Surface Design Awards – Complete

• INTERIOR SURFACE OF THE YEAR - NEW
  This is a new category that recognises wall, floor, ceiling and surface design products, including decorative, creative and inventive surfaces for the interior of buildings including both commercial and residential properties.

The Bjelin range of hardened wood flooring features technologies invented by its sister company Välinge. These technologies are Woodura® - a patented surface technology which provides outstanding durability and is also highly sustainable; and 5G® Dry™ - a water-resistant fold-down system unique among hard wood flooring products because of its ease of installation and water resistance. These are the next generation of highly innovative hardened wood floors.

These products are pioneering a technological revolution for the flooring industry and leading the transition from traditional glued tongue-and-groove flooring to today’s modern click technology.

The Woodura technology involves fusing a thin sheet of real wood veneer with a Compositek™ wood fibre core through a powder mix layer. The powder mix completely fills the natural gaps within the wood, while also enhancing the wood’s appearance. It eliminates the need for a wood-filler and creates a significantly stronger surface with a hardness three times greater than a traditional solid wood floor - more solid than a plank! Compared to traditional wood flooring, the durability of the wood wear layer is massively increased.

5G® Dry™ is a premium water-resistant fold-down system which is unique among hard wood flooring products on account of its ease of installation and its high water resistance. The 5G® locking system is a single action installation method suitable for all types and widths of floor products, and prevents water from penetrating into the joints of the floor panels.

5G® Climb™ is a variant which comprises innovative technology for wall mounting. Based on the proven 5G® Fold Down system, 5G® Climb™ uses the panels as battens and with specially designed clips, the panels are attached instantly to the battens, without any tools. The wall panels can be placed horizontally, vertically or in herringbone pattern. In this way, the floor can be made to ‘climb up the wall’, ensuring a perfect match between floor and wall.

Bjelin now offers a full range of sizes, following the recent launch of its Small, Medium and Large versions, which are a perfect complement to the larger and wider XXL (2378 x 271mm) and XL (2200 x 206mm) floor planks.

These new Small panels measure 1170 x 151 x 9.2mm to fit easily into cars and vans, while the new Medium panels are 2000 x 151 x 9.2mm, and Large panels being 2000 x 180 x 9.2mm are also easy to handle and transport. The range of sizes also increases the number of creative floor patterns which are possible.

Bjelin Hardened Wood floors are customised for both the residential and the commercial sectors. Bjelin offers a broad range of formats, designs and colours, from Scandinavian-inspired whites and greys to traditional warmer tones, and darker hues offering plenty of character.

The new sizes are available in Pro Matt Lacquer. The extremely durable surface makes the floor easy to maintain, while protecting it from stains, making it ideal for heavy traffic areas like hotels, restaurants, offices and shops – or the entrance of a home. The recent addition of a Hard Wax Oil surface in XL and XXL sizes, also makes the product ideal for the hotel and heavy traffic hospitality sector.

Where Bjelin hardened wood floors are installed on commercial projects, it is easy to see how the aesthetic advantages combine with the other benefits of durability, ease of installation and sustainability to create a winning solution for clients.

The Bjelin range is available in oak, ash and walnut. The majority is oak since this grows in abundance close to the company’s production facilities in Croatia. It also sources ash, which has an attractive grain and typically a lighter and warmer colour. There is an even more distinct grain in walnut, giving a richer and darker colour.
The combination of the surface technology Woodura, the moisture-resistant Välinge Compositek Core, and the leakproof 5G Dry floor locking system ensure a strong and water-resistant floor that can last for generations.
It is easy to see how the aesthetic advantages of Bjelin hardened wood floors combine with the other benefits of durability, ease of installation and sustainability to create a winning solution for clients.

Bjelin products were recently specified on a stunning refurb job in Central London, which highlighted both the functionality and the outstanding aesthetic qualities of the range. The company supplied 450m² of hardened wood flooring to meet the customer’s requirements. They were looking for maximum durability, a strong position on sustainability and the most aesthetic and stylish flooring available. Bjelin was able to tick all those boxes.

A further project was an elegant 250 square metre renovation project for a design gallery in Belgravia, London, which highlights the functionality and outstanding aesthetic qualities of the Bjelin range, for which Bjelin supplied its XXL Oak Nature – Natural.

Bjelin has created a smarter, greener way to manufacture hardwood flooring and has invested in a new state-of-the-art 14,000 m2 production facility in Sweden. It has also built a new factory in Ogulin, Croatia which extends the overall available production capacity to over 20 million m2. The company’s production facilities are located near to its timber sources, which are FSC-certified, to avoid extended supply lines.

Bjelin’s hardened wood floors use timber much more efficiently. Only a tenth of the material normally used in hardwood flooring is required for the timber used in Woodura®. Hardened wood flooring with Woodura® technology is made with oak, ash and walnut that come from sustainable sources of timber with FSC certification.

The company is fully aware that the flooring sector has to play its part in the crucial drive towards sustainability and improved environmental performance. The company has demonstrated, through its history and expertise, that innovation is the way forward to achieve important climate change goals in the flooring sector.

It is leading the way by developing products which minimise the use of raw materials, and where raw materials are used, that this is carried out sustainably and responsibly. The flooring industry needs products which are easily separable and which, where possible, do not require the use of adhesives. Bjelin’s click flooring meets this requirement.

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