Harmonious look paired with healthy indoor climate

For decades, tiles have been the standard material for use on bathroom floors. Today’s bathrooms, however, are no longer a merely functional space, but rather an integral design element of the house or flat. With a soft, warm floor under your feet instead of hard, cold tiles, the bathroom can easily become an oasis of well-being. For this reason, luxury vinyl flooring has increasingly found its way into the bathroom – both on walls and floors. No problem – as long as the substrate has been expertly sealed. EMICODE^®-certified products help you ensure a healthy indoor climate.

It’s not surprising that “design flooring” (which means luxury vinyl tiles or LVTs) is becoming increasingly popular. These resilient floor coverings are available in stylish looks with a large choice of colors and surface textures. “Design flooring” can faithfully reproduce the look of real wood, concrete, natural stone or tiles. The result is deceptively real so that it is often almost indistinguishable from the original. A harmonious look can be created without any joints. At the same time, vinyl flooring is hard-wearing and retains its many advantages for a long time – even in wet rooms.

Modern vinyl is not only extremely robust, resilient and hard-wearing, but also provides a soft feeling underfoot and is therefore gentle on the joints. Ideally, it should be firmly bonded over the entire surface so that it can’t shift. In addition, it offers pleasant warmth underfoot – a surprising contrast to the “cold look” of materials such as natural stone or tiles which it can imitate. Moisture can do no harm to vinyl flooring: it is therefore easy to clean and can even be wet-wiped. Its insensitivity to moisture is one of the reasons why vinyl flooring is particularly suitable for use in bathrooms and showers – on condition that it has been carefully sealed.

Water must not be allowed to penetrate under and behind bathtubs or shower trays. This is what DIN 18534, the new waterproofing standard for interior applications, stipulates since 2017. Permanent waterproofing is mandatory so that the bathroom can be used without any problems for up to 25 years. However, the application of silicone sealants alone, especially at corners and junctions, is not sufficient. In addition, special edge sealing tapes or full-surface waterproofing under and behind the bathtub are required.

To install vinyl flooring in the splash water area of the bathroom or in the shower, it is necessary to take the requirements of DIN 18534 into account. It is therefore advisable to leave the expert waterproofing and installation of flooring to a professional floorer. He knows exactly where and how to seal in order to prevent later damage. Apart from the proper sealing work, also expert preparation of the substrate and application of a primer are of key importance.