MVK: painted wet-room surfaces that are built to last ten years

Tiles get the attention, but many wet-room walls — and the areas just outside the splash zone — are finished with a painted system instead. Done casually, paint in a damp room peels, blisters and lets moisture into the wall within a year or two. Done to Sweden's MVK standard, a painted wet-room system is engineered to last at least ten years. MVK, the painting trade's wet-room rules, took effect in its current form on 1 January 2026.

A standard, not just a coat of paint

MVK is published by the Swedish painting industry together with the paint and adhesive manufacturers, as a practical application of Boverket's building regulations. The point is to guarantee high quality and long life for painted surfaces in wet rooms, so the risk of moisture damage and hygiene problems is removed. As with the other wet-room trades, the rules work through authorised companies and qualified painters, approved systems, and documentation handed to the client.

Approved systems, used whole

A painted wet-room surface is not one product — it is an approved system: a reinforcing cloth (väv), primer/adhesive, and topcoats that are tested and certified together. Only complete systems from the approved list may be used where MVK applies, and they must be installed exactly per the manufacturer's execution instructions. Substituting a cheaper topcoat, or skipping the reinforcing layer, breaks the system and voids its rating.

The rules distinguish surfaces that must be watertight from those that need only be water-resistant, tied to the room's wet zones — so the right system goes in the right place.

Where painted systems can and can't go

A central principle is to avoid breaking the waterproof layer in wet zone 1 wherever possible. If something must be installed through it — a plumbing cabinet, for instance — it has to achieve proper adhesion and watertightness, using products tested and approved for the purpose. For a plumbing fitting to be mounted watertight together with a painted system, a factory-fitted foil flange is required. These are the details that separate a system that holds from one that quietly leaks at a fixing.

Substrate, execution and care

As with tiling, the substrate must be sound, dry and properly prepared. The cloth, primer and topcoats are applied in the specified sequence and coats, penetrations and fixings are sealed, and the finished system is left with care instructions — because a ten-year service life assumes the surface is maintained and seals around fittings are kept intact.

Coordinated with water, waterproofing and electrics

MVK is aligned with the Säker Vatten plumbing rules, the waterproofing rules, and the Swedish electrical standards, so that a painted wet room is consistent with everything else happening in the space. No trade is treated in isolation.

M5's take for Dubai

A painted wet-room wall looks the same whether it was done properly or not — until it fails. We use approved systems installed complete, correct zoning, proper sealing at every fitting, and a care sheet you can actually follow, so a painted surface in your home is a deliberate, durable choice rather than a corner cut to save a few dirhams.