wet room floor: why not lino?

is there some reason why people do not seem to like lino used on a wet room floor? In Norway it seems quiet standard to have the whole bathroom floor (and abotu 100mm up the walls) covered in lino with a slope in the shower corner leading to the drain.

Here in the UK we seem to always use tiles (not lino) on the floor of a wet room. Is there a reason for this? I am trying to convince SWMBO that lino would be nice.

Robert

Reply to
RobertL
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Dunno what a "quiet standard" is but anyway.:-)

When you say" lino" I'm presuming you mean a modern version of that . What do the Norwegians do about sealing the corners and what do they do where the floor meets the walls .Is it curved up the walls cos "lino" was easily cracked . What about the walls "above" 100mm ...what's on there ? I'd suggest tiles are more practical and will have a longer life .

Reply to
fictitious

yes, I mean vinyl I suppose. the norwegians seem to 'weld' the vinyl at the corners. Along the walls they have it rising about 100mm up using a little curved (~20mm radius) former underneatth I think. Then, on the upper walls, they have what looks like ordinary vinyl wallpaper overlapping the top of the vinyl flooring.

There's a threshold at the door, so the whole florr provides a waterproof 'tank' 50mm deep. At least that was the system in thehouse I once rented there.

R
Reply to
RobertL

On Mon, 2 Feb 2009 06:56:07 -0800 (PST) someone who may be RobertL wrote this:-

I have seen something similar in showers which were used a great deal in one of the government buildings I used to look after, so it can be done in the UK.

On the other hand the only reason I became involved in the things was due to water leaking into the rooms below:-( This was cured by erecting individual stalls which kept most of the water falling on the floor and going into the drains, rather than going into the joints between the floor covering or into the joints between the upstand of the covering and the wall, to then drip into the rooms below.

Similar problems arise in houses which have similar arrangements in Norway, according to my family. They rather like "UK style" shower cubicles, as rotting the house timbers is less likely with them.

Reply to
David Hansen

Welded vinyl flooring is widely used in hospitals.

Reply to
Rod

You need to use a good vinyl - not real lino - and somehow seal the corners. Normally you round the floor edges and roll the flooring up, and use some sort of vinyl rubber sealer.

Water under impervious floor is bad news, Esp if no UFH..

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

1) it costs more than WW2 to get it properly welded in such a small area.

2) attempting it yourself is not a good idea, as it doesn't work.

3) water stinks to high heavens when it's trapped underneath
Reply to
Phil L

Indeed it is, and is completely waterproof IIUC. Needs a pro to do it though.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

thanks everyone for your comments. it sounds as if it would be nice but only if I can really do it using a single piece of vinyl and with a good way of doing the corners.

R
Reply to
RobertL

I have come to exactly the same conclusion and looked into this last week. The covering is a purpose made vinyl (not lino) and has fully welded seams when installed. Two example products are Altro Marine

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and Polysafe Hydro
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You need to produce a stable surface and then they are bonded down and seam welded. The vinyl installation is is not really a DIY job.

The advantage is that there is no need for a latex membrane, waterproofing, etc that is required for tiles. And all the grout lines (leak points) associated with tiles are avoided. It's got to be a much higher integrity solution than tiles.

Ball park cost for just laying the vinyl in 1.8 x 2.6m bathroom seems to be around £500. I don't think this is too bad considering there are no tile costs or waterproofing kit costs. You still need to buy a shower deck, gulley, trap, etc.

The only question is whether the patterns and colours are acceptable to SWMBO. I got over this hurdle and approval to proceed!

Reply to
Mark Dumbrill

In article , RobertL writes

I've just moved into a flat with a wet room with a vinyl (welded seam) floor. It's a pain in the arse.

Any slight imperfection in the underlying solid floor forms a dip which collects a puddle of water. There's one conveniently located just in front of the sink which means the eek factor of standing in a puddle of cold water first thing in the morning, guaranteed to wake me up.

The vinyl, while of good quality, is "etched" in a diamond pattern to provide a non-slip surface. This, however, collects water and unless it is squeegeed out daily encourages mould to grow. Mould also seems to grow readily in the welded seams despite the room being well ventilated with an extractor.

Suffice it to say I'm having it all ripped out and UFH and tiles put down when the bathroom is refurbished in the next few weeks.

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

Wet rooms are essentially rubbish, and doubly so in the British climate. What one needs is a large walk-in shower segregated from the remainder of the bathroom.

Reply to
Huge

In article , Huge writes

Just like the one I've ordered and waiting to be fitted :)

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

Sadly, my bathrooms really aren't big enough, but I've compromised with the largest shower cubicles I could fit in the space.

Reply to
Huge

It sounds as if you have a poor installation that doesn't have the correct fall to the drain. The floor has to be made even and solid before any wetroom is laid. With tiles you will just get pooling on the tiles. If you don't address the fall to drain and eveness then switching to tiles will just cost a lot of money and achieve nothing.

The pattern on the two makes I suggested is small bumps so these can't trap water.

I agree that the concept of a wet room, where there is no screen and the shower water splashes everywhere is no good. The useful thing is to have a continous waterproof floor that drains to the shower outlet. But a glass screen is still needed to confine the shower. With a screen then the floor gets no wetter outside the shower than a conventional setup. But the continuous floor with minimal fittings is useful to minimise all the interfaces and joints that mould can accumulate in.

Reply to
Mark Dumbrill

I have just completed a coved vinyl floor for a domestic customer.

Lino is a traditional floor covering which isnt generally recommended for coved up showers because it tends to crack when bent to far. check out this link

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doesn't crack so easily, is more forgiving and hot welds much better than lino. Lino doesn;t melt when hot welding the joints/seams, vinyl does. We fit coved vinyl flooring for the disabled daily. It seems to be catching on to the general public nowadays.

Altro Marine is the flooring is used for these installations.

url:

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Reply to
daniel

one small crack starting where the screeding wasn't quite level. I think I'll complain :-) It's had cookers and washing machines dragged across it and almost looks as good as the day it was laid. Certainly not expensive either as I was counting the pennies at the time. Some sort of basic contract material I imagine.

Reply to
Stuart Noble

Soaps and detergents will slowly wash out the linseed oil which is the waterproofing component. It's not a problem where you occasionally wash a floor, but I imagine it might not last well in a shower. In particular, modern powerful detergents such as washing machine/dishwashing detergents (which didn't exist back when lino was popular) will destroy it very quickly (been there, done that;-).

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

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