Pros and Cons of Wood Floors in Bathroom

pros and cons of wood floors in bathroom

Hardwood floors offer several benefits. They are quite beautiful and effortless to clean. It is durable, doesn’t cost too much to maintain, and is effortlessly appealing to the eyes, making it such a prized flooring system by many homeowners.

When considering using wood flooring in your bathroom, advantages of wood floors in bathroom like warmth, beauty and longevity and cons like lack of moisture barrier, mold, mildew and chemical staining makes it a hard choice picking wood floors for your bathroom.

However, water, moist or humid environments, such as bathrooms, can damage the wood if not adequately handled. In most rooms, flooring preferences are based primarily on beauty and affordability.

Nonetheless, with a bathroom, you also have to consider the moisture-resistant qualities. Hardwoods are classics, and they match most interior design schemes.

Is it ideal for putting wood flooring in a bathroom? That’s one question that requires an answer because the effects of water on a hardwood floor are well known. In this guide, we will be dissecting the above question to solve this dilemma.

Related: How to Repurpose Hardwood Flooring

Is it Ok to Put Wood Flooring in a Bathroom?

There are several advantages and disadvantages to having wood floors in a bathroom. You are likely to find arguments on both sides of the coin regarding wooden flooring in the bathroom.

Understanding each of these factors will help you analyze your options critically and come to the fitting conclusion.

Pros and Cons of Wood Floors in Bathroom

Pros of Having Wood Floors in the Bathroom

1. Warmth

One of the pros of having wooden flooring in the bathroom is its warmth. You’ll probably walk around barefoot a lot in the bathroom, and wooden flooring offers the right amount of heat for your feet.

One of the most significant disadvantages of having tiles in the bathroom is that it gets quite chilly sometimes.

Hardwood floors make the room much warmer; more comforting feel underfoot when compared to tiles. The colors also make the entire room seem more inviting and welcoming.

2. Beauty

The exquisite look of wooden flooring inside your bathroom can’t be compared to any other kind of material. One of the most significant advantages of hardwood is that it tends to be beautiful.

It creates an atmosphere of natural wonder to spaces while also providing a unique appeal. Each hardwood floor plank tends to have its personality, making you feel at one with nature.

It also offers design continuity between rooms, especially if you have wooden flooring in the remaining parts of the house.

Is it ideal for putting wood flooring in the bathroom is a question that beauty indeed provides an answer to.

3. Longevity

When hardwood is appropriately maintained, it tends to be very durable. Hardwood tends to have a lifespan of 25 years or more, thereby making hardwood flooring second only to ceramic or stone tile for longevity.

When hardwood becomes scratched, it is often recommended to sand and refinish to renew the surface.

Engineered hardwood flooring is less durable but can still be a long-lasting floor when adequately maintained. Longevity is a partial answer to the question it is OK to put wood flooring in the bathroom.

Cons of Having Wood Floors in the Bathroom

1. Splashes

This is probably the primary concern of any flooring installed in a bathroom. You are having showers and baths often result in splashes.

As small as rinsing your face or hand in the sink can send droplets of water across the floor no matter how careful you’re, and a bathroom with a shower or tub is most likely to see frequent splashes of water on the floor occasionally, especially a bathroom used by kids.

The finish doesn’t guarantee complete protection against moisture damages, so you’re still required to wipe up any spills instantaneously so that the moisture doesn’t wear away at the material’s protective layer or seep down between seams. 

Read: How to Fix Hump in Hardwood Floor

2. Mold and Mildew

Mould and mildew grow in moist environments, making any bathroom, wood flooring, or not susceptible to these problems.

Having wood floors make it a whole lot worse as they feed on natural organic materials; wood flooring is not the best fit for every space in your home.

Installing hardwood flooring in your bathroom might, sooner or later, compel you to deal with mold and mildew. The sealants’ protective layer would only be able to delay it for a while, but it eventually grows between and beneath the boards.

If you are allergic and sensitive to mold, you should properly consider your options before using a hardwood floor in the bathroom.

3. Chemical Staining

The usage of several cleansers, soaps, and other body care products in the bathroom sometimes have adverse effects on wood flooring.

This is because some of the products mentioned above contain chemicals that can be slightly acidic which would ruin the protective finishing and sometimes leave permanent damage.

We recommend you pay close attention to strong cleansers and prevent them from spilling on the floor because they can do the most damage to your floor.

If you end up dropping some of it on the floor, be sure to clean it quickly. Chemical staining is another partial answer to the question posed earlier, is it OK to put wood flooring in the bathroom?

4. Lack of Moisture Barrier

Nailing your hardwood planks to the subfloor leads to holes in the moisture barrier underneath, which will allow moisture to seep down inside whenever water inevitably splashes on the floor’s surface.

Using adhesives might prevent moisture issues; it is not one hundred percent foolproof.

Read: How to Get Rid of Tiny Black Dots on Wood Floor

Conclusion

Is it OK to put wood flooring in the bathroom? It is a million-dollar question that only you can provide the answer to. The cons outweigh the pros in this article. This article intends to lay bare the facts and help you come to an informed conclusion. 

If you still intend to use the wood floors for your bathroom, try to use bathroom mats where possible, install extractor fans were also likely, and try to clean up spills as soon as they occur.

This article was written to help you understand every detail about if it is ok to put wood flooring in bathroom and to make an informed decision when faced with the choice.

We hope you found it helpful; if you did, kindly share it across your entire social media pages.

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