Parquet in a bathroom: best protection

[notsothuggie]

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:00 pm Post Subject: Parquet in a bathroom: best protection



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Hi there. I'm new to this site so please bear with me. Although, I'm a keen DIY'er, I'm neither particularly competent or skilled ... I'm going to be doing up a house up on a budget. Amongst other things (later posts no doubt) I plan to turn (magically?) a bedroom into a bathroom. The flooring on the whole of the first floor is parquet (unsure of the wood type). Instead of taking up the parquet and putting down tiles (expense and it would be a shame), I'd like to somehow sand down the wood and protect it from the inevitable drops of water which will fall from the bath and washbasin. I'm going to strip and varnish the wood in the other rooms and landing and would like all the flooring to look the same. I have heard that oil based varnish would be the best for the bathroom but water based might be cheaper for the bedrooms/landing. Am I understanding rubbish? I've also seen that wax could be good to protect the wood in the bathroom but might not work well on the other floors (and it might be higher maintenance). Is there anyone out there who might be able to advise?

 

[flooringman]

One of the reasons that a wood floor is not recommended for areas such as bathrooms is not necessarily the water that falls on it but the moisture contained in the atmosphere - steamy baths and showers.

The finish would be either oil or varnish which would protect to a certain extent but not completely.

It might help if you knew the wood type.