell catalogue-stock plastic decking. We don’t take more projects than the four of us on the build floor can finish properly in a season. And we won’t take on full landscaping packages — we collaborate with three excellent landscape designers in PJ instead, and refer work to them happily.
Come and see the workshop.
It’s a small unit in Damansara Utama, weekdays 10:00–17:00. No appointment needed.