Bamboo flooring

[D.M. Procida]

Does anyone have (long-term) experience of using bamboo flooring in a bathroom, and has it proved to be satisfactory?

Daniele

[Bob Minchin]

No practical experience of bamboo but IMHO the only practical floorings for wet areas are ceramic floor tiles or vinyl sealed to the edges. Wood and water do not mix no matter how many precautions and coats of sealer.

Bob

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Surely it depends on usage? I'd agree if you have lots of careless kids and you don't mop up immediately - but many can use a bathroom without ending up with lots of water on the floor. A bath mat will be fine for most.

Ceramic tile floors are a new thing really - most Victorian houses had wood floors in their bathrooms and seemed to have survived.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Would just say that ceramic can be very slippery with fet feet, and I'd be careful of this with any elderly/infirm person. (Possibly applies to most surfaces.)

[unopened]

I think that's a bit of a sweeping statement to make. Boats and ships were made of wood for a good few millennia, and elm was used for water pipes for a long time. A lot of older bathroom fittings (I'm thinking Victorian) are mahogany and teak, and I've come across teak-floored modern bathrooms.

Mark you, I wouldn't want to holystone my bathroom floor every day.

Cheers,

Sid

[D.M. Procida]

The (painted) floorboards in the main bathoom have been happy for many years. The new bathroom will be for adults only, and will be considerably less splashed-in than the other.

Are floorboards especially water-tolerant?

If we did use bamboo, there'd be a step up to the bathroom, the bamboo being thicker than the flooring on the landing. How would one normally deal with that?

Daniele

[Tim S]

Andrew Gabriel coughed up some electrons that declared:

You can get textured ceramic - would that be better?

[Bob Minchin]

Andrew makes a very good point. You can get textured surface tiles for such applications. I have these and the grip with bare wet feet on the tiles is very good. BTW tiles bought in France (even with a weak pound) are much cheaper and they have a huge selection. Tiled floors are much more popular there hence a bigger volume market. I've added home brewed low voltage underfloor heating for a very comfortable effect.

Bob

[robgraham]

With ceramic tiles over 9mm ply, I've just made a sloping cill at the door.

Rob

[The Natural Philosopher]

The downside is the dirt gets in the cracks and you need to use a scrubbing brush to clean em.

[Rod]

We considered exactly that question a few years ago.

The bamboo gives every impression of being fairly moisture tolerant (I did things like soak samples for short periods). But I was concerned that if a small hole developed in the finish, water could get through and soak in. But, because it has a finish, the water might be somewhat trapped. (With bare floorboards, they can easily get wet, but should dry out relatively easily.)

I used some of the samples to make a few odds and ends which have been in use in the cold, unheated garage for at least three years without any apparent deterioration.

In the end, for various reasons, we decided against it - but I would certainly consider it again if circumstances change.

[Owain]

I'm glad it's low voltage (is it SELV?) but any 'home brewed' electric heating in a bathroom sounds danger^Wintrigueing.

Owain

[Andy Champ]

Boats are still often made of wood. Mine's something like 10 years old, and the killer on the finish isn't the water, it's sunlight - which probably isn't so much in evidence in a bathroom as in a dinghy park.

The trick is to use epoxy coatings - you really can make it completely waterproof.

Stuff like this:

"Westing" has become a verb - albeit in a rather restricted circle!

Andy

[meow2222]

Would epoxy be a suitable choice as an exterior 'paint' for a house window thats hard to access? Standard oil paints dont last well. What sort of epoxy formulatin would be best?

NT

[Nige Danton]

Yes, it's surprising how many floors are very slippery when wet. I frequently stay in hotels with outrageously slippery bathroom floors.

-- Nige Danton

[The Natural Philosopher]

I would definitely say so.

What

Pass..whatever yachts use.

[Andy Champ]

How well is not well?

The killer on these paints seems to be UV. However I repainted my boat for the first time last year at 9 years old, and parts of it are exposed to sunlight. The trigger was in fact that parts of the paint had blistered where they are permanently wet (it sits on a bit of old carpet. Or did, I've changed that)

Varnish doesn't last as well as paint. The epoxy coatings you'd use for a floor inside are really for undercoat - you want varnish or paint on top.

I'd use International or Blakes. It ain't cheap.

Andy

[Andy Champ]

Thinks about it... x-posts to uk.rec.sailing...

Andy