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Your time in the bathroom should be all about comfort, cosiness, and peacefulness, which is why you’re probably looking for a guide to LVT flooring in your bathroom.
When it comes to LVT, you want to be selective about its construction (even down to the tiling type). After all, it impacts bathroom aesthetics and practicality. In this article, we’ll give you a rundown of LVT and help you decide if it’s the right choice.
Called PVC flooring and vinyl flooring, LVT flooring stands for luxury vinyl tile flooring. It’s designed to emulate the appearance of wood and stone flooring so that you can enjoy their look without their impracticalities.
When it comes to bathrooms, LVT is a great option because of its high water and humidity resistance. The majority of LVT flooring is 100% waterproof. Also, it features a protective layer for high durability.
There are several LVT flooring options for bathrooms, mainly luxury vinyl tile (LVT) and luxury vinyl plank (LVP), but which do you pick?
Both tiles and planks have the same materials, durability, and functionality, so let’s look at the differences between the two in terms of personal style and diversity.
The main factor here is personal taste. On the one hand, LVP has the rectangular shape of regular wood planks. You should opt for it if you want the look of real wood, as it features scraping and embossing. Unlike the real deal, it’s waterproof, law-maintenance, scratch-resistant, and comfortable underfoot.
Even better, opt for engineered vinyl planks (EVP), a subset of LVP if you want the most realistic imitation of hardwood floors.
On the other hand, the second type is tile-shaped. It’s great for achieving a natural stone or concrete look without having to seal these tiles like actual marble. Their smooth, polished looks are super realistic.
As for diversity, LVT offers more diverse options than LVP. You can pick slate, travertine, marble, limestone, quartz, and other patterns in a wide array of colours and with different artwork. However, LVP only features hardwood designs.
Let’s talk aesthetics. You can style LVT in bathrooms as such:
You’ll find ceramic and stone effect LVT in white, black, grey, beige, brown, dark brown, red, and more.
Do you want to get the classic look of stone or ceramic flooring using stone effect vinyl? You can stack slate and black marble tiling for a dark and broody look or light grey tiles for a bright bathroom space.
If you go for encaustic luxury vinyl tiles, they’ll add an ornamental touch or splash of colour to your bathroom. We love pairing them with a white bathroom for a striking effect! You can also invoke an inviting or natural feel by choosing earthy tones for the vinyl floor in bathroom spaces.
The possibilities are endless, and they’ll all get you the design you want without the coldness, discomfort, and high prices of actual stone!
Bathrooms are high-humidity areas. This is why having vinyl plank flooring is an excellent way to achieve that warm, inviting, rustic, and timeless look of wooden boards. Unlike regular wood, it doesn’t involve warping, staining, or high prices.
You can opt for dark wood if you’re designing a rustic or contemporary bathroom. As for traditional oak planks and light wood effect LVT, they give off an air of refinement and brighten up small bathrooms.
Parquet is an umbrella term describing various patterns of floors featuring diagonal patterns. It’s a great way to get a stunning design and antique effect that’ll stand the test of time.
Herringbone is a type of parquet floor that has a staggered, zig-zag plank design. To install it, the end of each plank has to meet the side of the next, creating a right angle.
Another type of parquet flooring is chevron. Having a zig-zag design, chevron patterns feature a unique V shape at the point where planks meet, which creates a straight rather than staggered effect.
Regardless of the parquet pattern, this flooring choice gives your bathroom a classic touch. You can find it in oak and dark colours. And you can use light colours like white or grey to give the illusion of space or dark tones to make a bold statement!
Practicality is primal when choosing your bathroom flooring, which is why you need to consider the following factors:
The main factor needed in bathroom flooring is water resistance. It should be able to withstand a few splashes by the sink or the bath, which are inevitable. If it isn’t 100% waterproof, moisture and water will cause damage. You’ll notice your floor staining or warping.
For that reason, you must avoid hardwood flooring and, instead, consider waterproof vinyl bathroom flooring.
We all know the pain and danger of slipping on the soapy bathroom floor. For that reason, slip-proof LVT in bathroom areas is preferable. It allows you and your family to get in and out of the shower or bath with steady feet.
Also, slip resistance is needed in public areas, such as retail, healthcare, office, leisure, and education sectors. It minimises the risk of spillage and temporary surface water.
Some flooring types suffer expansion and shrinkage due to moisture level alterations. For instance, wood tends to shrink starting at 25% or 30% moisture content until it reaches 0%, creating gaps between planks.
As the moisture level increases again from 0% to 25% or 30%, it expands or swells. This phenomenon is common in wood when seasons change. Still, choosing a type of flooring that ensures minimal shrinkage and expansion is important, especially in a high-humidity area like your bathroom.
Your future self will thank you if you pick a low-maintenance flooring type. It should be easy to clean with a single swipe, leaving no stubborn stains.
Luckily, LVT flooring for bathrooms is easy to maintain with the two-bucket cleaning system. Frequent sweeping to remove dust and dander, occasional mopping to remove scuffs and grime, and deep cleaning only if required is enough to keep it fresh. In comparison, stone flooring requires a lot of upkeep, and wood flooring develops stains.
This question is crucial when you think about buying luxury vinyl planks or luxury vinyl flooring for bathrooms (due to their excess water). In bedrooms, living rooms, and so on, nothing happens when your LVT or LVP gets wet.
But in bathrooms, the excess water can cause damage if you don’t follow the required protective measures during installations. In this process, the seams and perimeter of the floor should be sealed entirely so that moisture doesn’t seep into the subfloor under your vinyl flooring.
For example, if you install bathroom LVT flooring over concrete and don’t conduct adequate moisture control and testing measures, moisture can get under your LVT or LVP or get emitted from the slab. Accordingly, it may react with the concrete chemicals, creating high levels of alkali and damaging your vinyl.
Ultimately, we recommend installing bathroom LVT or LVP in your bathroom because it’s 100% waterproof. It allows you to enjoy a realistic wood, stone, or parquet effect without the drawbacks of their respective flooring options.
Bathroom luxury vinyl flooring is reasonably priced, easy to clean, water resistant, slip resistant, diverse in its usage and options, and comfortable underfoot. It can help make your bathroom a cosy space for you, so start shopping for your LVT flooring bathroom!