The world of flooring is always changing. As an industry known for its richness in innovation and development, flooring suppliers must always have their fingers on the pulse of new technology and styles if they want to stay on the cutting edge.
How is this achieved? It can be done in many ways – but one of the most effective avenues to take is having a dedicated, heavily involved research and development (R&D) team. This drives the development for new products and services and ensures that new and exciting things are always on the horizon.
This is the preferred approach for Forté, New Zealand’s foremost timber product specialists – through its R&D and testing systems, it’s come up with a new range of long and wide-plank engineered timber flooring: the Indus Collection.
ArchiPro sat down with Carlo Piesse, the product development director for Forté, who runs through the details of the new range, its benefits in Aotearoa’s built environment, and the settings they perform the best in.
Carlo Piesse: We found that there was a particular hole in the market for a cleaner engineered timber range that had both wide and long planks. So, we developed the Indus Collection, which is a great addition to the variety of collections we already have. And with this, we believe we’ve filled that market gap.
Launched in September this year, it’s our newest collection, and is inspired by deserts around the world – which have some of the most striking backdrops. Indus colours are pastel, earthy and unique and embody the captivating contours of these landscapes.
Small bevels help to create a seamless, all-encompassing effect with less definition between planks, evocative of deserts, creating a look that is as distinctive as a desert vista, yet elegantly refined.
Capturing the natural beauty of the sun-drenched sands and smooth dunes that span more than one-fifth of Earth’s land area, the collection allows clients to create a whole new world within their spaces. These planks offer a clean, sophisticated look, inviting beautiful colours that are right at home in classic and contemporary schemes. They also come in feature grade, prime grade, herringbone and chevron patterns, so clients can opt for a classic look or create something with a more eye-catching format.
They come in seven striking colours and are 240mm wide, 2.4m long, and have an 18mm thickness.
CP:The main benefit of this collection is also its defining feature: the exceptionally long planks. At 2.4m, this is much longer than the average, which is around 1.8 – 2.2m long. The collection also offers a beautifully wide 240mm plank – with the width giving a more luxurious feel.
The colours of the timber are complex, unique and not easily found or replicated. The planks are finished with an advanced extra-matte UV cured lacquer, which is incredibly durable, and has gone through multiple quality control tests to ensure the product is of the highest quality and exceeds expectations.
CP: Indus was carefully designed and developed in-house by our leading timber specialists, with over 35 years’ experience in the industry, to ensure it is extremely durable and able to withstand our diverse New Zealand environments. The wear layer is then crafted in Europe, by our partner manufacturers, from premium European oak.
The timber is sustainably sourced with FSC certified products available on request. It is low VOC with no added formaldehyde making it an excellent option for those seeking a healthy living/working environment.
We have also added the Indus Collection in seamless textures to our Texture Gallery on our website, to help professional specifiers create colour accurate 3D models and renders when specifying the products for clients.
CP: Unlike many other timber suppliers, Forté holds stock in New Zealand, which means the Indus collection is always available and ready for installation when our clients are.
With the engineered flooring industry facing a shortage of oak, a lot of pressure has been put on the European wood supply, amplifying the shortage of raw materials and in turn making it harder for suppliers to secure stock of their products. We value our suppliers and work extremely closely with the manufacturers we are partnered with, to ensure a good source and supply of premium quality oak.
We forward plan and work alongside our suppliers to ensure we have a sufficient number of Indus products held in New Zealand, reducing time and uncertainty in obtaining stock for our clients.
With the industry also facing plywood shortages, a common material used for the core and backing of engineered planks, we work closely with our manufacturers, who can produce plywood in-house, to ensure we have plywood stock for our Indus products, with no delays.