What is the ground? First and foremost, it is the antagonist of gravity. Without a stable, reliable ground, we and everything around us would be pulled straight and unbraked towards the center of the earth. For this first of all thank you! This property of the ground is for us all since ever a matter of course, which one misses only if one drowns straight or is up to the neck in the quicksand. At some point in the early history of mankind, however, this property of the soil alone was no longer sufficient. Perhaps it was cave dwellers who discovered that animal skins made the hard, cold ground a little more comfortable. Or perhaps it was the farmers who wrested a little more comfort from the floor with the materials at their disposal. Whatever the case, a lot has happened since then. And a lot continues to happen.

Realization at home

The individualization of floor coverings is not a completely new idea. Even in the past, those who could afford it encouraged the parquet layer to be particularly creative. However, these were exceptions limited to a very small circle. New technologies and, in particular, digitization are now ensuring that not only companies are rediscovering the floor as an advertising space, but it is also becoming increasingly easy to realize your own personal ideas within your own four walls.

You want a lot, go for vinyl!

There are also many proverbial roads leading to Rome when it comes to individualized floor coverings. One of them is printing on the currently very popular vinyl floors, which have also made a good name for themselves in the business sector due to the sum of their positive properties. Thus for example the visuals united AG from Kaarst at the lower Rhine realizes with its online portal fotoboden.de each still so failed customer's request - as long as this is supplied in a suitable pressure presentation. Depending upon requirement prospective customers can select from four different qualities, up to the industrially usable Vinylboden with the use class 43 and with up to 20 years warranty. The FB43 is suitable thereby not only for a long-term employment - hospitals and practices profit besides from an additional antibacterial coating. All coverings offered by fotoboden.de are certified beyond that with fire protection B1 (Bfl-s1) and slip resistance R10.

A comparable way took Beauflor. In addition, the enterprise of the Belgian Beaulieu international Group individualizes Vinyl coverings via digital pressure after customer's request. Unlike fotoboden.de, however, the Belgians require a minimum size of 60 square meters, while fotoboden.de also implements much smaller objects, for example in the form of runners.

Back to the future

Futura Floors from Franconian Bamberg chooses - even if the company name suggests otherwise at first glance - a rather classical approach to individualized flooring. Specializing in the production of hardwood floors, Futura Floors creates personalized flooring that anticipates global trends. No matter what style the customer prefers, classic, modern or eclectic, the custom hardwood floors give exclusive interior styles an equal footing, while adding value to a property. If desired, Futura can create unique coverings for each individual room of a residence, from traditional parquet based on custom herringbone patterns to oiled, distressed and wire-brushed finishes.

Hard but hearty

A method already practiced in antiquity to give rooms that certain “something” through impressive floor coverings was the individual composition of tiles. This does not necessarily mean a Dionysus mosaic like the one in the dining room of the Peristyle House in Cologne. However, probably no other covering leaves so much room for personalized design even today. The unmanageable range of industrially manufactured tiles already opens up endless possibilities for creative minds and talented tilers. Who wants it beyond that guaranteed exclusive, reaches for handmade ceramics of specialized manufactories. Du Pradal from the Bonn district of Bad Godesberg is representative of many suppliers. The Rhinelander prefer to sell hand-molded tiles from small and medium-sized manufactories in southern Europe. These unique pieces lend a certain Mediterranean fluidity to both renovated old buildings and modern architect-designed houses.

Unendliche Möglichkeiten

Letztlich ist das Angebot in diesem, wie auch den anderen Bereichen enorm breit und ähnlich schwer zu überschauen wie die daraus resultierenden Möglichkeiten. Dem Hang, sich ganz individuell zu verwirklichen sind aber, das kann man ohne Übertreibung behaupten, keine Grenzen gesetzt. Entsprechende Inspiration lässt sich auf der DOMOTEX 2023 vielfach finden und leicht in konkrete Umsetzung überführen.