Article/Zen Can
On April 3, 2020, the tiles on the third floor of a 20-year-old residential building in Foshan, Guangdong suddenly fell off and hit a tent at a COVID-19 prevention and control checkpoint downstairs. Fortunately, the volunteers on duty at the checkpoint escaped because they took the temperature of the neighbors outside the tent, but the chairs inside the tent were smashed out of shape.
It is not uncommon for ceramic tiles to fall off buildings and cause casualties. It's just that this time it "had something to do" with the epidemic and appeared in Foshan, the "Ceramic Capital", so it attracted more attention from people in the ceramic industry. The author searched on Baidu with the keyword "tiles hurt people", and there were about 6070000 pop-up results, which is really shocking. People are surprised.
Judging from the location where it occurred, the "tiles hurting people" incident can be vividly divided into two types: "external trouble" and "internal trouble".
01
External trouble: Frequent incidents of falling off tiles on exterior walls
Including the Foshan case on April 3, the author learned through Internet searches that there were as many as ten incidents of exterior wall tiles falling off during the epidemic period alone.
In April, the exterior wall tiles of multiple buildings in a community in Luoyang, Henan Province fell off, but there were no casualties or property losses.
In April, a large area of exterior wall tiles fell off in a community in Nanchong, Sichuan, less than a month after it was accepted and registered. There were no casualties or property losses.
In April, the tiles on the exterior wall of a building in a community in Wuhan, Hubei Province fell off during a night of wind and rain.Casualties and property damage. Two months ago, the building's exterior wall tiles fell off, causing a solar water heater on the rooftop to be damaged.
In April, tiles on the exterior wall of a building in a community in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province fell off and hit six cars parked next to a car wash outside the community.
In March, tiles on the exterior wall of a building in a community in Zhengzhou, Henan Province fell off, injuring a passerby who was walking on the street.
In March, the exterior wall tiles of a building in No. 2 of a community in Baoji, Shaanxi Province fell off. There were no casualties or property losses.
In March, tiles from the exterior walls of a community in Suqian, Jiangsu Province frequently fell off in large areas and smashed through the balcony glass of residents' homes, posing great safety risks to residents' travel and life. A few months ago, the tiles on the exterior wall of a building in this community fell off once.
In March, the exterior walls of a community in Huaiyuan, Anhui Province fell off in large areas again, with no casualties or property losses. Most of the houses in this community are demolished and restored, and most of the houses have been handed over less than five years ago, so they are not considered an old community.
In March, an exterior wall tile fell again in a community in Shaoxing, Zhejiang. There were no casualties or property losses.
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02
Internal concerns: Injury incidents with wall tiles and floor tiles are common
It may sound unlikely that interior wall tiles could fall off and injure someone, but there are documented cases.
In November 2019, when a woman in Qingdao, Shandong Province was taking a bath at home, the tiles on the bathroom wall suddenly fell off and hit her ankle, causing serious injuries.
In April 2019, a woman from Beijing stayed at a hotel in Zibo, Shandong Province. While taking a shower in the bathroom, she was hit by a fallen tile on her right foot, causing blood to flow.
Injuries caused by slippery ground are more common. Relevant data from the World Health Organization show that more than 300,000 people die from falls every year around the world, and most of them fall because of slippery floors.
In January this year, a woman checked into a hotel in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, and accidentally slipped and fell while taking a shower in the bathroom, resulting in the death of her 7-month-old child.
In September 2019, the famous cultural scholar and collector Ma Weidu accidentally slipped in the bathroom, so he wrote the "Safety Book" calling on the society to pay attention to the elderly people's falls and injuries in the bathroom.
In October 2019, a young girl slipped in the bathroom of her rented house in Huizhou, Guangdong. Her foot slipped into the squat toilet and was severely scratched by broken porcelain pieces.
In December 2018, a young man slipped and fell in the bathroom of a shopping mall in Yulin, Shaanxi Province and died because he did not receive timely assistance.
In June 2018, a man slipped in a five-star hotel room in Shanghai and fractured his lumbar spine.
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No need to give any more examples, the author has experienced it himselfSimilar experience.
In November last year, the author almost slipped in the bathroom of a hotel during a business trip in Qingdao, Shandong Province, so I suddenly realized that today, I suddenly discovered that no matter how anti-slip the tiles are, the problem cannot be solved fundamentally. The anti-slip function of the shoes is the key. Big The disposable slippers provided by most hotels are simply designed to kill guests," he said jokingly.
03
Countermeasures: Make internal and external efforts to solve the hidden dangers of ceramic tiles
The casualties caused by so many tiles falling off and slipping are shocking. It is urgent to solve the problem of tile safety. Of course, this requires the joint efforts of many parties inside and outside the ceramic industry.
Efforts should be made from the outside, that is, the responsible party of the building should actively take responsibility and strive to eliminate the hidden dangers of falling off and slipping of tiles and injuring people; ordinary people should pay great attention to the phenomenon of falling and slipping of tiles and injuring people, and stay away from danger areas; the country should further improve relevant Laws and regulations provide legal basis for handling such incidents.
To work from within, we need to open up all upstream and downstream links inside and outside the ceramic industry. The key lies in manufacturers (ceramics companies) and dealers implementing user thinking.
From the perspective of ordinary people outside the industry, once encountering tiles falling off or slipping, the first thought is probably that the quality of the tiles is not up to par, rather than improper laying or improper use of the tiles. There are actually many reasons for the tiles to fall off. In addition to the unqualified water absorption rate of the tiles, they also include the quality of the paving, such as the wall putty layer is not cleaned properly, the ratio of cement to sand is wrong, the tiles are not soaked before being paved, and the base plastering is not done well. The wall base was not watered, the ceramic tiles had insufficient seams, the cement grade was improperly selected, and the cement mortar was not evenly applied. Although people in the industry often explain the reasons why ceramic tiles fall off, explanations alone are far from enough. What consumers need is not a verbal explanation of the reasons, but a practical solution to the problem.
For dealers, it is about providing good services with users as the core. Dealers must not only sell ceramic tiles to consumers, but also provide good pre-sales, during-sales and after-sales services, especially goodProvide guidance on paving or do the paving work directly. After consumers move into the renovated house, they should still pay attention to those tiles regularly to avoid problems that may arise during the use of the tiles such as falling off.
Judging from the terminal market research that the author participated in in many places on China Ceramics Network last year, especially in Jinan, many dealers such as Nobel Jinan dealers (Jinan Tianrun Weiye Building Materials Co., Ltd.) have done an excellent job in serving consumers. All have established their own ceramic tile construction teams. I believe that in the process of serving consumers, it has solved the problem of ceramic tiles falling off with its professional services.
For manufacturers, they must also provide products and services with users as the core. Manufacturers should take the initiative to take responsibility, closely integrate national energy conservation, consumption reduction, environmental protection and other policies, fully consider consumer needs, integrate the resources and strength of all upstream and downstream parties, and keep pace with the times in research and development and production quality. Excellent ceramic tiles, continuously improving, innovating and promoting ceramic tile paving technology.
Such as Hongtao, Mona Lisa, Weimei, Hongyu, Xinruncheng, Oceano, New Pearl, Dongpeng, Jianyi, Eagle Brand, Nobel, Gold Medal, Shuncheng, Best, Smick, Lehua, Ceramic upstream and downstream enterprises such as Nengqiang, Jinduo, Tongyi, Golden Lion, Xinghui and Dahong Glaze completed the drafting of the national standard "Ceramic Tile Anti-Slip Grade Evaluation" in 2019; Hongyu, Guanzhu, Dongpeng, Ceramic companies such as Qianghui, Eagle, and Wrigley have intensively promoted anti-skid tiles since 2019.
If manufacturers and dealers can implement user thinking well and do related work to the extreme, they can not only solve problems such as tiles falling off and slipping, but also win the trust of consumers, thus building a healthy pan-home marketing ecosystem. chain to gain a broader space for survival and development.
