Are Vinyl Plank Floors Right For your Bathroom?
Examining if Vinyl Floors are a viable option to consider when remodeling your bathroom…
The question is up there with some of the more serious design inquiries plaguing our minds today. Questions like; How were the Pyramids of Giza built, Where did Stonehenge come from and can Vinyl Plank Floors (LVP) go in my bathroom? It’s a reasonable thing to be asking, They’re an affordable, customizable and easy option to have in the repertoire. So can you use them in your bathroom…
YES, Absolutely you can! But before you stop reading right here, there are a lot of factors to consider before going with Vinyl Plank Floors on your next bathroom project. I want to break these down for you today but lets start at the beginning.
What is Vinyl Plank Flooring?
Vinyl Plank, LVP (the L stands for luxury) is a type of synthetic flooring that can mimic the look and feel of just about any other hard surface floor. LVP is made of flexible PVC and coated with a chemical top layer that makes it extremely durable and classifies it as scratch-resistant flooring.
If you’re thinking back to your Vinyl floor experiences and remember them as meh, there’s a good chance you could be thinking of Sheet Vinyl. Think your grandparents cold kitchen or bathroom floor growing up. Sheet Vinyl is made of a single, very thin, layer of PVC that is rolled out and glued to the sub floor. LVP is made of several layers of PVC that come in sturdier lay down planks. Sheet vinyl is super affordable but what it makes up for in savings it loses in durability.
What Qualities Should You Look For in Bathroom Flooring In General?
Before we get into Vinyl Plank and why its good for bathrooms lets talk about bathroom flooring and what it should be.
There are a variety of choices in floors that can be installed into bathrooms. Bathrooms are arguably the wettest rooms within the house, so it’s only logical to get floors that are water resistant. Water resistant or (even better yet) waterproof floors are ideal and suggested for maintaining the longevity of your bathrooms surface floor. So, no hardwood, or even engineered hardwood for they tend to offer only mild resistant.
In short, floors that can survive in excessive moisture (steam, shower and bathtub spills, wet feet, etc…) are key to a bathrooms surface.
Can Vinyl Plank be used in my bathroom?
Enough background information and fluff. I don’t expect you to take all this at a simple face value “yes,” so let’s get into Vinyl Plank in the bathroom.
First and foremost, LVP is inexpensive in comparison to other options such as tile or engineered surfaces, making it a quality and an aesthetically pleasing option for most peoples bathrooms. In terms of maintaining the surface, it very well may be the best flooring, PERIOD. Simple soap and water will get the job done with ease, without having to worry about grout lines like in tile, or special cleaning solutions like with hardwood. In my opinion, for a bathroom, that’s nice.
Speaking of tile, It gets COLD. We’ve all gotten out of the shower on a brisk winter’s day to a bone chilling tile floor that is just a miserable start to the day. Like the kind of cold that makes you want to crawl back into bed. While there are some tiles that immune to this, with LVP, all types are immune to that cold. It is surprisingly warm and soft on the feet, keeping those winter mornings after a hot shower relaxing and fresh.
Finally, It CAN get wet. This has been mentioned already but it is truly it’s biggest quality for bathroom usage. Even the mot durable of Hardwood flooring will warp, crack and deteriorate with too much moisture. Say you want your bathroom to have a rustic or farmhouse theme, LVP gives the advantage of keeping the look with the functionality of a hardwood floor without the risk of damage. That’s why many of the biggest hardwood floor brands actually make LVP, so they don’t miss out on selling bathrooms. LVP is able to mimic the look of most other flooring types without the risk, so it’s kinda best-of-both worlds.
In Conclusion…
Not to reinstate the same question you’re sick of reading and I am sick of writing, YES! Use LVP in your bathroom. If you find Tile or another surface is a bit out of your price range, or maybe it’s just not the look you’re going for then LVP is not only an affordable but a highly recommended option to consider. And Of course, Always consult with your designer before starting any project, and if you’re going the DIY route, consult with a professional.