To Carpet or Not To Carpet Your Bath!

[daveamkrayoguy]

How do you make you hard, cold tile floor feel more comfy? Yet how come no matter what I put on the floor it gets wet--in fact, SOAKED to Submission!!!!

 

What can I do? I have a couple other bath mats, too; also no good:

 

--That is, they don't dry easily after they get drenched with water after we get out of the tub & can't towel-dry ourselves fast enough to stop the dripping off out wet bodies...

 

What kind of bath floor covering, around this critical area by the tub, do you use & should we use?

 

 

-- Dave

 

[mrboilwash]

My bath mat never gets wet because I towel dry myself before I get out of the tub.
Seriously I don`t think there is a single bath mat on this planet that dries easily if someone stands on it dripping wet.
Maybe those small terry cotton type mats you typically see in hotel rooms would work for you. Use only once then toss into the wash with towels.

 

[DADoES]

 
I "squeegee"-off from the top down in the tub or shower with a wash cloth (wringing as needed), then finish with a towel.  Boosts drying efficiency, particularly when male body hair is involved, and there's no dripping on the floor.

 

[ilovewindex]

I hang the rug up or bathmat up and dry off... I love tile btw.. The coolness beneth my feet is wonderful.. What I hate is carpeted bathrooms and kitchens.. Yuck.. And no hardwoods either... Thye only belong in living/dinning rooms and play rooms... Tile in kitchens and abthrooms (or vinyal or linolueum)

 

[tolivac]

NO CARPET IN EITHER MY BATHROOM OR KITCHEN!!!!!GROSS!!!!Bathmat in the bathroom OK.

 

[washdaddy]

ELIMINATE SOGGY BATH MATS???

Before you step out of the shower or tub it's simple. Grab the towel and dry yourself off before getting out of whatever.....start at the top and work your way down. When you get to your legs, dry one, step halfway out, dry the other and completely step out.

Sounds like a P.I.A. but once you adapt to doing that all the time the soggy bathmat problem disappears forever!

 

[askolover]

Ditto!  I dry off completely inside the tub before i open the doors.  Then, I throw that towel on the floor and step out onto it, then dry the bottoms of my feet.

 

[vacerator]

No!!!!!

but, in a smaller bathroom, if you please, a carpet that can be taken and washed in a large commercial washer would be fine.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Well, I seem to be the only one who conveniently can hang his towel on the towel rack in the bath tub...  My wife is really too short, so she probably would not be able to safely perform the same feat...  

 

We have a towel rack on the wall outside of the tub (which really got installed rather poorly & sloppily & you should see how many holes I drilled into my bathroom wall (it's plaster/drywall, sans-studs behind it--and NO TILE, except in the tub area, and another subject: Who's lame-brain idea was it to build bathrooms WITHOUT Freakin' Tile????!!!! --as our smaller 1/2-bath attests...) that my wife uses, but she just goes to to the bedroom without attempting ANY drying, until she gets there & I often, if I'm home have to help her dry off--not to mention hang her damp towel back up on that towel rack, that she'll just leave on the bed...  

 

We have a pair of heat lamps & a fan combination in the ceiling over that area along the outside of the tub, but unfortunately out of nowhere the whole thing stopped working--lights but no fan, or a fan, but no lights, or these days neither fan, nor lights & threatening to be a possible a fire hazard, the more squeaking & buzzing the thing gives out when we--or I, rather; no one else really uses it--try to get it to do its job... I used to have it on when I was in the shower, thus I could do away without that energy-wasting set of five bulbs we have over the sink, that often the women-folk leave on!

 

Well, our daughter is a different story: although six-years-old, I have to help her out of the tub, and she is admittedly too big, as she herself claims, for the small towels (the movie FROZEN sets I recently bought) so she borrows Mommy's, and the kids towels I will set on the floor to dry her lower extremities on...  We somehow resigned ourselves to baths still-somehow needing to be supervised... --At least out of drying & maintaining floor care & floor covering care...

 

I have that green carpet in front of the bedroom closet, so given that I can keep it dry or prevent it from getting excessively & uncontrollably moist, try to remember to bring it in the bathroom for when I shower, or at least for the end of Laura's baths...  

 

I can't stand that cold, clammy tile floor, and maybe I should see if I can find a rubber mat--I sooner find carpet, or maybe real large ones that are for standing on kitchen floors on (much to large for that area) but the kitchen, I can live with its flooring being just tile...

 

 

-- Dave

 

[Marky_Mark]

I think carpet in bathrooms might be slightly more common in the UK compared to the USA.  But it's still fairly uncommon in both countries.  Here in Spain you would never see it.  Personally I have experienced it in the USA and UK and I don't like it.  Well, it's a great idea in theory and it feels nice.  But the problem is that it gets wet and various products and liquids do tend to get spilled occasionally and I'd rather just mop a hard bathroom floor and get it completely clean and dry.  Not so easy with carpet!

 

[panthera]

Well,

One solution which an acquaintance of mine laid a little over five years ago is a cork laminate floor.
Cue the screams of 'cork and water, what could possibly go wrong?'
I know, I know - I said the same thing, but it's still in perfect condition, no mold under it, either.
So that's a thinking out of the box possibility.

 

[delaneymeegan]

decisions decisions.....

 

 

 

 

We had Peggy Bundy's ideal bath, when I was growing up, at least in the main bath.  In the other, it was blue carpet and wallpaper.

 

My parents still have completely carpeted bathrooms, in all 4 bathrooms.  

Completely carpeted is NOT the way to do it.  The areas around the toilet and bidet needs to be a hard surface.  At least 6" in front of a shower and bathtub needs to be a hard surface.  And as for carpeting up to a heart shaped fuck-tub, similar to those found in the Catskills, Pocono's, and other 70s hot spots, well.....  

 

The modern day version of carpet squares is a good idea for a bath, kitchen, or any heavily traveled area.  They are larger, usually  24" square, and if something gets spilled on one, you can take it up, wash it, and let it hang dry.   You can also easily replace a square or two.

 

 

 

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

I remember Sears promoting their Bath Carpet, in those '70's magazine ads--but, you know what? --It's STILL CARPET!!!!

Torn out of baths, as those trendy shags go fast out of style, and those day-glo rainbow colors quickly fade, as well as right below it, have the entire decade's worth of mildew and mold growing there...

Households quickly resigned themselves back to hard tile floors, with exception of the heart-shape swatch around the toilet bowl, which I have in the 2nd bathroom, and equally hard to cleaning maintain, as you would guess from it being there, as well as a fairly low-maintenance rectangle in front of the sink... (But, they each caught a soggy Hell when wifey mopped the floor! --Without removing either of them, first...)

As I've said, I have that small rug, though it's often I forget to use it, or place it beside the tub, before I shower, but can grab it in time,when finishing Laura's bath... Can't stand hard, cold tile floors, so very eternal the dilemma...

-- Dave

 

[whirlcool]

When we bought this house both of the bathrooms had wall to wall carpeting in them.
While not too bad, both bathrooms had an odor to them. We replaced one bathroom with slate flooring and the other with a nice almond colored porcelain tile. No more smells. But that slate floor will tear up a sponge mop in no time at all.

 

[ilovewindex]

We only use swiffers, except on heavy cleaning cycles (every 3 months).. Then again our floors are old

 

[lordkenmore]

Another option would be a mat with moss (intentionally growing moss):
http://www.thisiswhyimbroke.com/moss-bath-mat

I can't say if moss would do well in a bathroom. But I do recall my HS biology teacher getting his moss samples from the boys' locker room each year...

 

[lordkenmore]

I think actual carpet would be a bad idea. Not just because of the bathtub/shower area, but it could also be a problem around the toilet. As the men's room joke says: "In case of nuclear attack, hide in the urinal. It hasn't been hit yet!"

 

[warmsecondrinse]

Maybe a slew of oversized bath mats to fit the area near the tub/shower? Then just rotate as needed with the others hung up somewhere to dry and wait to be used?

 

Jim

 

[circlew]

Back in the 70's,

My Aunt Julie and Uncle Kell had carpet in their bathroom for a SHORT time - less than a year. My cousin Mike was about 15 at the time, and neither he nor my uncle were careful enough to keep it clean for more than a day or so. It might be more practical in a female only home for a powder room, but is still not a very good idea.

The house I'm in at present has vinyl tile, and I don't use a bathmat or rug. I dry off in the shower, then put the towel down on the floor and step on it. The towel then gets hung up to dry before going in the laundry basket.

My new downstairs bathroom has a floor drain, and I don't plan on using any rugs in there, but will probably put one in the upstairs one.