What Flooring is Best for a Bathroom?

When it comes to flooring a property, the bathroom is one of the hardest rooms to get right. 

Not only does it need to be completely waterproof and durable enough to withstand consistent usage, but colour and design can make a huge difference to the look and feel of the room.

So, style and practicality both need to be assessed and well-balanced. 

To help you narrow down your options, and find the best match for your bathroom flooring, we’ve shared our handy bathroom flooring guide below. 

 

 

What are the key considerations when looking for bathroom flooring? 

If you’re assessing your options for bathroom flooring, you will need to consider the following: 

  • Waterproofing 

  • Slip resistance 

  • Durability 

  • Ease of maintenance 

  • Comfort 

  • Ease of installation (more on this below)

  • Compatibility with room layout (e.g. if your bathroom has numerous fixed elements, you will need to choose a flooring that can be shaped easily)

  • Whether to include underfloor heating (more on this below)

  • Colour (including brightness) 

  • Design (patterned vs unpatterned)

 

What colour and style is best for bathroom flooring?

Choosing the right flooring colour and design will help you to create the desired impression with your bathroom. 

This includes making your bathroom feel larger, brighter, luxurious and homey. 

With that in mind, our suggestions for the most effective colours and styles for bathroom flooring are:

  • Light neutrals - e.g. light greys, creams and whites. This can help to make your bathroom feel more spacious.

  • Natural-effect vinyls - e.g. wood-effect vinyl and stone-effect vinyl. These natural-effect vinyls can create the warmth of natural materials, with the low maintenance and durability of vinyl. 

  • Bold patterns - e.g. using tiles to create multicoloured patterns. This is a great way to bring character to your bathroom design, and create a bold focal point. You could even use tile-effect vinyl flooring, to achieve this effect quickly, easily and affordably.

 

Why use Luxury Vinyl Flooring for a bathroom?

Whatever style or design you have in mind for your bathroom, you can achieve it quickly and easily using luxury vinyl flooring.

This specialist flooring type offers a wide range of fantastic benefits for bathroom floors, including:

  • 100% waterproofing

  • High resistance to warping and damage, even in humid rooms with consistent exposure to water

  • High durability 

  • High scratch, dent and stain resistance 

  • Soft, warm and comfortable (considerably more so than wood or tile floors)

  • Low maintenance requirements

  • Available in a huge variety of different styles, colours, designs and effects

 

Is Click Down or Glue Down best for a bathroom?

Luxury vinyl flooring is available in two main installation varieties. 

These are click down vinyl flooring and glue down vinyl flooring.

The best choice for your bathroom will depend on your budget, timeframe, the condition of your subfloor, and your DIY ability. 

Click down vinyl flooring consists of multiple flooring boards, which are designed to attach by ‘clicking’ together. In comparison, glue down vinyl flooring needs to be glued together. 

As a result, click down vinyl can be installed by most DIY-ers, while glue down vinyl will most likely require professional fitting. 

This means that click down vinyl is usually quicker and cheaper to install.  

However, glue down vinyl is a more durable, stable, secure and water-resistant flooring option, which makes it a great permanent flooring choice. The other key benefit of glue down vinyl is that, while click down vinyl requires a very flat surface, glue down vinyl can be installed on most subfloors. 

 

Does underfloor heating work with vinyl flooring?

Yes, luxury vinyl flooring is compatible with underfloor heating. 

The addition of underfloor heating is a great way to keep your bathroom warm and comfortable, all year long. 

If you are planning on adding underfloor heating, ensure that a suitable underlay (for click down vinyl) or glue (for glue down) is used. 

 

How to measure around the sink, toilet and bath/shower

If you’re installing vinyl flooring in your bathroom, you will need to ensure your measurements are as accurate as possible. 

This will need to include carefully measuring around your sink, toilet, bath and shower. 

You can approach this process by: 

  1. Sketching a floor plan (including all fixtures).

  2. Breaking up the room into rectangles, and measuring each area (length multiplied by width).

  3. Measuring around any curved edges (e.g. around toilets and sinks) using measuring helps.

  4. Adding an extra 5-10% to your flooring measurement, to allow for any errors.  

 

At Floor Giants, we are luxury flooring specialists, trusted by property owners across the country. We offer a huge variety of bathroom flooring types, including luxury vinyl flooring to suit all styles and requirements. 

 

To find out more about luxury vinyl flooring and its installation, or to place an order for your bathroom, speak to the Floor Giants team today.