Specifics of Wet Areas and Ceiling Requirements
When decorating spaces with high humidity levels such as bathrooms, showers, pools, conservatories, or water park facilities, one of the challenging tasks for designers is selecting ceiling materials. The complexity arises from the microclimate in these spaces and their specific usage:
- High Humidity: These areas have significantly higher humidity levels than average, causing traditional materials to swell and lose their properties.
- Water Exposure: The presence of splashes, drops, or condensation on the ceiling surface exposes materials to liquid water, leading to the deterioration of many materials.
- Temperature Fluctuations: In addition to high humidity, these spaces often experience temperature fluctuations, sometimes with elevated temperatures. Such conditions can lead to the deformation of many finishing elements.
- Cleaning Chemicals: For bathrooms and pools, cleaning is periodic, and it involves household chemicals, which can affect the appearance and strength of materials.
Considering these factors, a list of requirements for materials used in wet areas can be formulated:
- High Moisture Resistance: Materials that handle exposure to humidity and occasional wetting well will have a longer service life.
- Low Coefficient of Thermal and Moisture Deformations: Materials that maintain their geometry when humidity or temperature changes occur will preserve their initial configuration and structural integrity.
- Corrosion Resistance: Given the ideal conditions for rust formation in high humidity and temperature, all metal components in finishing should be made from corrosion-resistant alloys or effectively protected with polymer coatings or powder paints.
- Chemical Inertness: Materials used in wet area finishing must resist not only moisture but also the effects of acids and alkalis commonly found in water disinfection or cleaning agents.
Only a few materials meet these criteria. Therefore, for wet area finishing, plastic or metal profiles, cassettes, or panels with protective coatings are typically used. Metal ceilings offer several advantages over plastic ones: they are more robust, durable, and virtually unaffected by temperature fluctuations. The corrosion resistance of such products depends on the quality of the protective-decorative layer and the application technology. From this perspective, metal ceilings from the “MehBud” factory represent a particularly advantageous solution.