Goodbye, One-Inch Tile! Hello, Spa Floors! How To Get The Look
If you have ever visited a spa resort, you probably noticed that they have these beautiful, exotic wood floors in their spa bathrooms. If you want that look in your own bathroom at home, bathroom remodeling may be in your future. Remove ugly, one-inch colored tiles from your outdated bathroom floor and replace it with the spa resort's wood floor look. Here's how:
Pull up the Tile
Small porcelain tiles are often backed with a mesh material and installed using a layer of plaster. A few heavy whacks with a hammer can break up the first couple of tiles, giving you access to the mesh backing. Use a mason's grout knife to help you scrape around and loosen tiles. Then you can pull and scrape up the tiles, hammering the tougher ones as you go. Because these tiles can cut you, be sure to sweep up all the little bits and shards so that you do not end up as a cut up mess by the end of this part of the project.
Use a Special Solvent to Remove Traces of Plaster
To make sure you are installing wood flooring evenly, you will want to get all of the remaining bits of plaster off of the floor. You can buy special solvents at the hardware or home remodeling store that can soften these vintage bits of plaster. Then scrape them all up and make the base floor material as smooth as possible.
Use Treated Wood, Naturally Oily Wood, or Water-Resistant Wood
Special types of wood work best when you want a hardwood floor in the bathroom. Most people opt for treated wood, which is commonly used for decks outside. However, this does not provide the same sort of spa floor appearance. Cuban mahogany, bamboo, and teak are three kinds of wood commonly used for spa floors. These woods are all accustomed to humid and wet conditions, which make them excellent wood flooring choices in bathrooms. They are either naturally oily, thus letting water bead up on them, or water-resistant by absorbing water in small amounts and remaining unaffected.
Request Wide, Snap-Lock Panels
The fastest and easiest wood floors to install use an engineered, snap-together design. Choose the right wood, and then find a snap-lock wood company that has wide, snap-lock panels in your choice of wood. Be sure to order enough wood to cover the whole square footage of your bathroom. Do not worry about subtracting square footage for the tub space, toilet space or sink space; you will need to cut planks to fit anyway. Then you can begin to install the floor panels from a straight wall in the bathroom toward the toilet, sink vanity and bathtub, cutting panels when you need to. Now you will have that elegant spa floor in your own bathroom!
For help on choosing your new floors, or for installation help, contact LW Moore Builders!