European marking of floor coverings

The placing of construction products on the European market is regulated by the European Construction Regulation (CPR). Construction products complying with the requirements stipulated in the technical specifications are entitled to be identified with the CE marking and to be traded.

This regulation applies

• since 2007, to resilient, textile and laminate floor covering (EN 14041)
• since 2010, to parquet and wood flooring  (EN 14342)

European notified bodies like eco-INSTITUT are authorised to perform the required tests.

EN 16516

Harmonised testing method for evaluation of VOC emissions off construction products

On the basis of the EU-Mandate M366 the working group of the European Committee for Standardization CEN/TC351/WG2 developed a harmonised testing method for evaluation of VOC emissions off construction products.

The title of the harmonised testing method, having been adopted as draft on Sept 6th, 2012, is “Construction products – Assessment of release of dangerous substances – Determination of emissions in indoor air”. The first part of the draft’s validation, however, has been already published as the study “Robustness Validation of Methods”.

The publication of the harmonised testing method as CEN technical specification (CEN/TS 16516) was published in October 2013.

The standard is available via DIN- Normenaussuss Bauwesen at Beuth-Verlag.

The publication of the harmonised testing method as EN standard took place in October 2017. (s.news)

The according product standards (hEN’s) have to be completed by product-specific precepts for sampling and sampling preparation.

For the future it is planned to replace national approvals by CE marking.

German national technical approvals (Ü mark) are affected by this: on Oct 16, 2014, European Court of Justice suspended the German regualtion on Ü marks for florr coverings as trading barrier in the EU. Since Oct 16, 2016 the law is effective. The federal goverment of Germany, however, filed a suit in spring 2017 as through this big gaps in security standards for constrution products have come into existence. (s. also news).

European Technical Assessment (ETA)

If a construction product is not or not completely covered by a harmonised standard, it can be marketed throughout Europe by means of a European Technical Assessment.

An ETA is a product performance certificate leading to CE marking. It allows a product to be distributed throughout the European Economic Area, the Switzerland and Turkey – and worldwide.

You find further information about an ETA by the DIBt on this page under the tab “Links”.

European Assessment Documentation

An EAD is a harmonised technical specification developed by EOTA as a basis for European Technical Assessments (ETA).

In combination with an ETA, the EAD provides manufacturers a possibility to CE mark construction products that are not or not fully covered by a harmonised European standard (hEN) according to the Construction Products Regulation (EU) 305/2011. CE marking allows the manufacturer to freely market his product throughout the European Economic Area as well as in Switzerland and Turkey.

Since the CPR (Construction Products Regulation) came into force until the end of 2020, EOTA has developed 514 EADs, based on which the EOTA Technical Assessment Bodies have issued 8869 ETAs.

Source: EOTA 2020 Annual Report

A new aspect is that a number of EADs include emission measurements according to EN 16516. Therefore, we have added the tab “EAD documents for download” to our “Documents for download” tab: this lists all EADs that include a test procedure according to EN 16516 – each with the date of publication.

Subject to change without notice; last updated: June 14th, 2023