I need to make a decision soon on what to put down for my bathroom floor.
It is an older modest home built in a piecemeal basis over the years but it does have a good turn of the century character in a farmhouse kind of way.
The surrounding yard is dusty and unpaved and a lot of dirt gets tracked in in spite of an attempt at removing shoes at the door. (Two dogs bring a lot in.)
Two small kids add to the complications.
My original plan was white porcelain hexagon tile on the floor and 3 x 6 subway tile on the wainscoat. The fixtures are an old wall hung sink and a clawfoot tub.
We did this in another house in a more urban setting and a no shoes in the house policy prior to kids and dogs. That bathroom did show traffic patterns in the grout and the floor frequently looked grungy.
I can imagine what the dust in the yard, the two kids and the two dogs will do to a white hex tile floor with a zillion white grout lines.
Is there a better alternative that doesn’t look too contemporary or clash with the traditional plumbing fixtures?
I like all aspects of sheet vinyl/linoleum/marmoleum etc except that it might clash with the rest of the traditional/original finishes in the house. Also I am pretty stuck on the subway tile wainscoat and don’t know if a sheet vinyl, etc floor would complement it.
Any suggestions. Thanks in advance, Karl
Replies
oak?
Oak would tie in with the rest of the house well but a 3yr old and a 7yr old in the bathtub will flood the floor on a daily basis.I need waterproof/waterresistant flooring in this situation.Thanks,
Karl
I'd stick with porcelain tile but in an earth tone. American Olean makes certain natural colors in 12X12 which they sell at very favorable prices. I've bought them from my supplier, who features them, for under $2/sqft. Sorry, I don't have the names on file but they probably vary around the country.
Edited 7/24/2008 2:06 am by Hudson Valley Carpenter
Quarry tile. Glazed (not terracotta)
Maybe a light grey grout for the floor-you can stick with white on the walls if you wish.
Seal it.
Keep it clean. Don't use soap for cleaning-white vinegar and water. Get on your hands and knees and wipe up all latent water.
A Great Place for Information, Comraderie, and a Sucker Punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
Hi Calvin,
Keep it clean. Don't use soap for cleaning-white vinegar and water. Get on your hands and knees and wipe up all latent water
So is white vinegar and water the answer for dirty grout on unsealed floor tile? Scrub it in with a brush or? Anything else?
Well, depending on the soil buildup, white vin (pretty strong mix) and water and a good stiff grout brush will work wonders. Sanded grout holds particles of dirt harder of course, but if you've got good knees and don't mind crawling around it'll work.
Real bad buildup, an acid wash might be the only answer. Sulfamic (I think) acid is one that's not too noxious and meant for grout cleaning. Powder mixed with water. Sold at tile stores.
Custom marble and stone cleaner (concentrate) doesn't do a bad job and we use that a couple times a yr. Mostly with a mop and bucket.
You can use a floor scrubber too with those plastic SOS type discs but getting the dirty water up afterwards is the ticket.
We've found after almost 20 yrs of the full downstairs in ceramic that soap or other floor cleaners are the bane to keeping tile looking good. We've almost only used vinegar. Occasional cleaning girls haven't. The proper grout color selection don't hurt none either.
Probably hands and knees'd it about every 7 yrs. 1400 sf is a bit of a job. You move the stove/frig/couch and you know it's time.A Great Place for Information, Comraderie, and a Sucker Punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
Thanks for the full run down. That should get the job done, even if I have to hire someone with better knees to do it.
Do you reseal the grout after you get it clean? If so, what product do you use?
Thanks for the input so far. It sounds like I do have a few effective options.Last floor I used white sanded grout for the floor. I get the impression I may have been a lot better off using unsanded in a light grey.Keep the ideas coming,
Thanks,
Karl
sanded or unsanded goes according to joint width. 1/8th-3/16th max for unsanded-bigger gets sanded. Color, a good sealer (I use one from Hydroment) and keeping it clean is the only "easy" tile regimen.A Great Place for Information, Comraderie, and a Sucker Punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
Like Calvin said, you want to use sanded with the floor tile--the grout lines on the hex sheets are bigger than you would want to go with unsanded. I think the key is the color--we used dove grey on our hex tile project and it was fine.
You could also look into epoxy grout--I thought that was supposed to stain less than regular grout.
Like Jer said, check out true linoleum. It has a much richer look than any vinyl I've seen. We found an appropriately sized remnant of Marmoleum at a local flooring store for $1.50/sf (as opposed to $5.50-6.50/sf normally). It looks much better than I thought would.
Plus, our three and six year old still haven't been able to get any water through it.
Yeah, the grout colour is the key. White grout on a floor is for show homes only--places no one will ever really live in. I routinely use silver or light gray grout on bathroom floors. It helps show off the hex pattern you're paying extra for, anyway.
You can use unsanded white with the subway tiles on the wall. I assume you're planning to set them in a running bond (brick) pattern.
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
Hijack alert.....Dino...a couple of months ago you made a comment about wishing people would get more creative with corner cabinets in kitchens instead of the plain old lazy susan. What would you do?
End hijack, resume normal programming.
I don't remember that post at all; but I never do corner cabs in a kitchen if I can possibly avoid it. Horrible waste of space and no matter what you do it's a PITA to use.
My 'take-off point' for a kitchen design is centered on two parallel counter/cab units unless the room itself is shaped so as to make that impractical.
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
Well hell, it's u shaped what are you gonna do with the two corners?
Well hell, it's u shaped
Where is it Written that one Must put a counter across the bottom of the U?
I run the counters right down both facing walls, and leave the end wall between them exposed. No cab; no counter. Just wall, with normal wall-type stuff on it: telephone, light switches, window. Bulletin board. Stuff like that....
This means you can have drawers and cabinets right to both ends of each counter, and have full access to them. All you lose in the typical 'galley' kitchen is a few feet of countertop. But you gain floor space, usable cabinet space, and the whole kitchen feels bigger in addition to working better.
You can wrap an overhead cab unit (or open shelf) across that end wall, though. Upper cabs are only 12" deep, so access to the back of a corner unit isn't a problem.
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
No corner cabs? I guess it's a matter of taste. Our kitchen plan is at the top-left corner of the attached plan. It works well for us.Scott.Always remember those first immortal words that Adam said to Eve, “You’d better stand back, I don’t know how big this thing’s going to get.”
Sorry; that's too big for me to download on dial-up.
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
227K? Shouldn't take more than a minute or three. Anyway, it's a U-shaped kitchen. Works Ok.Scott.Always remember those first immortal words that Adam said to Eve, “You’d better stand back, I don’t know how big this thing’s going to get.”
what ever that is it times out...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
That's funny; it's just a simple PDF. I first posted it with FireFox. Here's another try with IE.
Scott.Always remember those first immortal words that Adam said to Eve, “You’d better stand back, I don’t know how big this thing’s going to get.”
BTW; sorry if this is a hijack... I see that the original post was about bathroom floors....
Scott.Always remember those first immortal words that Adam said to Eve, “You’d better stand back, I don’t know how big this thing’s going to get.”
if the download takes too long it times out...
that's what happens....
but I just got it....
BTW I haven't anything as fast as dial up...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
Yeah.... dialup's fine... keeps you focused on the important stuff like BT, not all the YouTube, Viral, MP3 streams, etc.... There are a few people here at BT that I think deserve awards.... multiple tens of thousands of posts from dialup circuits... There oughta be some sort of national award for that.Scott.Always remember those first immortal words that Adam said to Eve, “You’d better stand back, I don’t know how big this thing’s going to get.”
what was that ya said???
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
mee too....
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
I will add to your hijack on corner cabs. I think they are a waste as well so I thinking about putting my undersink hot water heater and Reverse osmosis filter in the back of the corner cabinet with a shelf in the front portion. It will make access to them difficult but I am the only one who will be repairing or dealing with them. The benefit is the sink cabinet won't be so crowded and I wont be trying to store stuff in an otherwise inaccessible back corner.Karl
Thank you all for the suggestions. I like the concept of sheet flooring but think I will go with small hex tile and the silver grey epoxy grout.I will try to post pictures when I get it done.Thanks again,
Karl
I just went through a similar decision process--new bath attached to the mudroom. The girls picked out a 2x2 white hex tile with a black accent tile, natural grey grout. I warned them that I wasn't going to be kicking off my shoes to come in and tinkle, and that the floor would show the mud.
But really, it's turned out OK. The tile cleans so easily, that one swipe with a rag and it looks acceptable.
Armstrong is making real jute backed linoleum again and it really has a classic look to it. It's treated now so that it has higher resistant qualities to chemicals, & abrasions etc. The last 2 kitchens I've installed have it and it looks great. I'm going to eventually put it in mine.
sheet vinyl till the kids are bigger
http://www.everlastflooring.com/site/
I put a material very much like this (Called Ecosurface) on my bathroom floor about 8 years ago. It's been totally bulletproof, easy to clean, non-slip, waterproof, no maintenance, and no troubles at all. The black color with white and beige flakes look good with the white subway tile wainscot we installed. We used roll material, so there aren't many joints to collect dirt. What dirt does end up on the floor is either broomed or vacuumed, and then we mop about once a year.
You want cheap, easy to install, easy to maintain, and durable? This is it..
Since linoleum has been in constant production since 1860, I think that by judicious pattern selection you should be able to find some, form of sheet flooring that looks good and would be period correct. Probably much more period correct for the style of home you are describing than tile.
Remember this was a farm house, and not a town home. The fixtures and finish would probably have been "midline", and tile would be out of place. A bead board, or oak wainscoting, or even wall paper would be more appropriate than tile.
I checked, and DW agrees - ours is pretty much covered with clothes and shoes and towels.
Someday those kids are gonna' use their own damn bathrooms.
Forrest
No they won't....
I added a half-bath to get them out for routine trips and they still fight over DW's sink when brushing. I rebuilt the surround around their tub to their liking. I'm still the only one that uses that shower.
I think they feel more comfortable using "Mom's", so that's how it is.A La Carte Government funding... the real democracy.
Go w/the hex tile (I've got white octagon w/small black diamonds) but use an off white EPOXY grout. No need to constantly seal the stuff, repels water & dirt and easy to clean.
My bathroom upstairs (& downstairs & the kitchen<G>) has tile on the floor & on the walls to chairrail height. Epoxy grout was used all over (including inside the shower) because I'm rather paranoid when it comes to water dripping thru the ceiling to a floor below. The water beads on these tiles until it either evaporates or I mop things up (I testing the grout by pouring a glass of water on the floor).
LOVEitLOVEITLOVEIT!
Day 6 of Kitty-escape free living. Extensions on top of the existing fence was the way to go!
I like the epoxy grout suggestion on the hex tiles. I am a bit wary of my skills with epoxy grout though I have used C-cure epoxy grout in the past. I am likely to go this route.Thanks for the input from all.Karl
Hex tile with dark grout. Or epoxy grout.
They make glow in the dark grout now. The kids would love it.
I'd stick with the hex tiles, but use a grey or black grout to hide dirt.