What’s the Best Flooring to Use in a Bathroom?

Bathrooms are one of the most frequently used rooms in a home. And yet they rarely get the kind of foot traffic that a kitchen or a mudroom sees. In addition, bathrooms are often wet and subject to spills from toothpaste, hairspray, soaps, and lotions that can all affect the floor. Combined, all of this means that the flooring choice you make for your bathroom could be more complicated than it appears at first glance.

Durability

When considering what type of flooring to use in your bathroom, consider the durability of it in terms of its use. For example, you probably rarely wear shoes in there, so it’s less important that you use tile that could be scratched, so a choice such as glass tile that could not be used in an entryway can be used in a family bathroom.

On the other hand, you have a lot of water and some acid and alkaline substances in the bathroom. So the tile you use should be impervious to those substances whenever possible. So porcelain, ceramic, and glass tile all tend to hold up fairly well to these products.

Stone tile can be used in the bathroom, but depending on the type you choose you may need to consider a few things such as:

• Sealing it regularly, particularly in shower areas, tub decks, and kids’ bathrooms
• Wiping up spills as soon as you notice them to prevent etching and staining
• Potentially choosing a stone that is less likely to stain or scratch such as granite, slate, or quartzite
• Selecting a stone that is not slippery when wet to avoid spills

Style

It’s all well and good to consider the function of the tile first, but style definitely has an impact on what you will ultimately use in your bathrooms. Porcelain is probably the most versatile of all the bathroom flooring materials around. It comes in styles that mimic the look of stone, metal, glass, wood, and even fabric so you can match any style. Ceramic tile is often more traditional in appearance, which works well in some older and more formal homes. Glass is the most contemporary, but can also be a fun choice for kids’ bathrooms.

Be sure when you choose your style that you take the material into account first to ensure that it holds up as well as possible over the years.