Fast replacement of floor covering at Neuschwanstein Castle
Neuschwanstein is one of the most visited castles and palaces in Euro-pe. Every year around 1.4 million people visit the fairytale castle of King Ludwig II of Bavaria in Schwangau in the Allgäu region. The summer se-ason often sees more than 6,000 visitors crowding through the rooms every day. That means the floor covering on the walkways has to with-stand a lot of use. The substrate and the adhesive also have to handle extreme loads. The local building authority (the Staatliches Bauamt Kempten) wanted a quick, safe and clean solution for the current renova-tion of the worn floor coverings in corridors and on walkways. After ex-tensive consultation, the decision was made to install flooring with Uzin Sigan 1 dry adhesive on foil backing – on stress-relief matting and stain-less steel sheets. This solution provides optimum protection for the his-toric stone floor and, if necessary, the new coverings can be removed without leaving any residue.
Data
| Building type | Public building (International) |
|---|---|
| Area | 400 m2 |
| Country | Germany |
Extensive renovation work at Neuschwanstein Castle included restoring the historic stone floors and mosaics in great detail. The floor coverings in the most frequented entrance and corridor areas in the world-famous palace then had to be replaced. They were badly damaged by soil, stones, salt and mo-isture brought in year-round by countless numbers of shoes. For these areas to handle the flow of visitors more effectively, the new textile and resilient coverings had to protect the substrate, while being stable, but also had to be installed so they can be removed, if necessary.
Quick solution that can be removed without residue: UZIN Sigan 1 dry adhesive on backing
"The substrates in renovation projects are old stone or wood floors", explains Robert Weckerle, Uzin's technical consultant in charge of the project. "If you need to bond a new floor covering without damaging the existing floor, we recommend installation using our Sigan 1 dry adhesive on patented micro-perforated special backing". The double-sided high-performance adhesive comes with the advantage that coverings can be installed quickly and dust-free on existing floors. The floors are then immediately ready for foot traffic again. The special adhesive technology also means that the covering can be removed without leaving any residue, even years later. The original floor can then be used again directly or as the substrate for a new floor covering. The ability to remove the covering was specifically requested by the client, the Staatliches Bauamt Kempten.
The floor structure
To protect the historic floor effectively, the client opted for a floor structure with stress-relief matting and stainless steel sheets. "We have already successfully used this structure to renovate floor coverings at Linderhof Castle", explains Uzin's Robert Weckerle. Uzin supplies the high-performance adhesive technology on foil backing for different substrates. Sigan 1 has appropriate adhesives on both sides of the foil and is suitable for installation on textile and resilient coverings on metal. To ensure optimum stability, the substrate is first primed with the special Planus primer. This meant that rubber flooring on the first floor and blue carpeting on the second floor could be installed safely, quickly and simply – without creating dirt, noise or odour.
Installing floor coverings with Sigan 1
The smoothed substrate according to DIN 18365 must be firm, flat, permanently dry, free of cracks, clean and free of materials that could impair adhesion. The ready-to-use Planus special primer is then applied undiluted, uniformly and thinly with a fine-pored UZIN foam roller. With good ventilation, it needs to dry for approx. two hours. Trial bonding is then recommended. After rubbing in, you can immediately check whether the Sigan 1 has optimum stability. For enhanced adhesive strength in the edge zones of the installation surface, the supplied tape needs to be applied first along walls and projections. The Sigan 1 sheets can then be installed abutting in the direction of the floor covering or the overlap of the sheets can be cut back to the joint and the acclimatised floor covering then fitted. Half of the covering is then folded back and the protective paper from the Sigan 1 is pulled off horizontally and straight, all the way up to the folded back floor covering. The floor covering is then pushed flat onto the Sigan 1 foil backing without open time and rolled onto the floor. The process is the same for the second half of the floor covering. The floor covering is ready for foot traffic and can be used immediately after adhesion. The products from the Sigan range have Emicode EC1 Plus and Blue Angel certification and are LEED-certified, so they are very environmentally friendly and non-hazardous to health.
Fast floor renovation: ready for the influx of visitors
Thanks to the reliable and fast application of the Sigan 1 adhesive system from Uzin, the renovation of the high-traffic walkways in Neuschwanstein was completed quickly. The floor in the last palace of King Ludwig II of Bavaria is now ready for visitors. Only a few months after the king's death in 1886, the family had opened the gates to visitors – and it has remained open to this day.
