Plumbing ceramics: manufacturers, fashion trends in design, recommendations to customers.
People are distinguished by the fact that they quickly get used to good, and the other will not remember the other. For the last quarter of the twentieth century, humanity made a high-quality leap, overcoming the abyss between the luxurious bathrooms, available only to the chosen, and faceless, unresolved "wet corners", more like a chungy, - for everyone else. Is it not real democracy?
Bathrooms with usual equipment (washbasins-shells, toilets, bidets and other) appeared and spread no more than 150 years ago. Before that, even the place, "where the king went on foot," was a certain non-sustainable space between the doors where "night vases" were located (in wealthy homes - certainly from the porcelain). It is known that Louis XIV had special porcelain pots with his monogram. The ablutions occurred, as a rule, publicly: they had a servant in this ritual, and the commoner went to the bath. And only the twentieth century gave all hygienic procedures with absolute privacy, making sanitary "convenience" the most intimate place of dwelling. True, we moved "our own way" in Russia and knew the charms of combined bathrooms; Now, with the intake, and so far only in cottage construction, but returned to the modern trend of advanced countries - "bathroom for one".
Almost every owner seeks to choose and buy equipment for his home, only sometimes advised with the architect on technical issues. And in vain! You can significantly save time on shopping, if you relate your capabilities and needs in advance, with the help of special directories and reviews. So, today we will consider Plumbing devices from ceramics, in particular from sanitary faience (in everyday life - Sanfayans) and porcelain.
Materials Science
Sanopayans looks like porcelain, only it contains less than high-quality clays, and its firing occurs in another mode. A faience shards Porridge, intensively gaining moisture, absorbs dirt and smells, from which it does not really save any cleaning agent (remember public toilets of the recent past). To make products from the faience were better, they are covered with glazes or enamels (transparent, white or colored glassy). As a result, a non-specialist faience from porcelain does not differ: and the price is the same, and external signs (color, sound). Meanwhile, many manufacturers sharpen attention on the fact that their products are extremely porcelain. Try not to get caught on this fishing rod. Faience does not have to cost cheaper than porcelain! (Especially since inexpensive raw materials for him are most often imported from China, glorious by their porcelain traditions!) And that the most curious, the sink for a couple of thousand DM from Stark is just as fragile, as well as Russian from the Kaluga region for 600 rubles, - Both overall ceramic fate!The undoubted revolution in the stemmanism occurred about one and a half years ago. A new technique of baking a shard, guaranteeing the effect of dirt-repellent: water drops less in contact with the surface of the device and, instantly rolling from it, do not pollute it (unlike the enamel of the previous generation, according to which all moisture spread evenly). The first with plumbing ceramics made by the above-described technology, came to the domestic market Villeroyboch and Duravit; In the fall of 2000, Keramag is collected, and for them "tightens" Ideal Standard. The markup value for mud is about $ 60 per item. Visually and to the touch, it is impossible to determine this property. Therefore, when buying, require a certificate and look at special designations: Baked stamp C-Plus at Villeroyboch and a Wonder Gliss sticker at Duravit.
Country studies
The geography of the manufacturer of plumbers presented in our market is impressive: from Portugal to Singapore. Their products are definitely carrying an imprint of the culture of their "Motherland": in different countries they relate to the dwelling, to privacy, to hygiene. Not to mention National Schools Design! Therefore, the Russian has a rich choice to meet their addictions, temperament, opportunities.
To date, it is impossible to call anyone to the leader. But we have our long-standing and well-deserved preferences. For example, Czech Jika never left the Russian market. The names of her series Lyra, Dino For many years were synonymous with comfort and well-being on 1/6 of the sushi. Especially pleased that recently the good old Jika has changed for the better. On the toileties now there are excellent triggers. With a low price, Czech enamel is high quality, easily washed with soap solution (powders are excluded!).
Perhaps the only competitor to Cezham, working around the same price range, - Finnish IDO. No designer delights, but the company produces a lot of unitaze modifications (series Trevi): For disabled people, with armrests, with multichannel release, repair (with a wide base, so that the previous holes in the floor), with the possibility of connecting the drain pipe of the washbasin or washing machine.
Very try to catch up with Chekhov with Finns Turks. And although Vitra is a company with experience, producing 4 million (!) Products per year at an affordable price, still it is still behind. By the way, Turkish Sanisdili is not necessarily a characteristic gold katch and bouquet of lilies on the side, but also pleasant concise forms developed by European and American experts.
The traditional rate on quality makes the Swedish concern Gustavsberg. Three major series GUSTAVSBERG'a designed for people with different needs: Nordic - Russia's 1998 sales record holder, thanks to the ideal price-quality ratio, Arctic - a distinctive and Scandic - fashionable and modern, has earned several awards for design in Sweden itself. (Curiously, the group came up to make urinals with "target" in the middle "that men rarely missed hopefuls goal" As a result - saving detergents when cleaning A year ago GUSTAVSBERG surprised everyone by introducing the first in the world ..... Female urinals!)
Another Swedish company - IFO - owns patents to the mechanism of double, economical plum, as well as its touch control. Technical innovations - the Konk of this company. Although the "smart" toilet CERA-SENSOR in the photocells, with electronics, with electronics ($ 420), they have long been massively produced, it is still very far from being massively accumulated.
Many managers believe that our market in consumer preferences is most similar to Italian, so products from the Apennine Peninsula are quite comfortable. Indeed, the Italians are very inventive and perfectly feel changes in the taste of consumers. We went to the past painted gold on the black "Troika", they changed the cold whiteness of simple, but twisted to a millimeter forms, where the main thing is the game of details.
A constant search for new spectacular proportions of volume, aesthetic forms and rational functionality is stably demonstrated in its collections Geramica Cravena. Italian design sometimes want to be called mannered. This is a matter of taste, but they also do not forget about the economical use of space. So, for example, the company Ceramic Gatalano has developed three different collections: systems for large, medium and very tiny bathrooms. Traditionally, many sellers advise those who are ready, for example, to spend $ 400 on the toilet, but does not have any specific style preferences (just wants to get a thing of decent quality), Spanish scholarship. And - Roca. And, apparently, not in vain: this is a giant concern, producing many beautiful devices. It is said that the Pyrenean toilets require a thorough installation (although thoroughness has not hurt any plumbing). Recently, Roca pleased the purella, who have no place at home for a bidet, a cunning thing - a toilet lid-bidet where there are air shape and water heating; manage the last from the built-in microchip; Complete electrical safety.
Well, if you want something in moderation original and practical, - ask the products of GALA: some of its collections are baked manually.
The long-standing ceramic production of old light is distinguished, as a rule, healthy conservatism, based on national traditions, which are stored in the walls of their plants, not one century. After all, once these production were worn (some worn so far) the royal titles.
In England, this is Twyford. Calm, strict foggy albion ceramics is ideal for homes of real dandy.
From the French most popular products from Jacob Delafon, Selles - apparent simplicity of verified proportions, without which there is no real Gallic charm.
Chic, peculiar to the influential and magnificent Austrian Empire, partly inherent in the Sanima Laufen. In her arsenal - both absolutely modern models and those that were in the Viennese homes of the time of Ersgertzog Ferdinanda. Calm, smooth fluidity of forms is Sphinx, Holland.
True, recently (literally a year - two) there were large changes in business. For example, Jika united with Laufen, and American Ideal Standard places its orders on plants around the world.
A special conversation deserves the Motherland of the European Porcelain - Germany. What to say, the quality of German plumbing can satisfy the taste of any arrival. The famous daishet-triple - Villeroyboch, Duravit and Keramag, - without a doubt, can be found to "Higher Society" in the world of ceramics. Nevertheless, each of them has its own "niche". Villeroyboch is, first of all, excellent material quality. And rich history. They say his plumbing stood in the Winter Palace, she was equipped with "Titanic" and partly it was preserved in the Bolshoi Theater. The concern seeks the cost of production to be commensurate with the cost of its production, offering a fairly wide range of prices with equally good quality.
The Duravit reputation is based on the names of such designers, called which is taken from delight: Philippe Starck, Dieter Sieger, Frank Huster, Michael Graves. The best design bureau works for this company, because it considers the scholarship to be a full part of architecture.
Keramag takes a special position. The company's material is never inferior to the two aforementioned German manufacturers. It successfully experiments with both technical innovations and courageous design solutions. For example, relatively expensive, but at the same time the perfectly discovered series from Matteo Thun, the sink and the bidet of which are equipped with a CLOU circulation system, allows you to splash only in clean water.
Domestic factories also successfully supply the mass developer with a sanifier and began to master the economy-class equipment for the average consumer. Modern in all respects of the model "Elissa" of the Old School plant, the "debut" and "comfort" of the Lobnensky Plant of Stroyfarfor and Morning, the Storotnic Plant StroyPolymerkeramics can be found in quality with many imported products, but half cheaper.
Fashion
Recently, the view, including among the professionals, is that the design of such things such as sink, and in particular the toilet, is constant - they cannot be changed, without violating functions. Practice has denied this statement. The latest collections of scenters are about the same as different from their predecessors, as the first car from the current ones presented on car dealers-2000. There is a classic, there is your avant-garde, there are more popular series, and there is an exclusive.Design costs money. To determine what price order in front of you, let's say, the toilet, simply: if the plum pipes are "not read", the designer entrusted them, which means that you have a thing that will not cost less than $ 200.
No fashion in the world of things can not do. Although the current fashion is not a dictatorous, still there are some trends. First, there is a natural desire to maximize roundness and smoothness of forms, sometimes even extended (like the Spanish Top, Gala). It is explained by a person to natural naturalness, where the perpendicular and sharp corners are not found. The lines of some collections are deliberately quoted by Natural (Marina Villeroyboch, Provensal firm TWYFORD, FLEUR JACOB DELAFON, etc.).
The bathroom is the place where the most of all the calm, silence, comfort. For the same reason, more than 90% of the buyers of plumbing around the world today prefer white color. Moreover, the so-called "shining white" - as a symbol of purity and the most universal in the interior. The peak of the popularity of black plumbing and the mirror tile, which came to the 80s, seemed to be irrevocably calved in the summer. Any color in the bathroom requires special professional efforts, so as not to look fear (if, of course, some special purpose is not pursued).
Secondly, a persistent fashion is marked on retro. The philosophical question arises: what at the beginning of the twentieth century to consider retro? Hello from the middle of the nineteenth century, clearly read in the Romantik collection of the Keramag company, or the non-constructive (deconstationist, how does it raise it in the West), the Dieter Sieger series and the DreamScape MICHAEL GRAVES series of the Duravit company, made not without the influence of cubism, suprematism of the 20s of the twenties of the 20th century? By and large, both Starck series are also a retro version. Memories of times when used buckets instead of toilet bowls, pelvis instead of shells and triggers instead of baths. As they say, whom to taste. Almost all the leading manufacturers of scenters are in their arsenal a collection in a nostalgic spirit in accordance with the national traditions of their country. I must say that in addition to compacts and suspended, there are monoblock toilets (Metro of the company Duravit, Ariosa company IDO), "merged" with a tank to a single whole. Although they are more compact, but their inconvenience is only that when mechanically damaged any one part, it is necessary to change the entire device.
The "registered" fittings, appropriate accessories and baths attached to the "registered" plumbing. This does not mean that without them can not do. Just very comfortable when someone has already invented everything for you. It happens that the accessories of one collection is ideal for another. For example, AXOR faucets developed by Starck are wonderful in conjunction with the Ideal Standard X-L series. Sometimes it happens that the sale of new ceramics is delayed due to mixers whose tests require more time. This happens with the Giorno Massimolosa chini collection of Duravit, which fans of minimalism have long been waiting with impatience.
ABC buyer
Acquisition of Santeramics is a difficult thing that requires some experience.
If possible, it is necessary to contact special shopping stores, where there are professionally trained managers, and sometimes architects. In the markets are also sold a lot of good and "branded" products, but it is more difficult to find a qualified seller. Although here, when buying a "twos" (tulip-type shell + a toilet compact) or the more Page "Troika" (bidet, sink, toilet) you will be offered seductive discounts.
Most often in the presence of the desired color (except for white). Then you have to wait for delivery: from the warehouse - 2 weeks, from the manufacturer - 8. You can order a lot if the series implies similar options. For example, corner sinks, dual, with a worktop, with beveled edges.
Flat flushing toilets (the very, plate-type, which have completed each standard Soviet apartment) in the West, do not use popularity - deep funk-shaped are preferred there. The first is less noisy, but more water requires, and the second is the opposite. Therefore, "for the hill" flat washing is applied only for special sanitary and hygienic purposes (in hospitals, nursing homes, kindergartens).
Choosing the toilet, it is important to take into account the type of its release (that is, the location on it the nozzle from which the wastewater is sent to the sewer tubes). Releases are straight (vertical) directed to the floor; oblique (at an angle to the floor); side (horizontal). Buying a device for an urban apartment, you must take into account the type of sewage pipe layout in your home - under the floors or walls. In the first case, the spectrum of planning solutions is wider, but the overlap must be a large thickness.
Most Russian typical apartments are toilet with oblique release. Vertical happens in some houses buildings about 1953 and is increasingly used in new cottages. Many European manufacturers make toilets and those and other species, and the horizontal release can be converted using the shaped elements to the vertical or oblique, but it is impossible to remake the vertical to other.
In imported triggers a lot of plastic, and the Russian buyer is often confused. On the one hand, it's really not very correct, when Duravit and Keramag fake in the "Named" models make a ceramics racing bunch, which serves only with a cover for plastics inside. On the other hand, the plastic mechanism is much repaired and even more durable (especially with our highly chlorinated water!). The same applies to pipes. Their corrugated species will be useful when transferring the toilet (of course, within reasonable limits), when the bathroom is redeveloped. In addition, the installation of coarse water purification filters is very useful - either for the entire apartment, or before each of the devices. Some Swedish toilet bowls have already built a similar mesh filter. Almost all foreign firms equip the toilet toilet with a double (double button) or an economical flush (the flow of water stops repeated by pressing). Frame is usually adjustable. Note that according to our norms, the tank volume should be at least 6.5 liters. Imported small (on 4 liters) may not provide complete drainage, which is fraught with clogging of sewage, especially in a country cottage (in urban homes, the situation corrects a large overall water pressure from neighboring apartments).
Mounted toilets and bidet are increasingly popular. They save space and are comfortable in cleaning. It is possible to install them on the capital wall: either directly or with a metal frame structure. Of course, their installation is better to instruct specialists from an authorized service so that at least partly avoid conflicts with neighbors, the leakage is happening!
Plumbing price is made up of the price of individual elements. Carefully thinking all the details, it is possible to reduce the cost of purchase by one third. Let's say, you can manage the dirt-repellent coating only to the most necessary places of ceramics. Or purchase compacts that are not close to the wall. Glossy enamel cheaper matte; The only difference is that matte fashionable. The shortened design of an expensive mounted model with a dirt-repellent coating and the cost of work on its installation will cost cheaper than buying an additional ceramic subject - a tank. (On a relatively inexpensive model, this rule does not apply.)
The same principle of economy is fair and in relation to the sinks. They are attached either to the brackets, or on the anchors to the wall, or so, and so. You can only be limited to anchors if there is a pedestal or half-post (they serve as an extra support). Otherwise, it is better to use brackets if the wall is suitable for such an installation. But still it is more reliable to progress, strengthening the wall or bought a pedestal.
The main thing is to remember that you can purchase a relatively cheap model, not inferior to the quality of dear! And last: when repairing, buy the stemmist in the very least. And take care of her, take care! Rare enamel is able to make reusable ones of chlorine-containing cleaning products whose advertising is not coming from our television screens.
The editors thanks Andrei Makarov (Neuhaus design and interior gallery) and novel soft (Laverna trading house) for help in the preparation of material.