Bathroom Floor

The bathroom floor should have three qualities:

• The bathroom floor should be safe for the users
• The bathroom floor should be easy to clean and maintain
• The bathroom floor should please the eye

The first two qualities are necessities. The last one is for esthetics. It is very difficult to compromise between the quality and the functionality of the bathroom floor. Unfortunately, most stunning materials are slippery and very expensive. However, there are ways to resolve some of the problems.

Bathroom Floor Materials

• Vinyl
• Granite
• Marble
• Limestone
• Travertine
• Ceramic
• Porcelain
• Slate

Vinyl Bathroom Floor

In older homes, vinyl lining often covered the floors of bathrooms and toilets. The vinyl is relatively non-slippery and easy to clean. However, the material hardly meets the modern standards of quality. The current trend are bathroom tiles. These products are beautiful but can be slippery.

Granite Bathroom Floor

Granite is a stunning material for the bathroom floor. If properly installed, it can impress even big skeptics. However, granite when wet can be problematic. To resolve the problem, the granite bathroom floors are not polished.

Other methods ensure that the material is honed to increase the friction coefficient.

Marble, Limestone, Travertine Bathroom Floor

Marble, limestone and travertine are equally stunning tiles and offer a better traction. Marble is beautiful and very expensive. Limestone and travertine are cheaper but also provide a classy outlook. The problem with marble, limestone and travertine is a chemical reaction called etching. This is a process which forms a residue from calcified materials which react with acids and alkalines. Fortunately, there are plenty of dedicated cleaning products to counteract the problem. Thus, if you can afford the material you should not hesitate to install it.

Ceramic, Porcelain, Slate Bathroom Floor

Finally, let's discuss the ceramic, porcelain and slate bathroom floors. All three types are budget options with a good quality . Porcelain and slate materials have a higher friction coefficient than the ceramics. However, the ceramics is stronger and cheaper. Generally, porcelain and slate should be avoided in smaller bathrooms where there is a lot of mechanical pressure per unit tile.

Bathroom Floor Prices

The most popular are ceramic floor tiles. These items cost about $30 per square meter for a top quality product. Porcelain is more expensive. The lower grades will sell for the same price as the top ceramic units. Marble is expensive. The price is about $80-$90 per meter square. Generally, there is the same cost of labour to install all types of tiles. You pay around $500 to cover the bathroom area of 6 square meters. Larger sized tiles often add extra labour costs because of the cutting and handling.