Everything started with a photo, which shows one of the oldest buildings on Lübeck Bay – the Dryade Hotel, a venerable institution. The villa, built at the beginning of the 20th century, creates a definite atmosphere, with many corners and fine wooden balconies. The hotel lost a lot of its original charm when it was converted into the Hotel Meridian in the 1970s. Designer Til Schweiger, who gave the new hotel development its name, and the project owner, JASIKA Hotelgesellschaft mbH, wanted to change all that together with their architects. They breathed new life into the building with complex alterations and a fine sense of historic seaside resort architecture from the Baltic to the East Coast and the Hamptons. Only the facade and the core of the old building remained. Everything else was rebuilt and an extension was added.

Decorative and ready for direct use: exclusive concrete-effect flooring

A motif that was to be found throughout the hotel was the flair of the southern states - from the facade to the accessories in the rooms and the floor coverings. For the ground floor, with an area of about 400 square metres, including lobby, foyer, restaurant and corridors, the architects opted for high-quality concrete-effect flooring. It was decided to install the professional “direct-use decorative flooring” system from PCI Augsburg GmbH to ensure results that were both durable and attractive. An equally high-quality system was to be used for laying parquetry in the guest rooms. About 1,000 square metres of parquetry with an exclusive design were laid using PCI PAR 365 parquet adhesive. “The pressure of time was enormous and many different disciplines were working in parallel. Thanks to very good coordination with all the other contractors working on site, we succeeded in meeting the time schedule,” Eric Peter reports. The PCI applications technician provided support and advice for floor laying work at the barefoot Hotel from planning through to completion.

Easy processing, rapid progress

To ensure firm bonding of the concrete flooring, the substrate was primed with PCI Gisogrund 404. The special solvent-free, low-emission primer has a violet colour, which means that progress with the work is easy to monitor. Irregularities in the substrate and transitions between old and new building were levelled using PCI STL 39. This non-sag levelling compound cures fast and can already be covered with subsequent layers after only one hour. PCI Zemtec 1K also guarantees rapid progress: the decorative floor coating can be pumped thanks to its easily flowing consistency. This means that it can be processed very easily, with very little effort. Using pumps, very high application rates can be achieved.

To ensure a more intensive colouring, the coating, which was applied in a layer of about five millimetres, was sanded down using sanding discs and cleaning pads in a multi-head sander. The floor coating, which has the “Blauer Engel” environmental seal of approval, could already be sealed using PCI Zemtec Top after 24 hours, with a second coat applied four hours later. The two-component aqueous polyurethane sealing compound further improves the appearance of the concrete flooring, giving it a silky matt finish. The sealing compound also ensures that the flooring is strong and erosion-resistant.

Walking barefoot a definite possibility

The barefoot Hotel Timmendorfer Strand, with 57 individually equipped rooms of various sizes, opened in 27 May 2017. The concrete flooring on the ground floor underlines the overall impression of the hotel with its bright colours and its natural, modern lightness of touch. At the barefoot Hotel, guests are intended not only to feel at home but also to experience the flair of the US East Coast. Authenticity and wanderlust go hand-in-hand – and walking barefoot is certainly possible on the expertly laid concrete flooring and parquetry!