Raftwood: textured oak flooring with a history
Raftwood is the heavily textured oak in Vienna Woods’ European-made Flamingo range. Every board is European oak with open splits, cleft grain and hand-filled knots, finished in natural oil. It began as reclaimed railway-sleeper oak, and it still carries that rugged, lived-in character today.
From railway sleepers to your floor
Raftwood began as reclaimed oak railway sleepers from the Eastern Bloc, some of them more than a century old. Those sleepers are long gone now, but the product lives on. Today it is European oak, worked in Dutch and German workshops by the same artisans, using the same hand techniques that show off every split, knot and dent.
It sits in the Flamingo range, a Dutch collection Vienna Woods represents directly in New Zealand. It comes in made to order, arriving only a few times a year, so no two runs look quite the same.
Character you can feel underfoot
The surface is the point. Open splits, a cleft face and hand-filled knots give Raftwood a rugged, tactile texture that flat, modern floors just don’t have. The natural oil finish sits into the grain rather than over it, so the timber reads as timber.
Colours run from lighter, warmer tones like Amazone through to the deep, dark Yellowstone and Canadian. Order the tones you are weighing up as free timber flooring samples and see them in your own light before you commit.
Specs and specifying
What you are laying
- 220mm wide plank, our standard Raftwood format
- 15mm engineered European oak, 4mm wear layer
- Natural oil finish
- Tongue and groove over a birch multiply core
- Also profiles, widths and lengths to order, plus herringbone and chevron parquet
Detailing a job
- Matching stair nosings for a continuous run through the home
- Vienna Woods has had Raftwood E3 tested (ISO 4760) so it can be specified for kitchens and laundries, and we keep the documentation on hand
- Made to order, with roughly four to five runs a year, so plan lead time into the build
An oiled floor is easy to keep
The oil finish is forgiving. Everyday marks tend to sit into the character rather than stand out against it, and worn patches can be spot-repaired in place instead of sanding the whole floor. See how to care for an oiled timber floor.
Free samples
Hold the real texture and see the colour in your own space before you order a floor.
The Flamingo range
See Raftwood and the rest of our Dutch, European oak collection in one place.
Engineered oak, explained
How an engineered board is built, and why it suits New Zealand homes.
Bring home the texture of Raftwood
Order a sample to feel the split and cleft grain for yourself, or talk to us about lead times and a price for your floor.
