Materials

The vast majority of office furniture is made from MFC and is ideal for most businesses. It is simply chipboard covered with a thin layer of melamine (decorative paper, normally wood effect, protected by a transparent resin film). The advantage of MFC is that it is comparatively cheap to produce and this is reflected in the price of the finished product that you buy.

The downside is that the melamine surface, although relatively hard wearing, can scratch and mark with heavy use, and the chipboard core is not ideally suited to fixing screws and fittings really securely - fine if you never want to move the desk once it has been installed, but it can lose some if its rigidity if you do.

Finally, because chipboard has a coarse appearance it must be edged with a plastic strip (usually the same colour as the melamine surface) which can cheapen the appearance. Because moisture will invariably build up within the chipboard core, occasionally you will see these edging strips peeling off.

A core material usually of either chipboard (see above) or MDF (a wood based material with greater density and strength than chipboard), covered with a thin layer of real wood (veneer).

This can produce some beautiful looking results particularly with some of the more expensive veneers, but is usually the reserve of the executive office and boardroom - not least because of the higher cost, but also because veneer is highly susceptible to damage through scratching, pitting (denting) and heat marks from hot coffee cups, and is therefore not necessarily the right choice for your general office.

The ultimate hard wearing, virtually indestructible material for office desk surfaces. This is a solid piece of laminate (plastic) which can be produced to resemble any type of wood finish or colour.

Even with heavy use a desk made from this will usually remain looking virtually new for many years. On a negative point, the cost is considerably higher than MFC!

This is a product that has a similar appearance and the hard wearing attributes of solid core laminate, but at a price only slightly more than MFC. Ekotech is an example of this and is available with the Arkus, Horizont and Nestor ranges.

Ekotech is a highly durable composite material used for producing work surfaces. It comprises an MDF core with a laminate upper and lower surface. Available as standard in beech, maple, cherry (shown) and light grey finishes (other finishes available by request).

The laminate surface is heat and scratch resistant and will generally continue to look as good as new even after a number of years of heavy use. The composition of the MDF core means that a plastic edging strip is not necessary (unlike MFC) and allows the sides to be chamfered giving an elegant slim profile appearance. Only marginally higher in price but considerably superior to MFC.