When talking about flooring, there are general considerations on the table: durability, aesthetic, texture and feel. However, there is one more important factor when it comes to bathroom flooring: moisture.
Water is a bathroom staple and it is the major consideration when choosing the flooring. To avoid making the wrong choice, here are the top 5 bathroom flooring options and their corresponding potentials according to About Home:
Solid hardwood
Not the best option for the bathroom flooring, but solid hardwood looks great and feels warm against the feet. Then there is moisture, which doesn't really work well for hardwood. But if you want to push this, just make sure to install them properly by seeing to it that there are no gaps for water and moisture to seep through.
Laminate flooring
This is a cheap option that could actually work with extra caution. Laminate is made of an upper wear layer that simulates oak, cherry, slate, marble, or any design and a base made of wood chip. Technically, laminate is a waterproof material which is ideal to use for the bathroom plus it is easy to clean and maintain. However, the installation has to be done to the nines to ensure that no water gets through the wood chip base which obviously is not supposed to get wet.
Engineered wood
If you are going for that Old English feel in your bathroom and you only have wood flooring in mind, then engineered wood is the best option compared to solid wood. It is made of plywood (which works well with moisture) and real wood as an upper layer which will look incredible for the theme you are going for.
Stone
You can mark moisture problem off the list with stone, but also bid goodbye to hefty dollars off your pocketbook. It could be marble, granite, limestone, etc., stone is one of the more popular choices of flooring for bathrooms since it stands moisture and is easy to maintain. However, it is not considered as the best and top-most option because of several issues. One is that stone tend to be cold, and this is not fun during winter. Second, stone can be slippery, but you have the option to go for textured stone or have it sandblasted,
Sheet or tile vinyl
When talking about practicality, then you hit the jackpot with this. You can apply this flooring yourself in a weekend DIY project and you have a sea of style options to choose from to fit the look you are going for. It is also undeniably way cheaper than the other flooring options mentioned. And you ask the downside? Well, it's vinyl, and no amount of style or texturing can make that non-obvious.
