Luxury vinyl in bathrooms requires proper sealing

For dec­ades, tiles have been the stand­ard mater­i­al for use on bath­room walls and floors. How­ever, today’s bath­rooms are no longer a merely func­tion­al space, but rather an integ­ral design ele­ment of the house or flat. For this reas­on, lux­ury vinyl floor­ing has increas­ingly found its way into wet areas. It is easy to clean and wet-wipe, because it is insens­it­ive to water. For this reas­on, it is also suit­able for use on walls and floors in bath­rooms and showers as long as sub­strate and walls have been expertly sealed.

Tip 1: A level surface is key

No mat­ter wheth­er you install ceram­ic or lux­ury vinyl tiles in your bath­room – care­ful water­proof­ing is essen­tial. Accord­ing to water­proof­ing stand­ard DIN 18534 for interi­or applic­a­tions, no water is allowed to pen­et­rate under or behind bathtubs and showers. The applic­a­tion of sil­ic­one joint seal­ants at corners and junc­tions is not suf­fi­cient. Spe­cial edge seal­ing tapes or full-sur­­face water­proof­ing is needed. To ensure reli­able adhe­sion of the lux­ury vinyl floor­ing, the sub­strate must be smoothed with a lev­el­ling com­pound to remove any uneven­ness. Depend­ing on the splash water area and water expos­ure, DIN 18534 stip­u­lates dif­fer­ent types of water­proof­ing. For this reas­on, you had bet­ter con­sult a pro­fes­sion­al crafts­man.

Tip 2: How to install luxury vinyl on existing ceramic tiles

If you already have tiles installed in the bath­room, you do not need to remove them and fill your house with dust and debris. If prop­erly done (prefer­ably by a pro­fes­sion­al crafts­man), lux­ury vinyl tiles can be simply glued on top of exist­ing tiles thanks to their low install­a­tion height. Pri­or to that, the exist­ing tiles need to be expertly covered with a lev­el­ling com­pound to ensure optim­um adhe­sion.