Laminate Flooring in Bathroom?

I work in flooring at Home Depot. I would not recommend it in bathrooms. Its rated for it but we have heard complaints. Now, Allure by Traffic Master is awesome. We are a small Home Depot and we carry six instock wood looks, six instock tile looks. Its a free floating floor that you can install over most any surface other than carpet (no, not even thin carpet). Its rated for use in areas exposed to water. You install it with a carpenter's knife and straight edge. And it has a 25 year residential warranty. 24 square feet per box and in MN, its aroub $43 per box for wood look and $50 per box for tile look...

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i found the most awesome vinyl plank flooring called trafficmaster allure at home depot. omgosh, it is so beautiful, many choices and so easy to install. best thing, it is overlapping, no glue, thinner than laminate and completely water resistant and does not scratch easily. ive had it in my kitchen for 2 years and still love it! put it in the bathroom and it looks great too. take a look at home depot, and more choices in colors are online.

1 mom found this helpful

I wouldn' use laminate in the bathroom because of the amount of water. We have it in all 4 bedroom, living room & dinning room... and love it. Our daughter has allergies & it helps us to keep her undercontroll since the little things can't get stuck in it. Plus, w/ kids spills are so much easier to clean up!!!

We just use dishwasher soap & water to mop the floors. You can use other stuff also, I'm sure they would have more shine to them if we used something else, but the dishwasher soap is what we were told to use when our house tested pos for lead... guess it is the only thing that removed lead dust. So, we got in the habit of using it on the old floors (which had lead)and just keep using it just in cause. But it has been a few years & the house is still lead safe - which is a great thing.

Congratz on the new floors - I hope you like your as much as I love mine!

I worked in the flooring industry for 6+ yrs and we never installed laminate in bathrooms (with showers). Some say they can be put in there, but I would not recommend it. They will eventually warp or peak with all the moisture. Go with ceramic if you can afford it. Otherwise there are new vinyls that look alot more like a real ceramic than they did in the past, and some even offer a wood look if that is what you have your heart set on.
I will say that some people say you can do laminates in a 1/2 bath where there is no shower. That might be ok, just put a rug down under the vanity/sink and try to be really vigilant with water spills. Standing water on laminates is a killer!!!
Cleaning laminates is really easy, use a spray cleaner recommended or made by the manufacturer of your floor and a microfiber mop. Another great product is Zep hardwood and laminate cleaner in a spray bottle- it is found at Home Depot. That's what I use on our floor because we moved into a house where we didn't know the manufacturer of the floor!! Good luck!

I had it in the bathroom, but did have some issues around the toilet. We replaced that area with tile. I'd stick with tile unless it is a big area and you can do the laminate in the larger bathroom area. My entire house is either laminate or tile and it is awesome. So easy to clean up after kids and dogs too!

We have laminate in our entire downstairs. It is awful!!! I would never do it again. If the kids spill a drink and it sits for more than 5 minutes, the floor warps. In our bathroom it is really warped around the toilet. Our home is only 4 years old, but we will soon need to replace all the flooring soon.

Our builder suggested not doing it because of the humidity levels and the effect it would have on the floors over time. The recommendation from them was either stone, ceramic tile, or vinyl floors.

Interestingly, though, their builder standard was carpet. Go figure!

We just put in laminate flooring and after talking to the people at Menard's where we bought it, we went out to Walmart and bought a dustmop and Orangeglo spray and a mop. It works wonderful and the floor looks great. I don't know about the bathroom, we haven't discussed that yet. Good luck!

No, not in the bathroom. As others have said, it warps easily. It is also VERY slippery (dangerously so) when wet. I have it in my kitchen and just the steam and humidity from the dishwasher has warped it in that area. I've had it for 2 years and am not sure I would do it again in a kitchen. I use a floor attachment vacuum and the Wet Swiffer to clean it. I sometimes mop with an all purpose floor cleaner if it's really dirty, but I try to be careful to not use a lot of water. Ring out the mop really well.

We bought a house last year that had laminate wood in the bathroom. It looks nice but with little kids who splash in the bathtub, water has gotten underneath the wood and some of those plant bugs (not sure what they are called but they look like fruit flies) got in there and started breeding. Needless to say we need to pull out all the laminate very soon.

So no, I would advise against it in the bathroom.

I wouldn't.....ceramic might be the way to go and it will look awesome with the laminate.

No laminate flooring near water, no way no how, it is very vulnerable and if it floods it is ruined!

I have laminate flooring in a couple of rooms and absolutely love it. I do not have it in the bathrooms because they say not to get it wet so we have ceramic in the bathrooms. To clean it we use water with a little bit of vinegar. It really makes it shine like new and some of mine is ten years old. In my opinion it is the best flooring ever.

No, not in the bathroom, and make sure to wipe up any spills on your laminate ASAP. Mild warping will usually recover after it has a chance to dry out, though.

The best thing to clean laminate floors is plain water. Vacuum first, and then use just a little water on a mop to clean. We've had laminate floors and stairs for about 12 years and it is still holding up well, despite kids and pets. Much easier to deal with pet hair now with only laminate and tile, the carpet we used to have was awful!