If you are looking to create a fluted wood feature wall for your spacing, the right material is very important. And there are many fluted panel materials available, each with its own benefits, price range, and style diversity.
The fluted panel material can range from traditional wood to innovative recycled polymers, but not all fluted panel materials are created equal. Making the right investment for your business means finding the most suitable panels that can be hot sales in your market.
In this article, you will learn the most common fluted panel material for interior and exterior use that you can find in the market.
Solid Wood Slat ( Fluted) Wall Panel
Solid Wood slat panel is an interior architectural design that uses PVC wood film wrapped around plywood or solid wood to create a fluted panel. PVC film provides a wide wood finish and solid color collection.
Like the PVC material fluted panel, solid wood slate fluted panel mainly offers a wood finish surface without black line and the wood surface is not 3D texture, just a smooth wood look. PS fluted panels provide both 3D texture and smooth texture.
MDF Wood Slat Acoustic Panel
A typical acoustic panel is made of MDF slats fixed on an acoustic pad. Wood slats come in a popular size of 12 x 27 mm, 3 sides wrapped paper or veneer. The sound absorption certificated pad reduces unwanted sound in a room and can be used in rooms of all types, including offices, schools, and homes.
The whole panels are semi-flexible, which make MDF wood slat acoustic panels available for some big arch areas. This is a better side compared with other fluted panels. If you want to use other materials for fluted panels for curved places, normally we have to order another piece that is designed for arch /curved areas. If we use an Acoustic panel, One panel can work for both the flat wall and the arch area.
There are 3 of wood veneer finishes available for MDF Acoustic Panel
- Paper Wrapped Veneer: The cheapest wood finish.Like wallpaper wrapped on 3 sides of MDF slats. Looks like real wood, with no 3D embossed wood feeling when touched by hand.
- Engineered Veneer: At a middle level of price, affordable. Can feel the wood texture when touch it.
- Natural Wood Veneer
PVC fluted panel and interior WPC fluted panel
Based on production cost, the PVC panel is the cheapest. It also reflects on the retail/wholesale price. You also can find various wood finishes in the PVC panel collection. Normally it’s a single wood covering the whole panel with no black/gold/silver line.
The PVC fluted panel goes with hollow inside which weak the panel’s strength. When you bend it by hand, it’s easy to be broken.
Recycled PS fluted wood panel
When customers look for fluted panels, most of them actually is seeking wood finish fluted panels. PS fluted wood panel takes a big part of the wood effect fluted panel market. It offers hundreds of wood finishes and also be able to mix different wood finishes or other colors in one panel, achieving a fresh new look.
The styles of PS fluted panels are not limited to common fluted, half-round, hills shapes, also can be more complicated shapes, like trees, puzzles, stars, etc. It offers a more stylish look as a wall covering material.
Another advantage of PS Wood Panels is the low cost. The wide selection & good prices make it dominate the Indian market and spread into other Asia markets such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. The middle east is also an important market for PS fluted wood paneling.
Compared with PVC material, the PS material board is much stronger, with more colors/finish and diversity of pattern.
Polyurethane Fluted Panels
Polyurethane is a good material for making various shapes of decorative moldings, such as crown moldings, chair rails, and baseboards. Compared with traditional gypsum or wood moldings, polyurethane moldings are waterproof, have good details, and have easy installs.
Fluted Panels also can be the shape of fluted panels. Normally it comes in 40 x 240cm or 60x240cm with available patterns-fluted, hills, half round.
The raw materials are two-part liquid materials, that are mixed in a machine and poured or inject into a steel mold, becoming a solid panel.
Compared with PVC and PS materials fluted panels, Polyurethane panel has two big advantages
- Paintable
- No melt when cutting the panel with the saw
If your customer prefers to DIY colors by himself on-site, a polyurethane fluted panel is absolutely the first choice.
Outdoor Composite WPC Wall Cladding
If you are looking for an outdoor grade fluted panel that’s high performance and stills has lots of style options, then Composite WPC is the best material for you. Outdoor WPC fluted panels are made of recycled plastic and wood fibers, which gives the panels resistance to weathering.
There are two options for Outdoor WPC fluted wall cladding
- Uncapped WPC: As the name it said, it is an Outdoor WPC without a protective cap. Normally we call it a 1st generation composite.
- Capped WPC: Capped WPC Composite Wall Panel – the 2nd generation WPC, comes with a blend of recycled plastic and wood in its core, as well as a protective capping made from high-performance polymers. That provides superior protection for wall cladding that looks betters and performances after years.
The blend of recycled plastic and wood fibers as a core strengthens the cladding against outdoor conditions, but an uncapped WPC wall cladding means moisture can still easily access the board’s core.
When we choose the capped WPC fluted panels, the cleaning work is much easier compared with uncapped ones.
Looking at pricing, uncapped composite wall panel is cheaper than capped composite. If cost is a big concern for your project, uncapped is a good option. Nowadays the capped composite is becoming the main player in the market as for a long term investment, capped composite outdoor panel is still competitive.
New Exterior WPC Fluted Panels with PVC wood finishes
This is a new type of exterior WPC wall cladding. Compared with co-extruded composite WPC fluted siding, the WPC siding with PVC wood finish offers a more realistic wood appearance and it is a stronger and more durable interior WPC fluted panel.
