Choosing the best flooring for a bathroom involves balancing performance, durability, appearance, cost, and ease of installation. In many parts of the home, choosing flooring mainly involves appearance. However, performance is the most crucial aspect of bathrooms because it determines how well they'll withstand water and moisture exposure.
Porcelain and ceramic tiles, stained concrete, vinyl, cork, and bamboo are popular bathroom flooring options. Each has advantages and disadvantages, so you must consider what works best for your home.
Here are some popular bathroom flooring options and the pros and cons of each to help you choose what's best for your bathroom renovation.
Watch Now: 8 Questions to Consider When Buying Flooring
Elements of a Good Bathroom Floor
- Waterproof or water-resistant
- Low-maintenance and easy-to-clean
- Durable
- Slip-resistant
- Good resale value
- Stain-resistant
Porcelain or Ceramic Flooring Tiles
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Porcelain tile is a popular choice for bathroom flooring, as it's waterproof, stylish, and cost-effective. It can achieve a rich, textured, solid feeling like stone. Like vinyl, porcelain tile is waterproof and relatively inexpensive. Like wood flooring, tile can elevate the bathroom's appearance. Similar to stone, tile is cold. However, you can lay radiant or heated tile under it.
- Durability: Porcelain is denser than ceramic tile, which gives it more durability and longevity. However, the higher density of porcelain tile makes it more brittle, leaving it vulnerable to cracking upon impact. Plus, porcelain is less DIY-friendly than ceramic tile, as it's much harder to cut and install cleanly.
- Aesthetics: There are so many different types of ceramic tiles, so you can create the exact floor you want. You can even find ceramic tile that looks like wood or stone. With tinted grout, you can be even more creative.
- Sizes and installation: Individual tile comes in various sizes and shapes, from square and rectangular to octagonal and hexagonal. Smaller mosaic tiles are pre-mounted on plastic mesh sheets, so you do not have to set each tile individually.
- Affordability: Many stylish porcelain and ceramic tile options fit any budget. Professional tile installation isn't the cheapest option, but certain factors, like choosing larger tiles, can help cut labor costs. Installing your tile might get you a great bathroom floor at a much lower price.
- Water resistance: Best of all, properly installed tile cleans up well and resists even standing pools of water. Wet tile is slippery, but texturing solves that problem. Smaller tiles are less slippery because more grout is used, and the grout acts as a non-skid surface.
Many style choices
Good resale value
Works well with radiant heating
Cleans up well
Can get cold
Hard under foot; difficult to stand on for long periods
Often sterile-looking
Smooth texture is slippery
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Stained Concrete Bathroom Flooring
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Concrete flooring is one of the best bathroom options for those who like a modern, industrial aesthetic. While there's always the traditional poured concrete option, dyed, stained, and textured concrete floors add more variety to concrete's look. Concrete is a good choice for bathroom floors but has some disadvantages.
- Low maintenance: Concrete is durable and easy to clean, but seal it periodically to prevent staining. It is incredibly low-maintenance and easy to clean.
- Water resistance: It's a waterproof material; water can't damage it. However, it can also be slippery, which is an issue when it gets wet (and will get wet in a bathroom).
- Hard surface: Concrete is a cold, hard, slippery surface that may make it problematic if you are worried about falling.
Completely waterproof
Easy-to-clean
Durable
Will last as long as your house does
A more expensive flooring option
Porous and prone to staining unless sealed
Cold and slippery
Extremely hard
Vinyl Bathroom Flooring
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The Spruce / Margot Cavin
Vinyl has long been a go-to choice for bathroom flooring because it's waterproof, easy to install, and budget-friendly. Popular variations of vinyl flooring include sheet, plank, and tile.
- Water resistance: Sheet vinyl flooring is the best option if extreme amounts of water are expected, such as in children's bathrooms or laundry rooms. Because it comes in large sizes, it can be installed with as few as zero seams in a small bathroom.
- Sizes: Luxury vinyl plank flooring, an increasingly popular choice, comes in widths of around 5 inches and lengths of around 48 inches.
- Subflooring: If your bathroom doesn't already have a tile floor, there's a good chance that the existing subfloor is not rigid or level enough, leading to new tile cracking. Getting the substrate to the tile standard can be expensive, but vinyl is a great bathroom flooring option that doesn't require the same substrate standards as tile.
- Installation: Most vinyl flooring is very much a do-it-yourself job. Because vinyl is so popular, there are thousands of style options available.
100% waterproof
Cost effective
Tile and plank are easy for do-it-yourselfers to install
Floating vinyl flooring is easy to replace
Often has poor resale value
Bumps and gaps on the underlayment or subfloor can show on the vinyl surface
Natural Stone Bathroom Flooring
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The Spruce / Jacob Fox
Natural stone is a good choice for bathroom flooring, but only if you can afford it. Marble, granite, limestone, and other stone flooring options have few moisture problems. Natural stone is rugged, durable, and aesthetically pleasing. Stone flooring has excellent resale value.
- Feel: Stone flooring can be cold. Installing radiant heating can solve the coldness.
- Slip resistance: Stone can be slippery, but the slip factor can be mitigated by sandblasting or purchasing naturally textured stone, such as slate.
- Expense: One issue that tends to pull this bathroom flooring option down is the high cost. Natural stone flooring is by far your most expensive flooring option.
Excellent resale value
Very durable
Expensive
Difficult for do-it-yourselfers to install
Cork Bathroom Flooring
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The Spruce / Margot Cavin
Cork is one of the most sustainable flooring materials you can choose when designing your home. It's made from the bark of cork trees, which don't have to be cut down for the bark to be harvested.
- Eco-friendly: It is an extraordinarily renewable resource that eco-friendly designers and architects will turn to repeatedly.
- Water resistance: While cork is not waterproof, it is water-resistant and resists mold and mildew growth. A polyurethane topcoat can help protect it against water, though it's probably best in a bathroom that isn't prone to extreme humidity or standing water. Use absorbent bath mats when you have cork flooring in a bathroom.
Naturally water-resistant
Eco-friendly renewable resource
Resists mold and mildew
Easy to replace one section
Standing water or repeated exposure to humidity can warp or distort cork
Humidity can cause cork to expand and contract
Soft material that can get damaged when wet
Bamboo Bathroom Flooring
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The Spruce / Margot Cavin
Bamboo bathroom flooring is ideal for those who want a hardwood look but need a more durable material. That isn't to say bamboo is perfect in a bathroom—it is not waterproof. But it can withstand heavy use and is more moisture-resistant than hardwood.
It's best in a half bath or a bathroom used primarily by adults who are up to the task of caring for it, meaning they'll do their best to avoid wet towels and excessive splashes. Additionally, bamboo is more affordable than hardwood.
Striking look in a bathroom
Durable and can stand up to heavy use
Moisture resistant
Not waterproof; may be damaged by standing water
Cannot be refinished
Must be cleaned with bamboo-friendly cleaning agents
Flooring to Avoid in the Bathroom
Wall-to-Wall Carpeting
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Because carpeting retains moisture for so long, it tends to dry out slowly within the confined spaces of bathrooms. Carpet is a poor flooring choice for bathrooms. However, if you wish to have carpet in the bathroom, ensure the pile is low, and the material is 100 percent inorganic, such as olefin or nylon.
Solid Hardwood
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Except for its top coating, solid hardwood is not protected against moisture. Even the slightest moisture that works into the wood will eventually rot it out. It's slightly better than carpet; solid hardwood looks great and feels warm underfoot.
If you want solid hardwood in your bathroom, ensure it is perfectly installed, with zero gaps for moisture. A good installation means hiring professional installers. It also means site-finishing your hardwood flooring works better than installing pre-finished flooring. Site-finishing floods the seams between the boards with coating, effectively blocking moisture migration from the top side.
Alternative Flooring Options
Engineered Wood Bathroom Flooring
Due to its dimensional stability, engineered wood is better than solid wood under high moisture conditions. Its plywood base holds up well against moisture. Plus, engineered wood flooring looks authentically like wood because the top layer is real hardwood veneer.
Engineered wood is the best choice if you wish to have natural wood in a bathroom. No matter how well protected, any type of wood product is prone to damage in bathrooms.
Best flooring choice if you want to have real wood in the bathroom
Dimensionally stable
Authentic hardwood on the top
Oversanding can wear through the veneer layer
Moderate-to-high expensive
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Laminate Bathroom Flooring
Surprisingly, laminate flooring is a better bathroom flooring choice than solid hardwood. Laminate flooring is essentially resin-impregnated paper atop a wood chip base. The surface of a laminate plank is a photograph of oak, cherry, slate, marble, or any other wood or stone. On top is a clear coat called the wear layer. DuPont RealTouch, for instance, warrants the wear layer on its line of laminate flooring for 30 years.
Laminate can work in bathrooms if you take precautions to protect the wood base from moisture. With tight seams between the planks, moisture cannot work its way downward. Laminate is also easy to clean. But it still has that wood chip base. If it comes into contact with moisture, it will expand, and bubble and the only way to fix it is to tear it out.
Although several manufacturers have tried to produce genuinely waterproof laminate flooring, it's not there yet.
Inexpensive
Easy to install for do-it-yourselfers
Water-damaged laminate flooring cannot be repaired
Laminate flooring can collect static
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What is the current trend in bathroom flooring?
Porcelain tile and vinyl flooring are popular because of their various colors and patterns. Plus, both are relatively inexpensive compared to natural stone or hardwood, making them stylish choices for budget-friendly bathrooms.
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What color flooring makes a bathroom look bigger?
Light-colored flooring, whether tile, vinyl, laminate, or even concrete, will make a bathroom look lighter, brighter, and bigger.
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Which bathroom flooring will last the longest?
Porcelain and ceramic tile will last longer than other bathroom flooring options, as they are highly durable if installed correctly on a solid substrate. Regularly sealed concrete can outlast tile, but it may crack if tied to the remainder of the home's foundation.
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What is the best non-slip bathroom flooring?
Vinyl is one of the best options for non-slip bathroom flooring. It's one of the least expensive options but not the most luxurious. Bamboo is also a good option with a little more aesthetic value. Textured natural stone is also slip-resistant but hard to fall on in case of an accidental slip.