The Truth About Decorative Veneer
Nowadays, it is hard to distinguish between natural veneers and artificial ones. Even the top interior designers get baffled when it comes to identifying the difference. To avoid getting cheated, do check veneer thickness, veneer grains and its price. Read on to know more details.
Veneer thickness
Veneers have a thickness of around 0.3 mm. The thickness of natural teak veneer is 0.3 mm to 0.4 mm. If you come across a teak veneer thinner than this, it’s not Indian. It might be a Chinese veneer. It’s not necessarily artificial, but the quality might differ. The longevity of a veneer is inversely proportional to its width. The thinner it is, the more the chances of cracks, scratches and damages. Veneers with proper quality are always thicker and stronger. Thick veneers should be used for making furniture as; otherwise, it will need replacement pretty soon. Top interior designers never use Chinese or other thinner veneers. The demand for natural veneer has radically increased in a couple of years among the top interior designers.
This is one of the reasons why plastic veneer has made an appearance in the Indian market due to lack of natural ones.
Veneer grains
It is easy to spot the grainy texture of natural veneers as they are made from logs of wood unlike that on artificial veneers, also known as engineered wood or composite wood. This happens because the artificial veneer is made of sawmill wastes like pieces of softwood and hardwood, fibres, strands, etc. which are crushed and mixed with pigments, chemicals and colouring agents. This wood is finally sliced into thin slices of veneer. This process is commonly known as recon.
According to top interior designers, artificial veneers have no grain lines.
The price of veneers
Natural veneers are comparatively priced higher than artificial ones but a lot better than the latter. So, it will be wiser on your part to buy natural veneers. Do make sure that you are paying for and getting natural veneers and not artificial ones.
Hire a faithful professional to help you out in the case of any confusion.
