Bathrooms and coconuts..
We are in the process of building a second floor bathroom and I came across this material as a tile alternative. Its called Membira by a brand named EKOBA (I think). Has anyone used it? Could you comment on cost and durability? It would be serving as a “splash guard” on two walls enclosing our…
We are in the process of building a second floor bathroom and I came across this material as a tile alternative.
Its called Membira by a brand named EKOBA (I think).
Has anyone used it? Could you comment on cost and durability? It would be serving as a “splash guard” on two walls enclosing our tub.
I am curious both about how much it costs to be environmentally righteous and how it holds up compared to tile.
Thanks,
BKLYN
I saw these tiles at Coverings in Chicago and they were gorgeous!
Gennero is right that the tiles come from Ekobe. They are a Brazilian company that makes tiles from coconuts and rice peels that are waste products, so the tile is very environmentally friendly. I think the tiles shown in this photo are a different, smaller type of coconut. Very unique! There were several styles shown and they were all nice.
As for availability, I know that http://www.wholesaletile.biz also carries these tiles, as that is who was showing them at Coverings.
In terms of cleaning again it is the grout not the nut that will need cleaning. The nut absorbs almost nothing and does not attract mold. The grout on the other hand can get discolored by metals in the water or by mold for example. It is not something you can easily clean since it is in the grout itself and not on the surface. But that is way down the line. Good sealing avoids the issue.
If it was sealed fairly flush, I assume the qualities and cleaning agents to be used, would be similar to cork.
What products would you use to clean it? seems like they might be a bit of pain to clean.
The Brazilian company Ekobe does sell flooring and wall materials made out of coconut. And the only distributor in the US happens to be Nemo Tile in Manhattan. Coconut is a very eco friendly product since it is rapidly renewable. You are basically harvesting the nut from the tree.
Coconut is VERY durable and water resistant. Coconuts travel thousands of miles in the ocean without being damaged.
Honestly the photo you provide does not appear to depict coconuts, though…. 🙂 It appears to be some other form of nut. But nonetheless they look like a close relative of the coconut and their consistency appears just as strong.
I am not familiar with a product line by Ekobe with this nut.
Either way, you won’t have any problem at all with the actual nut. The problem is that since the nut does have large amounts of space around it you need to pay attention to is the grout. You need to make sure you use extra strong and waterproof grout and that it is correctly installed.
It needs to be installed on a strong and waterproof backing so that there is no movement that would cause cracking. And once it is dry you need to seal the grout and repeat the seal every so often, maybe once a year. That is easy to do and takes little time.
I hope this helps.
Gennaro Brooks-Church
EcoBrooklyn.com
I am not familiar with Membira, but I would recommend caution, lots of questions and probably even some experimentation before purchase/installation. At a certain point, certain eco-friendly clothing lines reintroduced buttons made from tagua nuts. What they didn’t count on was the number of people who didn’t move clothes straight from the washer to the dryer. After being left to soak, the buttons became water-logged and damaged. If Membira is made from coconut husks or shells, I can only imagine it would need to be extremely well-sealed before use in a bathroom, and probably not even then. It does have a great look, though.