1. Many houses have small bath-
rooms. It may be that you only
have the one small family bath-
room, but equally you may have a
small second bathroom or en-suite.
For a small room you have more
choice if you are on a budget, as
even the most deluxe flooring won’t
cost too much as you’re only cover-
ing a very small area. So let us look
at the options.
Carpet
Although this may be very cheap,
especially if you have an off cut from
a larger room left over, carpet in a
bathroom is not really recommended
as it can easily absorb water and rot.
In a small room especially you may
have problems with insufficient ven-
tilation, and moisture from the air
can be absorbed by the carpet. So if
you do have an off cut of carpet that
you can fit yourself, then of course
this is the cheapest option, just be
prepared to have to replace it in the
not too distant future.
Laminate
Standard laminate can warp when it
gets wet, but there are special brands
of laminate suitable for use in bath-
rooms so do make sure you choose
the right one as buying the wrong
type could be a costly and time con-
suming mistake. Although it will
likely be fairly cheap to buy laminate
flooring for a small bathroom, and it
can look good, fitting laminate in a
small room can be tricky, as laminate
needs to be pushed in from the side,
unlike tiles that you lay from above.
You may struggle with this in a small
space. Of course you can opt to have
it professionally fitted but this will
significantly add to the expense of
your flooring.
Lino
Cheap and easy to lay, but it just
doesn’t have the same look as other
floor coverings. If we were discuss-
ing floor coverings for a very large
bathroom, and you were on a budget
then I would suggest you consider
lino, but in a small bathroom it’s a
false economy. These days you can
get plenty of cheap bathroom floor
tiles and for such a small space, the
savings you’d make by choosing lino-
leum are so small it really isn’t worth
it.
What is the best flooring
for a small bathroom?

2. Tiles
Porcelain floor tiles are the perfect
option for bathrooms. Waterproof
and hardwearing and available in
such a wide array of styles and col-
ours you’re bound to find one to fit in
with the look of your bathroom. Til-
ing is pretty easy to do yourself too.
Just make sure you get tiles with a
non-slip coating as some tiles do get
slippery when wet. Porcelain floor
tiles are extremely good value so for
a small room you won’t have much to
pay out very much at all, so perhaps
you can pick out a more expensive
luxurious looking tile. They are also
very low maintenance. Simply wipe
tiles clean now and again and they
should keep their good looks for
many years to come.
If you wish to see what tools we have to help with
your tiling DIY job please see:
http://www.hss.com/index.php?s=tile+