Give water no chance

The dev­il is in the details, they say. This is espe­cially true for bath­rooms with their par­tic­u­larly high expos­ure to mois­ture. If they are not prop­erly sealed, major dam­age can res­ult. Even small holes or cracks in the joints are suf­fi­cient to allow the pen­et­ra­tion of mois­ture and pro­mote mold growth – wheth­er between the tiles or along the wall/floor junc­tions. The neces­sary seal­ing work should only be done by pro­fes­sion­al crafts­men.

It goes with the ter­rit­ory that wet areas like bath­rooms are exposed to high amounts of water. And where there is such a lot of water, pre­cau­tions must be taken to pre­vent it from pen­et­rat­ing walls or floors. If these sur­faces are expertly sealed, they will be pro­tec­ted against mois­ture attack for many years. The most crit­ic­al areas are the trans­itions between shower or bathtub and wall or floor, because these are the places where the water pools. That’s why the crafts­man needs to water­proof these areas with utmost care in order to pre­vent costly dam­age.

It’s above all the areas under and behind the bathtub or shower that must be pro­tec­ted against the ingress of water. This is stip­u­lated by DIN 18534, the new water­proof­ing stand­ard for indoor applic­a­tions (val­id since July 2017). To pre­vent dam­age, the bath­room must be expertly water­proofed in such a way that it can be used for 20 to 25 years without any prob­lems. The applic­a­tion of sil­ic­one joint seal­ants at corners and junc­tions is not suf­fi­cient. Spe­cial products like edge seal­ing tapes or full-sur­­face water­proof­ing under and behind the bathtub are neces­sary.

In gen­er­al, the water­proofed area should be exten­ded by 20 cm above the shower area and by up to 20 cm bey­ond the expec­ted splash water area. As a mat­ter of fact, this kind of work requires a lot of knowhow. To avoid the risk of later dam­age, it should there­fore be done by a pro­fes­sion­al crafts­man. He will take care of all the neces­sary steps – from expert sub­strate pre­par­a­tion and applic­a­tion of a prim­ing coat all the way to the actu­al water­proof­ing work. The expert knows best where and how to pro­ceed in order to pre­vent pos­sible water dam­age.