As a guest speaker, Carl Prinz is one of the best partners we could have wished for. For this company sets new standards in the floor, wall and ceiling sectors, thanks to its pioneering product systems.

In talking to international sales director Orlando Roque and technical application manager Norbert Lauhoefer, we want to get to know more about the profile systems Carl Prinz brings to market. Our interlocutors start their presentation by referring to the company’s guiding principle: ‘Strong contacts. Clever technology’.

“We are specialized in the development of intelligent profile systems for floors and walls. User-friendliness, safety and perfect design are always top priority”, says Orlando Roque. “With Prinz, its process competence includes all development, testing and production steps from the first idea up to market readiness. In this way, we can directly accompany changes in the market, respond to individual customer requests and guarantee a long-term high quality.”
“When we develop product systems, they have to be sophisticated, safe and durable”, adds Norbert Lauhoefer. “They must allow time-saving and easy installation.”

Vast range
When looking at the range, you immediately notice how vast it is. Prinz manufacturers only aluminium profiles, especially multi-part profiles for laminate, parquet and LVT.

“Our core range of skirting boards is divided into clip skirting boards 354 to 359, with and without cable routing 350, 352 and 362”, Mr. Lauhoefer explains. “There are aluminium skirting boards for direct assembly as well, by which I mean, for example, glued, with flat inserts, such as for LVT and LVT Click 378 to 379, as well as the possibility of integrating parquet or laminate floor coverings in an angle profile 375 , 376, 377, 386, 387, 388 and 389.”

“Clipping means the baseboards are installed on a special plastic clip, based on our experience with clip profiles such as the PROFI TEC profile, and are therefore also reversible. For these skirtings, we also offer the customer prefabricated inside and outside corners, as well as end pieces and in some cases also hose seals in order to minimize footfall noise and the ingress of moisture under the skirting board. The range includes base profiles with heights of 60, 70, 80 and 100 mm and widths of 10 and 13 mm. There is also partly the possibility to equip them with an LED strip. The user has the option of using the skirting boards flush with the surface or as a top-mounted installation. In addition to the extensive range of aluminium skirting boards, we also offer our customers MDF and plastic skirting boards to give them the widest possible selection.”

Strategy
We want to know more about the company’s strategy with its skirting boards, both in its own country, as well as the Benelux and worldwide. And what are the plans for the future?

“Prinz is already very active internationally, but mainly in the European border countries we are successfully represented in the specialist trade”, Mr. Roque elaborates. “Of course we want to expand this further and in doing so, we focus on wood specialists, retailers and all wholesalers in the areas of interior design and flooring.”

“As for the future plans, I have to stress we mainly focus on low-emission laying materials. There will be no particular innovations in the area of floor coverings. The focus is currently on the vertical construction. We notice how the developments in the field of wall coverings and acoustics are also attracting greater interest from the floor covering manufacturers. Prinz already has a range of one-piece wall profiles, for instance for wall coverings with a material thickness of up to 4.5 mm, but soon, you can expect a product expansion. Since these are still profiles under development, we don't want to reveal too much at the moment. We also want to be able to come up with surprises at Domotex 2024…”

Inlays or no inlays
As the focus of this edition’s file is on inlays, we probe how Carl Prinz feels about the inlay options. Is this still popular? And how exactly does the company play in to this demand?

“Prinz has been producing aluminium skirting boards for the installation of floor coverings of 2 to 5 mm for many years. These skirting boards are still doing well, especially in the contract sector”, opens Norbert Lauhofer. “The last two years, we expanded the range. Since LVT and SPC floor coverings are now also being laid in bathrooms and here, especially in rental areas, the existing floor coverings and the existing tile bases cannot or must not be removed, Prinz has developed the skirting board 369 and 370 based on the carpet renovation strip. This profile can simply be glued to the cleaned tile base with an assembly adhesive and then provided with a strip of the floor covering on the front. The minimum height is 40 mm and there are no upper limits. When you move out, the entire system can be easily removed. The same applies to our skirting board 390, which makes it possible to insert parquet floor coverings up to 16 mm thick in order to have 100% the same decor of the floor covering as a skirting board.”

“When talking about skirting boards with the possibility to insert floor covering strips, we notice how LVT Dryback floor coverings with a thickness of 2 to 2.5 mm are most frequently installed in the commercial sector”, Orlando Roque steps in. “The demand for narrow baseboards is correspondingly high here. In office and hotel construction it is clearly clips skirting boards that are preferred. In residential construction, it is more the Click LVT and SPC coverings with thicknesses of 4 to 5 mm that are correspondingly high in demand for skirting boards with the appropriate plug-in option. Here, plastic and MDF skirting boards are just as often in demand.”

Some things are only ‘nice to have’
We ask why Carl Prinz doesn’t bring any finished skirting boards to market with inlays. Both our interlocutors react immediately: this is not our business!

“When you talk about inlays, you must mean real wood or stone inserts that are integrated into the profiles. There are manufacturers who build Swarovski stones into their profiles in order to appeal to an exceptional market. We call that no more than a ‘nice to have’”, Orlando Roque states firmly. “We see ourselves as a manufacturer of functional products with a focus on sustainability and reusability. That's why we only use plastic clips for clip systems and not aluminium, which can no longer be used after dismantling. Our focus in this is to deliver safe systems, without claiming to be exceptional!”

In conclusion, we also want to know a little bit more about how Carl Prinz matches its skirting boards to the floors. What is Prinz’ practical approach to this?
“We give our customer the option of choosing between a large number of anodized shades and colours through powder coating”, concludes Norbert Lauhoefer. “Wood decors can be selected in our plastic or MDF range. For aluminium skirting boards, more purist colours such as silver or matt stainless steel are in demand. In the case of skirting boards with the option of inserting the floor covering, the decor results from the inserted strip. Above all, we make sure that the skirting boards cover the necessary edge joints sufficiently wide and do not look too clumsy.”