Dad’s Pies

Hygienic ceiling tiles printed with a timber pattern

In a refurbished bakery café, Fenta Digital ceiling tiles create a warm plywood look, while complying with fire rating and hygiene best practices.

The Baker’s Son café in Silverdale sits out front of Dad’s Pies bakery, a purpose-built food factory that makes a range of savoury products for retail outlets around New Zealand, and for its main export markets of Australia and Japan.

‘We have always had a café or lunch bar as part of the bakery,’ says owner and founder Eddie Grooten. ’It’s how we trial our products and get customer feedback. It’s a good stand-alone business in its own right, too, so we recently renovated the café interior and extended the range of food. It’s a lot more comfortable, spacious and modern.’

After initially considering a plywood finish, they were introduced to Bates Surfaces who make PlyPlay and Fenta. Fenta commercial ceiling tiles became the natural choice, as they provide a good fire rating and hygienic finish. Normally a white satin or gloss, Fenta tiles can also be digitally printed. Eddie chose a printed plywood image to get the character and aesthetics of timber, but with all the benefits that Fenta brings in terms of durability, maintenance and compliance.

‘We wanted a hygienic ceiling,’ says Eddie. ‘In any food premises, it has to be easy to maintain and easy to clean.’ Coated in Auckland on an advanced UV line, the tile coating has antimicrobial bio silver molecules. This makes the surface uniquely suitable for ceilings in food-prep areas, laboratories, commercial bathrooms and laundries – spaces where hygiene is critical.

The printed ceiling tiles are laid in the suspended ceiling grid so the grain pattern flows from tile to tile. The metal ceiling grid is powder-coated a light tan colour to tone in nicely with the print. Against white walls, and with black and gold accents, the interior feels modern, warm and elegant.

Digital printing onto Fenta tiles – encapsulated within the coating – is a product innovation affording greater design creativity in functional commercial ceilings.
High-resolution printing gives designers enormous scope to communicate identity and personalise interiors with innovative graphics and large-format images.

Product description: Made in New Zealand for 40 years, the Fenta tile is based on a 4.5mm James Hardie fibre cement board, which is cut to 600 x 1200mm tiles (nominal) and then coated with a hard, high-gloss UV-cured paint system by Bates Surface Solutions, New Zealand’s largest coatings applicator for building panel products and a leader in UV-cured paint technology. The Fenta tile drops into standard commercial suspended ceiling grids.

Key features:

• 100% UV-cured and VOC-free paint (primers and topcoats).
• Hygienic and fire-resistant.
• Durable, hard and scratch-resistant.
• Highly light-reflective for brighter spaces.
For further details contact Bates Surfaces at info@batessurfaces.co.nz or phone 0800 269 251.

FENTA DISTRIBUTORS

Forman Building Systems | www.forman.co.nz
Potter Interior Systems | www.potters.co.nz
T&R Interior Systems | www.tris.co.nz

CREDITS
Project: Baker’s Son café
Product: Fenta ceiling tiles
Photos: Bryce Carlton