Easy-care all-rounder

Car­pet­ing in the bath­room is just as rare as par­quet in the gar­age – for the simple reas­on that cer­tain types of floor­ing require spe­cif­ic uses. With the excep­tion of tiles: they are real all-round­ers when it comes to wall and floor applic­a­tion. Wheth­er in the kit­chen or bath­room, in the hall­way, cel­lar or on the ter­race – tiles are highly func­tion­al so that they can be used any­where in and around the house. And: When using EMICODE^®-cer­ti­fied adhes­ives and grouts for tile install­a­tion, you can be sure that no harm­ful sub­stances will enter the house and ruin your dream of a healthy home.

Com­pared to oth­er floor cov­er­ings, tiles are par­tic­u­larly easy to clean and hygien­ic. Water and dirt can hardly cause any dam­age and are eas­ily removed. Fur­ther­more, tiles are extremely hard-wear­ing: fall­ing objects hardly leave any marks or dents. Clas­sic white is a mat­ter of the past. These days, tiles are avail­able in a wide range of col­ors, decors and formats. Wheth­er col­or­ful or play­ful or tone-on-tone – there are all kinds of lay­ing pat­terns, formats and gloss grades. There are vir­tu­ally no lim­its to cre­at­ive design. Tiles can even imit­ate the look of wood, which makes them real eye-catch­ers. The new trend of XXL tiles offers a num­ber of prac­tic­al advant­ages: they are installed with a smal­ler num­ber of joints, which also reduces the required clean­ing effort.

If you are afraid of “ceram­ic cool­ness” in your liv­ing room, it is advis­able to have under­floor heat­ing installed. Ceram­ic tiles are per­fect con­duct­ors and quickly trans­fer the heat from the heat­ing sys­tem into the room. Thanks to bon­ded install­a­tion, there is no sep­ar­at­ing air lay­er between the sub­floor and the tile. Unlike par­quet, lam­in­ate or car­pet, tiles can­not be loosely laid but must always be firmly glued over the entire sur­face. This ensures good thermal con­duct­iv­ity and increases the tiles’ load-bear­ing strength and ser­vice life. Speak­ing of load: When choos­ing tiles, it is import­ant to take the later use of the room into account. The lower wear level in bath­rooms, for instance, requires abra­sion res­ist­ance class 3, while the high­er loads in gar­ages caused by cars require res­ist­ance class 5. Here’s a small tip: When buy­ing tiles, it is bet­ter to buy one tenth more mater­i­al than is required for the num­ber of square meters. This takes the cut­ting waste into account and ensures suf­fi­cient spare mater­i­al in case of later dam­age.

Expert pre­par­a­tion of the sub­strate is of key import­ance before installing tiles. The sub­strate should be level, sound, clean, dry and free of adhes­ive residues. In some cases, a prim­ing coat may be required to ensure a firm bond between sub­strate and tiles. Inex­per­i­enced do-it-your­­selfers are advised to start tile install­a­tion in the middle of the room and to pro­ceed in par­al­lel rows from the inside to the out­side. Tiles that have been cut to size are less notice­able at the edges. A diag­on­al pat­tern cre­ates a nice visu­al effect but is more demand­ing and should be done by a pro­fes­sion­al tiler. He knows exactly how to pro­ceed and which products ensure best res­ults.