It’s probably no longer trendy to say that wooden flooring is trendy. For many years now, it has been the preferred flooring in Auckland homes, as well as businesses, and new builds and renovations with hardwood floors are common sights all over the city.
One of the new trends within this ongoing trend is the use of wooden flooring in bathrooms. Why not? This type of flooring surface is so striking that its little wonder people want to see it used right throughout their home, including the bathroom. The thing is, bathrooms are humid places and floors get wet. Traditional hardwood flooring might not be the ideal surface for these reasons.
As we’ve discussed before, hardwood flooring is a natural product. It might have been highly processed and treated but it still “lives” to a large degree. It responds to variations in humidity and moisture. So even though the wood has been dried, cut, and processed into a flooring material, it may still expand or contract because of moisture. At other times, hardwood flooring contracts when it’s drier. As a result, shrinkage, warping or cupping can occur.
So when it comes to wet and humid environments like bathrooms, conventional hardwood flooring might react in a way that is less than desirable. If any type of wooden flooring is best suited to the bathroom, it has to be engineered wood flooring. Because it is specially engineered and manufactured below the surface, it has a much-increased resistance to higher moisture levels than solid wood flooring and is far less susceptible to shrinkage, warping or cupping.
While engineered wood flooring is a good option if you want to enjoy the look of hardwood flooring right throughout your home, there are still things you should do if you’re building or renovating. While an engineered floor offers dimensional stability under high moisture conditions, you can further enhance its longevity by installing an excellent ventilation system in the bathroom to eliminate humidity. A more low-tech way to look after the floor is to wipe it dry if it’s wet – this will make the floor less of a slip hazard and further protect the integrity of the surface.
If you want wood flooring in your Auckland home, and you want it to be in every room, contact us and we’ll talk about engineered wood flooring in the bathroom. As far as flooring surfaces go, it is certainly one of your best options and worth exploring further.