Flooring for Children

Children spend about 90 percent of the day indoors - at home, at school or kindergarten. So it is important that a high-quality material surrounds them. The choice of a suitable floor needs a special emphasis. It should be warm, comfortable, hygienic and easy to clean. In kindergartens and schools, especially the natural linoleum or a vinyl flooring is a good choice.

Please select an application.

Special requirements for floor coverings

• Hygiene, cleaning and maintenance
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• Carpets are less suitable for children areas. Ideal is a seamless, continuous, closed surface, which for example can be implemented with linoleum or vinyl. Linoleum is naturally bacteriostatic. But even vinyl flooring offers no growth potential for bacteria.

• Slip resistance, security and elasticity
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  Floor coverings must ensure slip resistance and should minimize the risk of injury. For entrances, corridors, recreation halls, classrooms, group rooms and stairs a class R9 is recommended. For toilets, washrooms, kitchens, machinery and plant rooms, in some countries the class R10 is recommended. Stone floors should be used for children's facilities only in exceptional cases. There might be additional or different values locally required in the European countries.
  
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• Acoustic
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  The acoustic values for linoleum are approximately between 3-6 dB, the values for Vinyl between 2-4 dB. Special acoustic versions as DLW Linoleum Marmorette AcousticPlus or Favorite Acoustic achieve high values of 17 dB.

• Robustness and durability
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  The durability of the flooring is classified according to the European standard EN 685. The classes 31-34 mark resilient flooring for the commercial application of low to very heavy usage. To meet the requirements in a school or daycare, a resilient floor covering should reach at least the classification in class 32-34.
  
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• Warm feet
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  The natural linoleum flooring is very often chosen for the warm sensation if provides. It is pleasantly warm underfoot.
  
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• Colours
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• Linoleum and vinyl flooring today offer a complete range of colours around the color circle. With inlays you can even create individual patterns with resiliant flooring.
  
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• Natural and ecological material
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  Linoleum is still almost exclusively produced from renewable raw materials (linseed oil, resin, cork, wood flour, powdered limestone and jute) and at the end of its useful life ready for recycling.
  
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• Cost
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• Resilient flooring are better to keep clean as textile floors, the maintenance costs are therefore lower. And easy-to-clean surfaces (e.g. polyurethane) make it even more effective to maintain.
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  Flooring types and their suitability

  
  
• Linoleum
  
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• Linoleum is an ecological floor covering that has an excellent CO2 balance and is excellent with a variety of eco-labels. DLW Linoleum made by natural resources without health risk and even meets the stringent requirements of the European toy standard EN 71. For schools and nurseries Linoleum is often used because of its wide range of colors and its features: easy to maintain, easy to clean, hygienic, flexible, slip-resistant, warm to the touch, anti-static, suitable for under-floor heating systems and offers high comfort for walking. Linoleum also has a long life. Especially resilient linoleum can be provided by an installation of an additional layer of cork. In this combination the floor improves the sound impact, increases the elasticity and insulates heat even more.

• Vinyl
  
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• Vinyl floor coverings offer an almost unlimited variety of designs. Since the raw material is a PVC thermoplastic material, it is the only one of flooring, which can be welded to provide a smooth, completely closed surface. The floors are slip resistant and easy to keep clean. Special acoustic collections are offered for sound insulation and increased comfort underfoot.
  
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• Textile Floor Coverings
  
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• In facilities for small children textile coverings are rarely used. They can not be cleaned as thoroughly and hygienically.

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  Conclusion:

  
  In day care centers we recommend the natural linoleum product. In schools also vinyl flooring can be used. Transitions between indoor and outdoor area should provide dirt collecting zones and in sanitary areas and kitchens slip-resistant floorings should be installed with R10.