CE marking of wall and ceiling coverings

The CE marking of wall and ceiling coverings is part of the EU construction products directive 89/106/EC of 21.12.1988. The EU legislation considers wall and ceiling coverings as building materials (just like floor coverings). Thererfore they are part of the EU directive and thus of the application field of CE-marking.

CE mark mandatory as from January 1, 2011 

As construction products, these materials are subject to the legal regulations imposed by the construction product directive of 1989. This directive is translated in a harmonized standard. The European standard for wall and ceiling coverings EN 15102 was published in September 2007 but has only recently obtained the statute of a harmonized standard by its publication in Official Journal of the European Union (volume 52, 18 december 2009).

As a consequence it will be possible to affix the CE-mark on wall and ceiling coverings as from January 1, 2010. This will however become mandatory as from January 1, 2011..

By affixing the CE mark, the manufacturer (or the person introducing the product in the common market, claims that his product complies with the safety requirements imposed by the harmonized product standard (for all wall and ceiling coverings this is EN 15102) for a well-defined application field.

Once the product is approved by one member state of the EU, the product is automatically approved for the same properties in the entire EU.

In other words, CE-marking is a necessary condition to introduce wall and ceiling coverings in the European common market.

EN 15102

The harmonized standard defines the following requirements: 

•reaction at fire

•emission of formaldehyde

•emission of heavy metals and vinyl chloride monomer

•sound absorption

•thermal resistance / heat permeation

The work group CEN /TC 99 "wallcoverings" is elaborating a simplified procedure to assess burning behaviour.

Source : Centexbel