Bathrooms require durable, easy-to-clean Flooring that can handle daily traffic. The most important factor to consider when choosing a Bathroom floor is exposure to moisture. It’s also important to consider who will use the Bathroom and how much traffic it will receive. Is this your family's primary bath shared with children? Is the space a guest Bathroom not used very often? Or, is it a Powder Room without a tub or shower. All of these factors are essential to determine what type of Flooring and Window Treatments are right for your space. Spills or Overflow from Bathtubs Easy Care and Maintenance Your Sales Representative can help you choose the right Flooring. During your FREE In-Home Estimate, your Representative will explain choices to fit your home, budget and lifestyle. Recommendations for Bathroom Flooring Engineered Hardwoods and Solid Hardwoods look great, are warm underfoot and their factory prefinished topcoat helps to resist wear even in high-traffic spaces.
Since Hardwood is sensitive to moisture, you will need to be diligent about ensuring the floor is kept free of spills. Laminate Flooring is durable and easy to clean. Its realistic wood visuals provide your Bathroom with a warm, soft, inviting look. And it’s stain resistant to help keep Bathrooms looking great. Keep in mind the potential for exposure to moisture when choosing Laminate Flooring for your Bathroom - you will need to wipe up topical spills immediately and avoid allowing liquids to stand on the floor. Ceramic Tile and Porcelain Tile set the stage for a beautiful Bathroom. They provide a rich, textured, timeless style that is exceptionally durable. Tile is also naturally mold resistant and easy to clean and maintain, which makes it a good match for Bathrooms. This economical Flooring is not only moisture and slip resistant; it’s also warmer and more comfortable underfoot than Tile. Luxury Vinyl Tile can also be installed without grout, making it easier to clean frequently.
Sheet Vinyl is a durable, budget-friendly option that provides the look of natural Tile and Stone. However, Vinyl is softer underfoot than Tile. In addition, it’s moisture resistant, slip resistant and antimicrobial to help prevent the growth of microorganisms. Want to let light in and maintain privacy? With a top-down, bottom-up feature, you can have both. Plus, there are plenty of options for Window Treatments that can work well in rooms that have high humidity levels. Real & Faux Woods Woven & Fabric ShadesSometimes, the best way to explain how important it is to work with a Certified Tile Installer (CTI) is to show you how not to install tile on floors, walls and in showers. This article focuses on a real-life situation where those doing the work clearly did not have the knowledge, expertise or experience to deliver a quality tile installation. There were not CTIs. Let's explore this master bathroom installation to better understand what went wrong.
The first step is to observe this tile installation and assess the deplorable work. This is a newly installed residential master bathroom featuring a whirlpool tub and a tiled walk-in shower. As you walk into the master bath, you immediately notice that the floor tiles are not in line with one another. They exhibit tile lippage which, according to the Tile Council of North America (TNCA) is, Variation in the height of adjoining tiles is called lippage. This is defined in the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard A108.02, Section 4.3.7: "Lippage refers to differences in elevation between edges of adjacent tile modules." >> Be sure to read the Tile Council of North America's (TCNA) explanation of lippage which describes the ANSI standards for allowable lippage and warpage. The picture below shows the bath floor which exhibits excessive lippage, affecting the integrity of the tile installation. If you get even closer to the floor, you'll notice that the height difference between floor tiles ranges between two to three quarters.
In other words, don't wear high heels in this space unless you want to catch your heel... This three-quarters difference would surely be unpleasant to walk on in bare feet. Not to mention that it's intensely unsightly! Spoiler Alert: you'll notice a lot more lippage in the images ahead! Qualified tile installers (CTIs) know how to measure and prepare a layout that takes into account angles, and tile patterns, as well as proper proportions. In fact, that ability is what creates a beautiful and harmonious end result. Tiles come in consistent sizes that will need to be cut to properly cover a floor, wall or shower. Tile tends to be installed in a consistent pattern with parallel and perpendicular elements. In this particular master bath, tile was not installed in consistent parallel patterns, angles did not match and any inconsistencies were filled in with grout. Unfortunately, this installer used grout to compensate for incompetence. In this other view of the tub, you can see the unsightly wide grout joint between the tub deck and the cabinet.
This joint should have been a neat and consistent size which is then filled with a flexible sealant. Did you dee the wall tile lippage along the end of the shower wall? In the image below, notice the excessive grout joint that this tile "placer" (you can't call him a tile installer) used at the top of the shower wall. Did you catch the lippage along the wall? These next few images will delight you even more! They highlight the use of excessive grout. This close up picture of the top of the wall shows how large the grout joint ended up and also how the grout joint size changes from wall to wall. The image below shows the shower valve protruding from the wall tile which the tile "placer" filled in with grout. It should be flush with the wall tile as the temporary plastic shower faucet ring instructs. Above, we mentioned the importance of tile lining up. In fact, this skill is one of the hands-on test requirements of the Certified Tile Installer program.
Installers need to know how to create geometric designs and install them properly so as to avoid what you see in the image below... a misaligned grout joint. >> See What's the Certified Tile Installer Program? >> See Tile Installation Certification in Action If you look closely in the image above, you'll notice a spacer showing through the grout. This is typical of the entire installation project. Not to mention what you see in the image below where the wall trim does not line up properly. The assessment we've gone through has focused primarily on what is immediately obvious in this master bathroom tile installation. A full assessment, though, goes deeper. In fact, it goes beneath the tile to uncover inadequate mortar coverage (minimum of 80% in dry areas) on the tile as you see in the image below. Improper mortar coverage affects the integrity of the overall installation resulting in cracked tile. >> See How to Correctly Trowel Mortar When Installing Tile?
The shower floor shows signs of missing grout which suggests bigger issues with the shower pan installation. Sadly, the shower pan shows signs of leaking, caused by improper installation. A critical aspect of a proper shower pan installation is ensuring the integrity of the waterproof barriers so water and moisture from the shower don't compromise the construction materials behind the wall or under the floor. Further inspection of this master bath showed that the shower pan membrane was installed incorrectly, and that screws had been driven through the membrane which is not permitted. These installation errors will affect the performance of a shower creating moisture and mold problems. Note that the Advanced Certifications for Tile Installers (ACT) program includes a test focused on shower receptors. Having read through this real-life example, you shouldn't be surprised to hear that this is how not to install tile on floors, walls and in showers. Instead, we encourage you to work with a Certified Tile Installer (CTI) who knows how to install tile into freshly combed mortar, using a back and forth motion ensuring full mortar contact on the back of the tile, while maintaining joint alignment and spacing.