Are the vinyl panels adequate solution for floor in a bathroom?
Wooden, warm feeling is a trend that stuck on a market for years now. As natural wood, even perfectly impregnated is no go for bathroom, designers search for new, technically advanced, solutions. Recently, ceramic tiles stylized with wooden structure was a popular solution. But there is other solution, that gives better visual impact – vinyl floor. It can be fitted without a hassle in a bathroom and it the solution worth your consideration.
Vinyl floor in every room
one space one floor Versatility is, among others strong points, major advantage of vinyl floor. It can be fitted in every room. Kitchen, living room, bathroom, kids room – you name it. Thanks to dimensional stability you can fit it in the area up to 200 m2 without additional dilatation and floor profiles. Other strong points of the vinyl floor is waterproofness and durability (both scratches and indentations). Crucially, vinyls are very good for underfloor heating. What is perfect from designers point of view – they look like natural wood.
Vinyl floor is a worthy competitor for ceramic tiles.
The most popular solution for bathroom are ceramic tiles. There is a habit, that only tough ceramic tiles are suitable for wet area. Many people thinks that only ceramic tiles are waterproof enough to use in bathrooms. However even professional installer should use liquid foil to additionally seal the screed. Joints between tiles are the weakest point of this floor. With time joints can crack and loose its sealing properties. Also ceramic tiles are firm and tough material, but can be easily broken while heavy object falling. Sounds familiar?
This “disadvantage” is mostly mentioned by parents. It is easy to slip on the tiles, especially when they are wet. So are the vinyl floor good alternative for ceramic tiles in a bathrooms?
You will love vinyl floor in a bathroom.
Good quality vinyl floor with mineral core, like Arbiton floor (HD MINERAL CORE solution) are excellent for bathroom installation. Of course some requirements needs to be fulfilled. As with ceramic tiles protective layer for screed needs to be applied. It concern every material that would be used in humid and flooding risk area. More over if you decide to install vinyl floor in floating system, special, elastic sealing should be use to protect dilatation gaps. There are variety of products that can be used. HD Mineral Core floor thanks to the production technology are water resistant. They can be installed on the floor, walls and also in bathrooms (with underfloor heating as well). If installed in floating system we advise not to use in a shower area.
We do not recommend the use of these floorings for small bathrooms, where their floor must be prepared for spilling water, which is typical of our conditions and traditions when using the bathroom. Accordingly, there must be a floor siphon connected to the sewer. The floor should have a large slope (about 2.5%) for water to flow from each point to the siphon. With a small floor area, this cannot be achieved with large or rigid panels.
What is important from user perspective, vinyl panels do not require any impregnation, and maintenance is easy and they can be cleaned with regular floor detergents.
Advantages of the vinyl floor in bathroom.
Except ease of maintenance, that we have already mentioned, vinyl floors have important advantages, which in case of bathroom installation make new sense. First is underfloor heating. Research shows, that most of users when choosing underfloor heating, primarily think about installation of the system in a bathrooms. What can be better then stepping on a warm floor right after shower? Vinyl floor with mineral core are ideal option when underfloor heating is being considered in bathroom. Low value of thermal resistance factor makes them equal with cermamic tiles.
Floors like Arbiton have very high resistance for scratching, abrasion and other typical mechanical damages. Even if one panel got damaged, there are ways to replace only one panel, without necessity of heavy works or professional installer. Finally structure of vinyl floor give comfort and stability. Vinyl floor are not as slippery as ceramic tiles so are safer to use in batrooms, even for little ones.
Using vinyl floor in a bathroom is a strong trend, which is going to dominate following years in interior design. There is no other products, that is so universal. The vinyl floor can be DIY installed, and we advise you to read our articles where you will find all useful information.