Is ash parquet the new oak?

Only time will be able to show the answer to this question. Fact is, Central European oak will be harder to get on sight and thus more expensive. With supply sources from Eastern Europe and overseas, questions of quality and especially sustainability arise. Ash, on the other hand, is currently a very readily available raw material that technically hardly differs from oak. Visually, ash is characterized by few knots and a smooth appearance. The grain is usually strong, which accentuates the natural character of a wooden floor.

Where does the dominance of the oak country-house floorboard come from, and are there no alternatives?

Oak has dominated the wood floor market for decades as a parquet. The reasons are the technical properties on the one hand as well as the availability and, of course, the look. Oak wood is particularly resistant and does not tend to deform like other woods. European oak was also light and easy to obtain in the past.

Meanwhile, the situation looks different. Oak as a raw material is getting increasingly scarce. Especially smooth, knot-less sorts are now traded at high prices on the raw-material market, which in turn also adversely affects consumer prices. It is  time, therefore, to seek alternatives to the oak country-house floorboard. With ash, we have found one.

Ash is like oak in every way in terms of resilience and endurance. Used mostly in furniture making, ash is also known as a material for baseball bats - so much on the subject of hardness.

The wood is characterized by a clear grain, which underscores the natural character of the material. Depending on the brushing, the growth rings may come out sharper or fainter.

Especially with bare feet, you learn to appreciate a real natural wood floor. The look is particularly impressive with the small number of knots, which gives floorboards an elegant, modern appearance. Depending on the sort, ash comes with the core or far more homogeneous, as white ash.

The mafi COR ASH is a relative new product in the mafi portfolio and is already in very high demand as a natural wood floor. As the starting material, Core-Ash is used. This means that many floorboards include a brown COR and yield a relatively vivid play of colors in the floorboards. To produce the necessary homogeneity nevertheless, the floorboards are offered in the colors deep white naturalized and graphite gray oiled. Both oil treatments significantly reduce the brown tones of the COR wood without making the floor look unnatural. The result is a genuine, new natural wood floor that has already convinced the designers of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Athens in the graphite gray oiled version.

UNI ASH is a further development of COR ASH and serves the premium segment but remains clearly priced under comparable oak. The material processed is so-called white ash. This sort is much more homogeneous and does not include any brown core, which makes the parquet look remarkably exclusive and simple. In addition, there are the colors deep white naturalized and gray oiled, which enhance this effect. There are hardly any knots on the floorboards, while the grain is clearly perceptible. UNI ASH combines naturalness with timeless elegance - a true natural wood floor.

A comparison of the deep white naturalized oiling in the detail image shows the difference between UNI ASH and COR ASH most clearly.

The ASH Vulcano Medium is literally baked with the help of the chemical-free thermo treatment Vulcano. The drying process darkens the basic tone of the wood, in the case of ASH Medium Vulcano to a warm light brown to yellow tone.

The grading is quiet and has hardly any knots. This makes ASH Vulcano Medium a popular alternative to OAK Clear. Especially in the white oiled variant, only a few differences can be seen in the color spectrum. The ash grain, on the other hand, is stronger and gives many modern projects an exciting new look beyond oak.