When it comes to choosing new flooring materials for your home, the bathroom requires some special consideration. The amount of moisture and humidity produced in a bathroom can cause havoc with certain flooring materials. Ensuring your flooring material of choice can withstand constant spills and splashes is key to a beautiful and long lasting bathroom. That said, can hardwood flooring be used in bathrooms? The short answer is that it’s not a very good idea. While it’s now possible to get water resistant hardwood, it’s not necessarily waterproof. There’s a big difference between water resistant and waterproof. Water resistant flooring may not be able to deal with the conditions in a bathroom. Here are some other options for bathroom flooring.
Luxury Vinyl Tile
Luxury vinyl tile (LVT) is ideal for bathrooms not only because it’s waterproof, but because it also feels great underfoot. It’s also one of the most durable flooring materials available these days. LVT also allows you to replicate the look of hardwood if you really have your heart set on that style.
Sheet Vinyl
Sheet vinyl is an affordable alternative to LVT. However, that doesn’t mean that it looks or feels cheap. Today’s sheet vinyl is available in all sorts of designs and styles while still providing a comfortable underfoot feel. It’s waterproof and is easily cleaned and maintained. If you want a bathroom flooring material that’s affordable, functional and still looks and feels great, sheet vinyl checks all those boxes.
Evocore
Evocore is a relatively new composite flooring made of layers of vinyl and core board topped with various protective layers. It’s waterproof and can mimic the look of hardwood flooring, tile or almost any other type of flooring. Similar to engineered hardwood, it’s structurally very stable while also being scratch resistant.
Ceramic Tile
Ceramic tile is a popular flooring for bathrooms because of its strength and impermeability. You don’t have to worry about splashed water or humidity with ceramic tile. It’s easily cleaned and dried. Highly durable, ceramic tile won’t rot or hold onto odours promote the growth of mold and mildew. Ceramic tile is also affordable and easy to install.
