Country Haven Visit (at Rail Mall , Upper Bukit Timah)

[kalimantan 6]

Paid a visit to country haven to ask on Teak wood furniture. They custom-made tv-console and quote about $900++.

1. ask about where he gets the teak-wood - he told me from Indonesia.

2. ask how about Burmese teak-wood - he doesn't do biz there and told me that burmese teak wood is expensive and there are lots of corruptions which raise the price.

3. ask on age of teak-wood from indonesia - told me from 30 to 50 years age wood.

I know country haven is a customer-service oriented company, but for point 3 - i cannot accept the nonsense. If teak-wood is that age, isn't it more expensive and he quote me about 900++ ? That means the product itself - i begain to have doubt. I am not saying we should pay a high price, i just want to know the truth of the AGE of teak-wood he is getting .

as for point 2 - i cannot say anything, but how come barossa furnishings can do it ? I went to dempsey road at Wood and wood (around blk 13 and 15) and the burmese tv console costs about 1400.

oK MAYBE i've zero experience in teak-wood, so can someone advises ?

[kalvin 0]

Paid a visit to country haven to ask on Teak wood furniture. They custom-made tv-console and quote about $900++.

1. ask about where he gets the teak-wood - he told me from Indonesia.

2. ask how about Burmese teak-wood - he doesn't do biz there and told me that burmese teak wood is expensive and there are lots of corruptions which raise the price.

3. ask on age of teak-wood from indonesia - told me from 30 to 50 years age wood.

I know country haven is a customer-service oriented company, but for point 3 - i cannot accept the nonsense. If teak-wood is that age, isn't it more expensive and he quote me about 900++ ? That means the product itself - i begain to have doubt. I am not saying we should pay a high price, i just want to know the truth of the AGE of teak-wood he is getting .

as for point 2 - i cannot say anything, but how come barossa furnishings can do it ? I went to dempsey road at Wood and wood (around blk 13 and 15) and the burmese tv console costs about 1400.

oK MAYBE i've zero experience in teak-wood, so can someone advises ?

Hi Kalimantan,

I am the owner of Country Haven, I was probably the one you spoke to during your visit at my shop.

I would like to expand some of points you mentioned here to benefit the readers of this forum and hopefully encourage a healthy discussion on the topic of teak.

Country Haven have been in the teak business since 1996. We own our teak factory in Indonesia and process our own teak for our furniture. We do not supply to any other shops, everything we produce are sold exclusively by our shop.

Thus, this led to the first point you mentioned; yes, all our teak are from Indonesia.

On your second point, you referred to barossa furnishings, and question why we do not have burmese teak as they do. Well, this is quite a difficult question... it's like asking why Haagen-Dazs ice cream comes in Green Tea flavour and why Ben & Jerry do not have Green Tea flavour. To be more direct, it is simply a different business and we run our businesses differently. I am not exactly sure on how they operate, but for us, we only sell teak furniture produced by our own factory in Indonesia.

On the third point, you brought up a very interesting subject, the age of teak wood. It seems that you may have a misconception on the value and age of wood. Yes, it is true that the older the wood, the more expensive it gets, but 30-50 years is in no way considered old as you implied. Old teak is usually between 60 -120 years, these are the one that are more expensive and they usually come from Burma.

If you are doubting that our teak are 30-50 years, try thinking from the other end. A 10-15 years teak is still a small tree and practically impossible to make the 180cm TV console you requested. (Imagine using twigs and branches to form a table top) :-)

One of the reasons why we could sell slightly lower than market price is also due to the fact that the factory that produces the furniture in Indonesia belongs to us and we do sell a good volume here locally.

I have found some useful sources on the web on teak tree age that you might want to have a read.

http://www.giantchess.com/manufacturer/about_teak_wood.html

http://www.eurodesign.se/doc/promote_teak.pdf

http://www.impressionsindecor.com/us/burmese_ban.htm

http://www.upthegardenpath.co.uk/qualityteak.html

Please do ask any other questions on teak, I will be more than willing to discuss further.

Thanks and Cheers!

Kalvin

Country Haven

[kalimantan 6]

Hi Kalvin

Thanks for the explanations.

Definitely all readers will understand more.

[rayfox 0]

Paid a visit to country haven to ask on Teak wood furniture. They custom-made tv-console and quote about $900++.

1. ask about where he gets the teak-wood - he told me from Indonesia.

2. ask how about Burmese teak-wood - he doesn't do biz there and told me that burmese teak wood is expensive and there are lots of corruptions which raise the price.

3. ask on age of teak-wood from indonesia - told me from 30 to 50 years age wood.

I know country haven is a customer-service oriented company, but for point 3 - i cannot accept the nonsense. If teak-wood is that age, isn't it more expensive and he quote me about 900++ ? That means the product itself - i begain to have doubt. I am not saying we should pay a high price, i just want to know the truth of the AGE of teak-wood he is getting .

as for point 2 - i cannot say anything, but how come barossa furnishings can do it ? I went to dempsey road at Wood and wood (around blk 13 and 15) and the burmese tv console costs about 1400.

oK MAYBE i've zero experience in teak-wood, so can someone advises ?

If you wanna know the truth of the AGE of teak wood you are getting then it better u fly there and choose the trees u wanna LOL

Edited January 3, 2011 by rayfox

[josephsbs 1]

happen to pop into this thread... decided to put in my few cents of comments

to start of, i'm a satisfied customer of country haven.

over the past few months, i've bought from them (Rail Mall outlet) a tv console for slightly less than 900 bucks, a small round table for 100 bucks, ordered 2 customised bedside tables for around 400 bucks (est. delivery in Jul), and probably more to follow.

as for Burmese teak, prices have skyrocketed so i wouldn't dream of getting my hands on them with my limited budget ^_^

in October 2012, the Myanmar Ministry of Forestry announced that it will ban the export of raw teak from 2014 onwards. official reasons for the ban are due to an increase in deforestation in Myanmar, which has reduced the country’s forested land from 57% in the 1960s to 24% in 2008, also an attempt to increase exports of higher-earning finished products rather than just raw wood.

despite the ban starting in 2014, prices have started to rise, with suppliers stockpiling supplies in anticipation of impending shortfalls. prices are likely to go even higher when the ban kicks in because the legislation will enable Myanmar-based businesses to charge premium prices for the labour involved in milling and finishing their teak, rather than simply selling the raw log at a much lower cost.

in other words, be prepared to pay much more than if you want real Burmese teak furniture... not me.

imo, country haven's products can be priced at current levels becos it uses cheaper (also youngish) Indonesian teak. that's good for consumers like me who want teak furniture but at more reasonable prices. imo, finishing of their furniture are also rather decent.

Edited June 3, 2013 by josephsbs