Maison & Travaux - January 2019
Equipment / Wet rooms
Soft floors with elegant designs
Composed of several layers of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), resilient floors are very popular in wet rooms: waterproof, easy to maintain and offering a wide variety of decors and colors, they provide excellent walking comfort and soundproofing. The icing on the cake is their suitability for underfloor heating. In rolls, they offer a particularly economical solution (from five euros per square metre), but are not always easy to install given their weight and the need for a flawless substrate. In strips or slabs, they are a little more expensive, but much easier to install.
- Tile. Ideal for bathrooms and kitchens, Livyn dalle vinyl floor with matte finish is ultra-resistant and 100 % water-resistant, imitating concrete-effect tiles. In the form of chamfered slabs, it can be installed with a clip-on floating system, without glue or primer. These tiles compete with laminate flooring thanks to their thinness, easy cutting and installation, and acoustic comfort, L130 x 132 cm, thickness: 4.5 rnm, €35.90/m2. Bundle : 2.08 rn2:74.67 €,Quickstep by Lapeyre.
- This roll model from Gerflor's Hitex range has a retail price of around €35/m2. The difference is justified by the thickness of the vinyl, which increases from 2 mrn in the kaleido model to 3.2 mrn. With a thickness of over 2.9 mm, the vinyl's textile backing absorbs any unevenness, such as tile joints or gaps between floorboards, thus saving on levelling. Approx. 35 €/rm3.Décor Diamond Blue, Hitex range, GERFLOR.
- Floor in waxed concrete classic/smoothed fine mortar, applied in 2 mm thickness, resistant, waterproof and with excellent mechanical resistance. It is available in 71 shades made exclusively from natural powder pigments. Shown here in Mouse Gray. Can be applied over old, sound tiles. Installation pack (primer, waxed concrete and varnish): 50 €HT/m3. MARUS AURENTI MATERIALS
In bathrooms and kitchens, vinyl and porcelain stoneware are readily given the appearance of concrete. It's a big leap to say that this material isn't suitable for wet rooms! Thanks to its many finishes, concrete can be adapted to any room in the house. Waxed and water-repellent, it's perfect for bathrooms and kitchens. After application, however, it must be sealed and varnished, or even painted. wax depending on the finish chosen. Less cold than tiles and just as hard-wearing, it can even be used to great effect in the bathroom, where it can evenly cover the floor, shower (shower tray and wall) and walls. This solution is particularly well-suited to small spaces, which are thus enlarged.
