The Best Flooring Options for your Bathroom

We spend quite a bit of time in our bathrooms. In fact, most people use their bathrooms at least an hour every day. If you're thinking an hour isn't really that much, consider that it actually adds up to 6% of the time we are awake and as much as 15% of the time we are home. With this much of our time invested in hanging out in the bathroom, it makes sense to search for beautiful and functional bathroom flooring.

Since there are six types of flooring each of these types comes in many styles, there are plenty of great options.

One of the most popular flooring choices is tile. Tile is extremely durable and attractive and will rarely crack. Since you can find tile made with ceramic, stone, or composite material, you can select from a wide variety of styles and surfaces. Concrete floors are a choice that is gaining in popularity, especially since they can be colored and etched to create beautiful, stylish designs.

Of course, no flooring choice is perfect and tile does have some negative features.

Tile floors must be installed on a completely level surface without any lumps or holes. If they are installed on uneven surfaces, the tiles may crack from taking the full weight of all that foot traffic on areas that aren't level. In addition, most tile designs are grouted between tiles and there is a lot of work involved in cleaning the grouted areas.

However, despite these drawbacks, tile flooring is a durable and lovely choice.

In the past, most homeowners opted for vinyl flooring. After all, despite the fact that few of the choices were attractive, vinyl was affordable and fairly easy to install. Luckily, today's vinyl sheet and tile flooring is much more stylish. In fact, at first glance, many designs look like expensive, beautiful stone flooring.

This makes vinyl a wonderful choice for homeowners who are on a tight budget, but want to enjoy some of the best benefits of a tile floor. Vinyl can handle spills and wet feet without any trouble and it is very durable. Cleaning is a snap. Even better, vinyl can be torn by something sharp, but it is much more forgiving of an uneven surface than tile.

Several generations ago, selecting flooring wasn't much of a challenge, since hardwoods were the only available type most people could afford. While they lost popularity when newer, cheaper flooring alternatives became available, hardwoods are once more a common choice.

One reason for the renewed popularity of hardwoods is the beauty of this flooring. Gleaming Brazilian Teak, Chinese Cherry, or American Oak flooring has an elegance and beauty that man-made materials can't compete with. In addition, new sealing methods allow homeowners to enjoy water repellent and mildew resistant wood flooring.

For people who want the look of hardwoods or expensive stone options without the hefty price tag, laminate flooring is an excellent option. Laminates are made to look like wood, marble, or slate, but are actually made with a layer of clear resin over a paper layer that looks like the real thing, adhered to two foundation layers.

Laminate is a durable, low maintenance option. This material can be made to look like almost any flooring option and are a great choice for an odd sized room, since they can be custom cut and designed for that space.

Finally, there is the oldest flooring option of all - slate, marble, or other real stone materials. Stone was used in the Roman baths and still is holding up several thousand years later. Stone is stain resistant and can be cleaned with most cleaning products.

Of course, all that beauty and durability does come at a price. Stone is usually pricier than other bathroom flooring choices. However, since it will not need to be replaced over the years like some other materials, it can actually be a good investment.

Now that you know the options, you're ready for the fun part. You get to choose the right flooring for your home.