How to choose bathroom flooring?
More than just an aesthetic choice, your bathroom flooring must combine comfort, safety, and durability. Between humidity, water splashes, and slip hazards, finding the right floor is mandatory. Which materials should you prioritise? How can you avoid common mistakes? What type of practical and decorative flooring can you choose without blowing your budget? Here is our top 10 essential tips for investing in a bathroom floor.
Prioritise the waterproofing of your bathroom flooring
Between splashes, water droplets escaping from the washbasin, risks of infiltration, and constant water vapour after a hot shower, water resistance is a fundamental criterion when dealing with a bathroom floor.
Why must you choose a sufficiently waterproof bathroom floor? First of all, to extend the lifespan of your home; pay attention to water infiltrations, which can quickly weaken the foundations and structure. Furthermore, this will help limit the proliferation of mold, as a high humidity rate contributes to its rapid development. Finally, you preserve your sanitary installations thanks to a good quality floor that will protect joints, skirting boards, furniture, and equipment.
So, which materials are the best suited and most high-performing for a waterproof wet room floor covering? Discover below a selection of floors that are as aesthetic as they are functional:
- Porcelain stoneware tile flooring: Resistant and harmonious, its decorative possibilities are multiple with glazed porcelain stoneware, which comes in several finishes, effects, and styles (metal, concrete, natural stone, marble, or cement tile effect).
- PVC flooring: Available in click-lock planks or flexible rolls like linoleum, vinyl flooring is easy to install and offers a varied range of styles, colours, and miscellaneous imitations.
- Waxed concrete flooring: It is ideal for covering an old tiled floor. Resistant to mold, it requires an extra finish to optimise waterproofing.
- Laminate bathroom flooring: It is solid, easy to clean, and water-resistant.
- Solid wood parquet: It blends beautifully into a humid room provided you choose a compatible exotic wood species such as teak, mahogany, or bamboo.
Opt for non-slip flooring
Choosing a bathroom flooring also means prioritising the safety of its occupants. Wet surfaces can cause accidents of varying severity. Do you have children or seniors at home? Opt for a floor with non-slip properties to, on one hand, prevent falls by reducing the risk of slips and bodily injuries, and on the other hand, guarantee comfort with each use of the bathroom.
Numerous non-slip bathroom floors exist, such as R11-rated tiling, which possesses high grip and adapts to floors with heavy exposure to water. We also recommend anti-slip vinyl flooring, where the grip is not only correct but requires nothing more than simple maintenance. Finally, textured natural stone flooring can suit the aesthetic; however, it necessitates regular maintenance.
Choose bathroom flooring resistant to impacts and wear
The bathroom is a room with a high frequency of traffic. The floor covering is therefore subjected to numerous impacts and repeated wear. We recommend choosing a floor made of robust materials such as:
- Durable porcelain stoneware tiling: Robust, efficient, and highly resistant to impacts and abrasion;
- Natural stone: Synonymous with authenticity, resistance, and longevity, endowed with a luxurious appearance, though a bit more sensitive to stains;
- Modern waxed concrete: Aesthetic, resistant, solid, and perennial, requiring specific maintenance.
Prefer flooring that is easy to maintain
In a space exposed to water splashes and limescale like a bathroom, make your choice from floor coverings that are easy to maintain. The flooring options to adopt are tiling and vinyl. The former resists water as well as stains and cleans simply with soapy water, while the latter, with its smooth surface, washes easily with the added benefit of not retaining dirt.
- Our advice: To extend the lifespan of your bathroom floor as long as possible, use non-abrasive cleaning products. Dry up splashes as soon as they appear to limit limescale marks.
Find a design and functional bathroom floor
Bring a personal touch to your bathroom floor and preserve its practical aspect! Prioritise a floor covering with patterns and colours to complement the walls and furniture. You can also choose modern and durable finishes.
Follow the trends in design and functional flooring with wood-effect floor coverings for a warm and natural atmosphere, cement tiles for a vintage or even contemporary style, and finally, marble-effect coverings guaranteeing more elegance and refinement.
Ensure the floor covering is compatible with underfloor heating
Is your home equipped with underfloor heating? In this case, it is important to check the compatibility of the floor covering. Tiling is a material compatible with underfloor heating since this material possesses excellent thermal conductivity, which also means it lets heat pass through easily. This is ideal in a bathroom so you do not get cold! But it is not the only one: vinyl PVC is specific to low-temperature underfloor heating. Moreover, it diffuses heat evenly.
- Precautions to take before starting: Before buying your flooring, respect the manufacturer's recommendations. Check the thermal resistance of the selected material.
Choose an ecological bathroom floor
Are you mindful of your environmental impact? For an eco-friendly version of a wet room floor, focus your choice on durable and eco-responsible materials like a floor covering made of plant materials:
- Solid or engineered wood flooring;
- Bamboo flooring;
- Cork flooring tiles;
- Linoleum tiles or rolls;
- Natural or recycled rubber flooring in tiles or by the metre.
Adapt the type of covering to your budget
Investing in a floor covering for your bathroom also means evoking the budget criterion. Fortunately, accessible options exist without making compromises on quality. For small budgets, we advise vinyl bathroom floors or basic tile coverings. The former are inexpensive, highly versatile, and simple to lay, while the latter possess a good quality-to-price ratio with a more than decent lifespan.
- Our tips for making savings: Count on end-of-line stock or current promotions. If you have the necessary skills, you can install it yourself.
Avoid certain mistakes during bathroom floor installation
Are you planning to carry out the installation work of the floor covering in your bathroom yourself? Caution! An inadequate installation can generate water infiltrations, cracks, as well as premature degradation. To apply your covering according to the rules of the art, avoid the following mistakes:
- An insufficient drainage slope: Too slight a floor tilt encourages water stagnation;
- Poorly executed installation or sealing of joints: Unsealed or irregular joints lead to water infiltrations;
- Poor preparation of the substrate: It generates fixing problems for the covering;
- Use of unsuited adhesives: Glues incompatible with humid environments harm the floor's adhesion;
- Disregarding the drying time: Impatience involves the appearance of cracks or peeling.
Favour a moisture-resistant floor covering
When choosing the floor for your bathroom, do not neglect the consequences that temperature changes as well as constant humidity can have on the future of the covering. Prioritise materials capable of supporting these variations without cracking, such as tiling, which is recognized for its robustness as well as its stability against temperature changes and moisture. Or even waxed concrete, appreciated for its firmness, but which requires a specific treatment beforehand.
- A few extra precautions: Remember to treat your surfaces with water-repellent products. Ensure a perfectly executed joint installation to protect your floor covering durably.
The bathroom is a space for relaxation, comfort, and well-being. Choosing the right floor covering guarantees user safety, the longevity of the room, as well as its aesthetic appeal. Are you still hesitating on the choice of materials or on the installation techniques of the new floor covering for your bath space? At Vente-unique, our team is at your disposal to support you in your renovation or new-build project from A to Z. Call upon interior design professionals to materialise all your desires.
