mafi's gray-oiled Country Oak connects the renovated old bank building with the one recently built to create a natural, comfortable ambiance.
For the service center of Volksbank Mittelhessen, the designer choose flooring from mafi, made exclusively in Austria.
The gray-oiled Country Oak was selected for its extreme robustness, a quality needed, of course, in high-traffic public areas of the bank branch. It was also selected due to its extremely varied surface, which keeps the eye from readily noticing the dirt and grime tracked in by wet winter boots and the like. The architects a aplus architektur combined the lively country house plank with a very modern, even partially futuristic interior and wall elements to create an exciting contrast between the renovated old building and the new building.
The exciting knot pattern and the cracks hand-puttied in black on the Country Oak floors create a very natural and comfortable foundation for a pleasant ambiance in every room where it was used. The gray oil finish on the wooden surface looks like a patina built up over decades and harmonizes perfectly with the gray leather furniture and the beige carpets. Detailed solutions such as the cladding of the round columns with skirting boards made of the same material as the flooring as well as subtle floor boxes round off the harmonious room concept and make the room appear "as if it came from a single forge."
In terms of color, the black puttied cracks and knots blend with the black café and bar furniture and the dark conference table in the space. The naturalness of the boards is the perfect stage for the high-quality modern interior that skillfully stands out from the floor.
Visually, there are many similar products to mafi Country Oak on the flooring market. But, as is so often the case, it is also important to critically examine the available choices and pay attention to the details. Because behind a beautiful, appealing surface, there is usually a less appealing board structure.
To put it simply, a high-quality board structure is so essential because it is crucial for the durability and stability of the board. This is why mafi not only focuses on an attractive appearance of the floor's surface, but also on the overall quality of the board. All mafi boards are always manufactured in a symmetrical three-layer structure. The special thing about it is that the same wood is always used for the top and bottom layers and are both given the same thermal treatment. By laying the rear wood in the opposite direction, this reduces the natural movement of the wood and counteracts any dips and bumps in the floor.
Let's go into more detail and ask: what is in the middle layer of the board? How are the wooden slats connected?
For the middle layer, a flexible, soft softwood is used which can adapts to the minimal movements of the wood. All layers are bonded together with white glue, which is completely free of VOC, formaldehyde, and other chemical components and consists only of natural, organic ingredients such as lime and vinegar. The sum of all of these small, but key board properties have earned mafi the Declare "red list free" label, which confirms that all mafi floors are 100% natural.
The employees at the Volksbank Mittelhessen service center get to enjoy a natural flooring surface that is not just visually appealing, but also completely ecological that will serve them well for many years to come.
As the last finishing step, the natural oil is applied in the factory and each individual plank is air-dried. We take our time for this last production step.
Because it is important to give the oil enough time to really penetrate the entire top surface. The linseed-based care oil ensures that the wood fibers are supplied with the necessary fats, but without leaving an unpleasant oil film on the surface.
A decisive advantage of an oiled natural wood floor is the fact that an open-pore wood surface is an important factor for a healthy indoor climate.
Because the open-pored wood, which can absorb moisture in the room and also release it back into the room, demonstrably contributes to a healthy indoor climate. An extremely positive feature, which will benefit not only the customers, but also the employees of the Volksbank service center greatly.
Another very practical advantage of a wood surface that is not sealed with wax or varnish is that small repairs or stains can be removed later at any time without having to redo the entire surface.
The maintenance of a naturally oiled floor is very easy and unproblematic.
Regular wiping with water and wooden floor soap cleans the floor and at the same time supplies it with valuable fats contained in the soap. With each wash, the floor's appearance is preserved and the surface's resistance to stains and scratches becomes ever stronger.