Choosing a new flooring material for your home can be complicated. The floor will obviously impact how the rest of the room and other design features look. You also need to consider the durability and maintenance of whatever flooring materials you are considering. This makes choosing a flooring material for your bathroom even more complicated. Since the bathroom is much moister and receives a lot of foot traffic, you want to consider products that are durable and waterproof. This article gives two great options for bathroom flooring: laminate and ceramic tile. Luckily, these are materials that will look good throughout your entire home (not just the bathroom).
Laminate Flooring
Laminate floors are used in all types of homes. You can find a laminate product with just about any printed finish. Natural hardwood prints are the most popular, but you can also find Spanish style tile, rough stone, marble, and just about any other print you can imagine. You need to use your best judgement because some of these prints look tacky. You can clearly tell that they are just printed. In the worst cases, the prints make the laminate look like linoleum. But the best fake prints are very convincing. Fake wood prints often look very much like the real thing, and they even have textures to match the wood grains in the print.
Laminate is especially great for bathrooms because it is 100% waterproof, so it is easy to clean and take care of. It doesn't need any special cleaning or refinishing. Laminate can definitely withstand all of the moisture in a bathroom.
Ceramic Tile
Ceramic tiles are often used in bathrooms, especially when installing a custom shower or bath tub basin out of the same tile. This creates a truly seamless, custom look in your bathroom. Ceramic tiles are used because they are waterproof, cheap, lighter, and easy to maintain. You can find ceramic tiles in just about any size or color. This gives you a lot of freedom because you can customize your layout and create any design you want.
The one drawback to any tile floor in a bathroom is the fact that the grout lines need to be maintained. Even though the ceramic is waterproof, the grout lines can absorb water, grow mold, and rot over time if they are not sealed. Resealing your grout lines is something you only need to worry about once every few years. It is a simple DIY task, so it should not dissuade you from choosing a tile product for your bathroom floor when you are doing a bathroom remodeling.
Tile and laminate floors have different styles, but they can both be great bathroom flooring materials.