Bad idea? Exposed floorboards in downstairs loo

[WhiffyBiffer]

Currently there's a brown carpet, I was thinking we could tile but then there are what look like fairly nice wide original floorboards under the carpet. Was thinking we could sand & varnish. Would it be a bad idea round the toilet and sink? Would water splashes leave marks? Wouldn't be too cold I think as is directly over the basement where our oil boiler is and therefore is quite warm. Any particular product we could finish them with to make them wipeable?

if your oil boiler is leaking so much heat that it can heat the room above then I think you have bigger problems!!

Hope not, that would be seriously expensive to replace! No, had it serviced regularly and it gives off a bit more heat around it than a modern one would but works fine apparently. Makes basement great for drying clothes!

I have stripped and varnished floorboards in my bathroom and I think they look lovely. We put a towel/mat down when we are showering or having a bath but it doesn't matter if a bit of water gets on the floor. Go for it!

Depending on the age of the house you may just have bare earth underneath. Not only is it cold but it's pretty horrible when rats get through. Voice of experience here!

Definitely don't like the sound of rats! No boards are definitely over the basement, I can see them from down there!

oil boilers do last a long time - but if yours is leaking this much heat it is GUZZLING oil. I know the stuff is cheap at the moment but it may not last.

we replaced a 30 year old oil boiler after a year in the house. We now use the heating a lot more and the consumption of oil is still down by at least a third. OK, it doesn't dry washing so well but I dry mine outside, and if I couldn't I'd buy a tumble dryer for winter use.

Depends if you have, or have any future risk of having, a small boy. Ours wets the tile grouting round our loo regularly, which is quite grim. I wouldn't want him weeing on floorboards regularly, even varnished. Vinyl would have been a better choice.

It seems to peak about age 6 - the Y2 toilets always seem to have the wettest floor. I thought DS was somehow immune to this issue (due to my vastly superior parenting skills, natch) but it turned out he was saving it until he turned 6.

Ah thanks for the tip, no boys here just 3 girls but plenty of visiting boys of the right age for missing the toilet! Am erring towards amtico maybe if it's realistic enough it can match the real original wood floor in the hall and trick the eye into thinking it's the same! Only a small space so would hope not too expensive.

Get the same effect with Aqualock laminate boards. We used the in the cloakroom and they look the same as the oak boards on the rest of the house, except they are water resistant. Think we got them at B&Q.

Sorry to have lowered the tone OP!

We ruled out Karndean, which is similar to amtico, because the shop said we'd have to pay for 2 full days of labour, one for prep and one for laying. We were pricing up a 1mx2m hallway! If you can get a more sensible price on amtico I'd be really interested to know.

no no no
we have it. beautyful 100 year old floorboards but smelly.
nothing is going to shift the stink of 100 years of urine dribble.
can't wait to replace with something easy to keep clean.