vinyl tiles for bathroom - good idea? or painted wood?

[hester]

My bathroom has wooden flooring, but covered in about a million layers of orange varnish. it is vile. Something needs to happen, but I am (a) broke, and (b) DIY-challenged.

What would be a stylish solution that would be quick, cheap, suitable for messy children? I'm thinking maybe vinyl tiles, perhaps in a plain colour or a classic white with black diamond pattern? Are vinyl tiles terribly naff? Is it expensive to get them fitted? Can you put them straight on a wooden floor or does it need some kind of underlay?

What would be my alternatives? I briefly considered sanding back and painting or revarnishing, but is wood really a good idea in a bathroom?

Any other suggestions?

[said]

I had a wooden floor in my last house and I loved it, think it looked great. So that - either varnished or painted - would be my first option.

How big is your bathroom? I got samples from harveymaria and, although they were lovely, they were expensive (and our bathroom is small). Used the colourvinylcompany in the end (who also send samples) We didn't have a lovely wooden floor to sand though as that would have been my first choice

[crazycarol]

We got boring vinyl tiles from Homebase and I did it. It looks OK, but we have a modern house so it is the easiest solution. We have a small bathroom and when we moved in there was carpet down, with a 3 year old it was a nightmare - toothpaste! not to mention the wet carpet from splashing in the bath. We didn't have much £ and decided vinyl tiles was the cheapest & easiest as we I could do it ourselves. I think we paid less than £10. We replaced them earlier this year at a cost of about £30

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

How do you get the vinyl tiles to stay put? mine slowly slide about leaving gaps. It is very annoying.

[naturalbaby]

i got the cheap tile effect vinyl tiles from homebase/focus and was more than happy with them considering the more expensive and more time consuming options. we stuck them straight on. quick, easy and cheap.

[smugmumofboys]

My facial lady has wood-effect lino. Sounds ghastly but really isn't - I actually thought it was wood when I first saw it. Very practical and warm on the feet. Not £££ either.
I have absolutely no details re make, suppliers etc,
but should be easily googlable.

[WhollyGhost]

vinyl tiles or planks are cheap (< £30) to do our bathroom, and v. easy to fit yourself - so long as you have a suitable floor. We had to fit a layer of plywood over the floorboards and stick the vinyl tiles to that.

It is not an ideal solution, but it is cheap and practical. You can stick them directly on to existing vinyl etc, and they are so cheap and easy that you can change them on a whim.

I wanted a whole new bathroom with undefloor heating and tiles on walls and floors - I still want that, but until we have the £££££ the vinyl tiles will do.

[WhollyGhost]

BadKitten - what do you have under the vinyl tiles?

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

wooden floor boards. That probably isnt a good answer!

[WhollyGhost]

yep, you need to add a layer of something they can stick to - as above, we used plywood, but vinyl or whatever would do as well.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

ahhh, serves me right for being lazy!

[WhollyGhost]

the plywood was not that difficult to fit, it is a v. thin layer (3mm I think). I painted it with primer and then stuck the tiles down.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

its more the cutting it round the loo that i'm worried about.
I suppose I could pull out the tiles, use them as a template stuck to the plywood and cut round that?

[WhollyGhost]

I just unscrewed the loo at the bottom and slid the sheet of plywood under it, then made holes in the v. thin plywood to let the screws go back down again. .

I cut the vinyl tiles around the edge of the loo with a scissors (on my own at the time and too tricky to lift the loo while sticking the tiles down). I used sealant around the edges, so far so good.

I am diy phobic, no idea if I did the right thing... I hope somebody else will be along to say what the right thing would be.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

I must look at our loo closer! hadnt occurred to me that might be possible!!!

[hester]

So... which would be cheaper: paying someone to sand back and revarnish/repaint the floor, or paying someone to fit plywood and vinyl tiles, d'you reckon? Because I can't cope with the thought of doing either with my own fair hands.

[hester]

Oh, and thanks everyone for replying. Some really good advice on here

[WhollyGhost]

don't know which is cheaper, but the tiles bit is really very easy, took me about half an hour with a toddler's help

and if you have small children I would not consider the bare floorboards - much worse than having carpet in a bathroom

actually, maybe bathroom carpet is worth considering - I expect that it would be the cheapest option, and modern ones are available, which were designed for bathroom use

[hester]

WG, do you mind me asking how you cut to fit round the toilet etc? Is there an idiot-proof technique?

[Jacaqueen]

Just give it a rough sand by hand then paint it with floor paint. cheap and easy.

[hester]

How often do you have to repaint it, Jacaqueen? How careful do you need to be to keep it dry?

[WhollyGhost]

Cutting the tiles around the toilet and at the edges was entirely idiot proof - I used ordinary kitchen scissors for the cutting and a cardboard stencil to cut to fit around the loo. My toddler was genuinely helping me, though she got a bit carried away with the pencil marking.

I did have to chuck a couple of tiles, but I had extra anyway. I know that you can't just lay the tiles on bare floorboards (but only because it said so on the pack).

[hester]

So you buy some plywood and put that on the floor first... do you glue that down, nail it down, or just let it sit on top? And then you add the tiles - ditto, do they get glued down?

Sorry ladies, I'm suddenly extremely fascinated and wanting to know EVERYTHING about bathroom flooring options

[WhollyGhost]

my DH nailed down the plywood, using a borrowed nail gun - no idea if that is the best way to do it.


vinyl tiles and planks are self adhesive - you just peel off the paper at the back

[hester]

OK, next question: can I borrow your dh, WG?

[Jacaqueen]

We painted our stairs about 3 years ago and they still look fine. I used normal eggshell (2 coats) because I wanted the stairs to match the rest of the paintwork. Then put a coat of varnish on top.

DH is in the process of painting DS's bedroom. This time we are using a specialist floor paint. Looks great so far, certainly better than the 'orange' pine it was before.