Your home – a safe oasis of well-being

EMICODE^®-certified building products ensure healthy living

In Germany, more and more apartments are being built – with an ever-increasing floor space. This is also due to the growing number of single households, which, at 42 percent, accounted for the largest share according to a survey of the Federal Statistical Office in 2018. As a result, the amount of living space occupied per person has risen, most recently to 46.7 square meters (2018), which means that also the area occupied by walls, floors and ceilings in our homes has grown. This, in turn, can lead to higher emissions of harmful substances according to information published by the Federal Environmental Agency. That’s why it is all the more important to choose building and installation products for our homes that ensure healthy living. Quality seals like EMICODE^® provide useful assistance.

We spend the majority of the day indoors. Especially our own four walls should be a place of relaxation and recreation – a safe oasis of well-being. Our success in reaching this aim not only depends on our personal living habits and furnishings, but also on the materials used for flooring installation, thermal insulation and waterproofing. Building products that release harmful substances are therefore not welcome in our homes: They may cause headaches, sleeplessness or even allergies and respiratory problems.

To ensure “clean” indoor air right from the start, it is important to use healthy products when building a new house or doing renovation work. Floor coverings, installation materials, sealants and other products can release so-called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can cause health complaints among the residents. Another key problem is the fact that newly built houses are increasingly airtight; the natural exchange of air is therefore much less frequent. This makes emissions from building materials all the more problematic. Reliable quality labels like the EMICODE^® EC1 seal help consumers identify products that are low in emissions and can be used without hesitation in new construction or renovation.

For over 20 years now, the internationally recognized EMICODE^® evaluation system has been used to certify the health and environmental compatibility of many different building products, including adhesives, joint sealants, fillers, primers and many more. The system is based on the most stringent test criteria and only awards the seal to products with the lowest emissions. Unannounced spot checks at the manufacturer’s site later ensure that the predefined limit values are observed. The EC1 seal thus guarantees a sustainable and healthy home where residents can take a deep breath, unwind and relax without worries.

Photo: @ikostudio/stock.adobe.com / EMICODE

For many people, their home is a place of retreat where they can recover from the stress of everyday life. That’s why clean indoor air is of vital importance – free of pollutants that may affect the residents’ health. To be safe from possible emissions, EMICODE^®-certified building products should therefore be used in new construction or renovation. They have been proven to have the lowest possible emissions.