Before you sign anything — touch it. Our Almaty showroom, twenty minutes from you.
Book a visitThe first: that it will let you down in year two. The second: that it will turn into a chore you own. Both are reasonable. Below is what we do about each — and where the alternatives are honestly better.
Each with its own promise and its own way of failing. We name all four — you will trust us more for it.
The promise: zero obligation. Lay it and forget it — the Almaty default for premium exteriors right now.
What it costs you: warmth. Stone doesn't make a terrace somewhere you sit in the evening; it reads as a lobby rather than a home. This is the option we lose to most often, and we say so.
The promise: wood that behaves like plastic — durable, maintenance-free, any climate.
How it fails: owners document it. It bleaches to grey within a season or two whatever colour you bought; it gets too hot to walk on; it grows brittle and takes permanent dents from a dropped tool or a dog's claws; and because it expands more than wood it goes wavy when the gaps are wrong. Composite can't be renewed. When it fails, it is removed.
The promise: real wood at the lowest price — the most common substitute for a turnkey terrace here.
How it fails: larch really is dense and rot-resistant. What it doesn't survive is Almaty sun without care: grey, rough, dirt in the grain and cracked ends within a year. Then the trap closes — yacht varnish because it sounds premium, the film peels, and renewing it means sanding the whole deck with equipment you don't own. People start hating wood.
The promise, stated narrowly: the sugars are cooked out of the board, so rot has nothing to feed on; the colour runs through the whole board, so it can be sanded and re-oiled back to day one; and under the care program we are the ones who come and do that.
Honestly: it is not maintenance-free. It is maintenance someone else performs on a schedule — which is a different product.
Stone removes the obligation by removing the warmth. Composite promises to remove the obligation and quietly fails. Larch gives you the warmth and hands you the obligation. Thermowood keeps the warmth, and we take the obligation.
| Porcelain tile | Composite / WPC | Larch | Thermowood (ours) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warm underfoot | No | Heats up in the sun | Yes | Yes |
| Rots | No | No | Over time | No — the sugars are gone |
| Greys | No | Yes, bleaches | Yes, within a season | Yes — and comes back with a light sanding |
| Can be renewed to day one | No | No | Partly | Yes — colour runs through the board |
| If a board is damaged | Replace the tile | Replace the board | Replace the board | Replace the board |
| Maintenance | None | Washing | Yours, every year | Ours — under the program |
| Surface micro-cracks | No | No | Yes | Yes — normal for thermowood |
| Manufacturer’s guarantee | From the tile maker | 2 years, typically | None | Yes — see the guarantee |
Two rows concede things against us. They stay in. Our board greys — so does every wood on earth under UV; conceding it is what earns the next line, that ours comes back. And thermowood checks on the surface more than untreated wood, not less; our warranty excludes surface micro-cracks and says so, which is why we say it here first.
Thermal modification cooks the natural sugars out of the timber. Rot feeds on exactly those. The Press-Vacuum process is patented — our own development, Almaty. Nothing chemical goes in: heat and pressure only.
The colour runs through the whole board, not as a film on top. A light sanding and oil, and the terrace looks the way it did the day it was installed. Composite can't do that: when it loses its look, it is removed.
Eight visits in six years, paid once. We come on schedule — you don't have to remember anything, find a craftsman or buy oil. That is the Flawless Finish Legacy program, and it applies to both of our Luxury species, karagach and ash.
Short, mechanical, no adjectives. Workmanship — 2 years on every installation. No Rot — 10 years on karagach and ash (Luxury), 5 on pine and birch (Essential), program or no program. No Warp, No Split — a crack over 2 mm wide, a crack through the board, or an end split over 150 mm; 1, 2 or 6 years by program. No Greying — while a program runs.
No. It doesn't need rescuing — it won't rot without oil — but it greys under UV like every wood on earth. Under a care program the maintenance is ours: eight visits in six years, paid once. Without a program it silvers and keeps working.
Zero obligation, and that is real. What it costs is warmth: stone doesn't make a terrace somewhere you sit in the evening, and it reads as a lobby rather than a home. If that trade suits you, it's an honest choice.
Owners report the same things: it bleaches within a season or two, heats up hard in the sun, dents and chips, and goes wavy when the gaps are wrong because it expands more than wood. And it can't be renewed — when it fails, it is removed.
Larch is dense and rot-resistant. What it doesn't survive is Almaty sun without care: grey, rough, cracked ends within a year. Then the varnish-peel-sand trap closes, with equipment you don't own. People start hating wood — because of this, not because of wood.
Surface micro-checks — yes, and more than untreated wood. They are cosmetic and normal, and our warranty says so plainly. What we do guarantee against: a crack over 2 mm wide, a crack through the board, or an end split over 150 mm.
The terrace is four years old and twenty minutes from you. The factory with the chamber running is open on any working day.
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