The Best Flooring For Bathroom Upgrades: Exploring All Your Options

Jan 20, 2012 by Frank Scherer

The Best Flooring For Bathroom Upgrades: Exploring All Your Options

There are two things in particular that set a bathroom apart from other rooms in a home when it comes time to deciding on flooring. One is the moisture issue, and most particularly in a bathroom that has a tub or shower in it. Then the second consideration to take into account here is what can best be described as the “comfort factor”.

That is that once again, particularly in the case a bathroom that has a shower or bath in it, people will be walking on the flooring in their bare feet.

Now in some climates it can of course be worse than others but if you live in an area that experiences freezing weather in the winter then for sure this is something that you’ll want to factor into your decision.

So then just what are the options that you have to go over today when you’re setting out to determine what is the best flooring for bathroom remodel work?

The answer here is that they’re a whole lot more than they used to be, and in the end what it all boils down to is personal preference because what may be right for you may not be for someone else.

Carpeting In A Bathroom?

So this starts out with carpeting. Not because it’s the most popular but rather because it’s the most misunderstood of all bathroom flooring products. Now granted, as far as moisture issues are concerned carpeting can for sure be chalked up as the worst of all choices possible.

However, people occasionally do carpet their bathrooms because there are a couple of undeniable benefits that come with it. For instance as far as the foot comfort factor is concerned, carpeting can easily be rated #1. Then if you stop to consider it, it also has great “eye appeal”. It just looks good and when it comes to color selection there’s no other type of flooring that has more to choose from.

Experts recommend “olefin” as the best choice for carpeting in moist conditions. Even then there’s strict guidelines that must be followed during the installation process when laying down carpet in areas where it’s expected that it will be coming in regular contact with water.

What About Hardwood Flooring?

Just like carpet, hardwood flooring doesn’t make it onto a whole lot of folks priority lists of the best flooring for bathroom applications at nowhere near the rate that so many other more popular products do. Once again it’s the moisture factor that has homeowners passing it over but there’s something else to consider in this case.

That is that today you have far more options in types, and styles, finished with more technologically advanced coatings than hardwood flooring in the past. So it’s now for sure far better suited for bathrooms than it used to be.

Even so, in terms of what is the all around best flooring for bathroom moisture issues there really are products that are better suited. There are however, a couple of sensible reasons why people opt for it in their bathrooms, and the first one is that it’s light. It’s light, and in terms of aesthetics it’s more desirable than other light flooring products such as linoleum.

So why should the fact that hardwood flooring is light even matter to you? The answer is simple and that is that in some homes that are not built on a cement slab foundation the structural underpinning is not engineered to support heavy flooring products like tile.

So if this your case, unless you want to go through the work and expense of upgrading the structural underpinning in your floor to accommodate something like ceramic tile or stone, you’re going to have to go with a light product. Then the second advantage that hardwood flooring brings with it is that it’s more “foot friendly” in a cold climate than stone or tile.

Of Course There’s Linoleum

Now when it comes to the all-around number one best flooring for bathroom jobs, linoleum for sure sits near the top of the list of products to consider. Particularly today’s newer and more improved linoleum that looks better, imitates other products like tile, and wood flooring in a far more realistic fashion, has a longer service life, is light, more affordable, and is relatively easy to install.

So as far as popular choices are concerned, linoleum is by far the the best flooring for a bathroom and there can be little doubt about that. Now because it’s so light there’s never any concerns about structural support issues and with so many design styles to choose from there’s also never any trouble finding one that matches the rest of the flooring in a home.

Even so, there is just one area where linoleum comes up short, and that is the “desirability factor” that more upscale flooring products like ceramic tile, and for sure polished granite and marble carry with them. The real big surprise here though, is that linoleum is carbon friendly because it’s not made from petroleum.

It’s actually natural raw materials like linseed oil pine rosin, and cellulose that are used in the manufacturing process. A surprise to a lot of people. So in your case if you’re looking for something green and renewable, linoleum may be the best flooring for bathroom remodel work in your home.

Say “Hello” To Rubber Flooring Products!

Rubber flooring products have been around for decades so you’ve been walking on them all along. You can find them behind supermarket checkout counters, in restaurant kitchens, and places like gyms, and equestrian centers. So rubber is great stuff for floors but it really just never occurred anyone that it would eventually would find it’s way into homes.

This isn’t the same rubber flooring that you can find underneath the workout equipment your local membership gym either because it’s now available in a broad range of colors and designs, including realstic soft and durable faux hardwood. Now it goes without saying that it’s a perfect fit in a wet environment but it’s also soft on the the feet as well, so it’s good insulator too.

Rubber flooring is also easy to install because cuts easily with a razor knife, lays down flat without glue, and is far more forgiving than linoleum in terms of riding over problem floor surfaces. Rubber flooring is also available in a broad range of prices too and has a long low maintenance service life.

At the same time though, it does have one downside in that it tends to have a matte surface that doesn’t have quite the same gloss and shine that you can expect from other flooring more conventional products like hardwood, polished stone, ceramic tile, and linoleum.

The Pros And Cons Of Ceramic Tile

“Ceramic bathroom floor tile is often used because of its durability, resistance to dampness, its safety to walk on when wet and its ease of cleaning. If you select ceramic tiles for your bathroom, consider using a tile that has a slip-resistant surface for bathroom safety, which is one of the best bathroom tile ideas. If you buy and install unglazed tiles, they will need to be washed frequently because they absorb stains quite easily”.

Ceramic floor tile  is great for bathrooms like the one shown here at design-rooms.net, and now that there’s good brush or spray on anti-slip products available on the market ceramic is even better. It’s just common sense that in any bathroom where water is an issue ceramic tile is a great choice, and the fact that it comes in just so many styles and designs makes the choice even easier.

Tile’s been around for thousands years, and over that time it hasn’t changed at all, other than the massive numbers of colors and styles that have been introduced. Prices also run the full spectrum along the same curve as selection in styles. This is however, also one of the more labor-intensive flooring systems that you can have installed as well.

It’s also worth mentioning that a supporting flooring framing underpinning system has to be built strong enough for tile, unless it’s going down on a cement slab. Make the mistake of installing ceramic tile on a wood floor that isn’t engineered for it, and you’ll end up with cracked tiles coming loose and gradually disintegrating grout.

Polished Marble And Granite Tile

As far as the “wow factor” is concerned polished marble, and granite tile sit at the top of more people’s lists of the best flooring for bathroom improvements than all the other products sold. Top-of-the-line premium product in this genre just looks like “a million bucks” when all the work is done, and the nice thing about both of them is that they go on walls well too.

Marble an showers look amazing and there are literally thousands of styles marble in particular to select from too. Types that come from all parts of the globe with amazing colors, and patterns. Be aware though, that marble is softer than granite with polished limestone being the softest, and least resistant to scratching.

The hardest of them all is black granite tiles because it’s the hard iron content that gives it its blackness. However, along with the darker color comes a higher price because the harder it is the more difficult is to quarry, slice and polish. Premium grade tiles can be quite expensive

So then what’s the big downside of this highly prized king of bathroom flooring materials? That would have be that out of all of the flooring materials that are available polished stone in particular is by far the most slippery when wet, so in this sense it really does present a very real danger issue that has to be taken into account.

Polished Concrete Flooring

Polished concrete flooring has a number of things going for it and as more home and business owners discover all the positives that come with it, it only continues to become more popular. It’s an image problem however, that keeps polished concrete from taking off in a big way because most people have it stuck in their head that concrete can only function as a base construction material.

That it’s best flooring for bathroom work, just as long as it’s sitting underneath whatever is functioning as the real flooring installed on top of it. If you stop and think about though, structurally speaking concrete fits the bill just fine. It’s relatively easily formed, can be colored or affected with any number of decorating additives, painted or stained, sets up rock-solid without being killed fired, and once it’s covered with a sealer it’s perfectly waterproof.

Then the “icing on the cake” is that concrete being that it is stone polishes up like glass. Also another clever technique that’s used to dress up a plain concrete floor, is to run a masonry saw across the top in a mapped out shallow crisscross pattern after it’s set up, to create the effect of grout lines.

Slate For Bathroom Floors

Slate is another flooring product that’s been around for thousands of years, and it’s great for bathrooms because it’s completely resistant to water after it’s sealed. Slate also has a matte surface that’s not as slippery as other materials like ceramic tile, and for sure polished marble, and granite.

Also because of slates matte surface that’s available in a broad range of earth tones it tends to blend well with other colors. Slate’s a natural carbon friendly flooring product too which has also helped to boost its popularity ratings over the last couple of decades in particular.

So then with so many glowing positives going for slate why isn’t it recognized as the all-time best flooring for bathroom upgrades? The reason for that is because it does have a couple of downsides that keep a whole lot of people who initially consider it from following through and having it installed.

For instance slate is expensive because it’s so labor-intensive to quarry, split and process. Particularly cut Slate tiles. Then because it’s also heavy, so the underpinning of wood a framed floor has to be engineered for it unless of course it’s going to be installed on a cement slab.

The Art Of Epoxy Terrazzo Flooring

Terrazzo flooring has been around for hundreds of years, beginning when it was first developed in Venice when construction workers began looking for ways to make use of all the chips that were being generated in the glass factories, shops, and marble carving studios.

So they sprinkled the colored chips on the surface of freshly poured concrete, pushed it down into it using a roller then sanded and polished the surface smooth after it set up, and cured. Then from there they went on to develop other methods for creating contrasting colors and patterns that are now the main hallmark of a high-quality terrazzo floor.

However, it was back in 1970s when a polymer-based product was developed that’s easier to blend, handle, and apply, more resistant to cracking, goes on thinner, is completely waterproof, and is opaque. That last fact alone allows for so much more leeway in terms of creating new “looks and styles”.

Moving away from concrete that requires a deeper minimum thickness to the polymer plastic that can be laid down as little as an inch thick also meant that Terrazzo is now far more applicable to wood subflooring. So yes, terrazzo flooring is going through a modern day renaissance in bathrooms.

Then still one more thing that’s made it even easier to bring the unique look of terrazzo into a bathroom, is the advent of pre-manufactured terrazzo tiles that offer design patterns in pre-made kit form. That is floor systems that contain classic terrazzo designs that can be installed “tile by tile” rather than the traditional method.