Bath floor requirements
Proper organization of flooring in residential buildings contributes to an even distribution of the load on the base. Convenient and reliable floors ensure the safe movement of people indoors, and therefore the importance of this design is beyond doubt.
When choosing, you need to take into account the special temperature and humidity conditions in this room. The water used during washing drains to the floor, seeping between the floorboards or leaking through special openings. Such an aggressive mode of use affects the life of the floor.
The main condition for choosing is the ability of the coating to resist high humidity, as well as the ability to organize effective removal of water.
What is better to make the floor in the bath
To understand what it is possible to make a floor in the bath from, you should study the general design of the structure.
When a bathhouse is being built from timber or logs, a solution with flooring from the board suggests itself. It will be difficult to arrange a concrete screed in such a structure, and concrete in wooden walls will not look harmonious.
On the contrary, if a capital building is being constructed of brick or gas blocks, it would be more logical to arrange concrete pouring of the floor with a heating device.
To determine your choice, you should conduct a more detailed review of the options.
Advantages and disadvantages of wood
If you choose what to make the floor of the bath from, preference should be given to wooden coatings, but the positive and negative qualities of this material must be taken into account.
TO disadvantages of wooden floors in the bath include:
- the need for a special drainage system with a ventilated underground;
- obligatory costs for wood processing with antiseptic agents;
- fragility of the coating, even with high-quality treatment with protective compounds.
Pluses of wooden floors in the bath or sauna:
- low thermal conductivity. The wood coating will not let warm air outside the steam room or sink, which reduces the cost of organizing a warm floor;
- natural wood feels like a more pleasant and natural material.
Advantages and disadvantages of concrete
the main thing concrete floor dignity - durability. Such a foundation can serve for decades without major repairs, especially if it is covered with tiles.
TO disadvantages of concrete floors include:
- high cost;
- high thermal conductivity. In order to use a steam room or a sink in a bathhouse with concrete floors, it is necessary to organize heating of the base with electricity or hot water, or arrange wooden flooring.
Types of wooden floor in the bath
Wooden floors in saunas and baths are arranged in two ways:
- With a leaking coating;
- With no leaky coating.
In the first embodiment, the floor boards are positioned so that there is a gap between them, into which water will leak out.
In the second version, the boards are rallied together, arranging a special drain hole.
Which floor is best done in the bath can be determined by studying the negative and positive qualities of each option.
Pros and cons of leaking floor
Leaking floors are laid without fixing boards to the logs. Therefore, they can be easily lifted, cleaned and dried, and then returned to their place. Such floors are easy to do with your own hands, since special skills for their installation are not required.
The disadvantages of the leaking coating include the inability to provide sufficient heat safety at the bottom of the steam room, especially in winter.
Pros and Cons of a Leakproof Floor
In this case, the floor boards are attached to the lags without a gap. Typically, for a non-leaking coating, a floorboard with a thickness of at least 30 mm is chosen.
Non-leaking floors are less durable than leaking, since it is impossible to dry them effectively, as in the first embodiment. In addition, to drain the water, it will be necessary to arrange a special collection system, and when installing the boards on a frame base - to provide an angle of inclination to the drain.
A positive point in using such a coating is to protect the interior of the bathhouse from cold air and retain heat.
The better to cover the concrete floor
When installing concrete floors in a bathhouse, three types of finish coating are provided:
- Ironing Dry concrete granules are rubbed into a concrete screed, after gaining sufficient strength. Thus, the surface of the floor is strengthened. Aesthetically, the floor remains an ordinary gray mass, besides cold, so wooden floorings are installed on top of such a coating so that you can walk barefoot.
- Ceramic tile. Such a coating protects the base from water penetration, it looks beautiful, the service life of ceramics, subject to high-quality installation, is at least 20 years. For floor heating with ceramic coating, electric systems of underfloor heating or hot water supply are used. When choosing tiles for the bath, they stop on options with a less smooth surface to prevent falls.
- Terrace board. This material has increased strength and is not afraid of moisture. To cover the concrete screed, terrace boards are knocked into shields.
Installation technology of a wooden leaking floor
When flooring wooden floors, use the following technology:
- logs of the floor are supported on the lower crown or placed on individual supports with a pitch of 400-500 mm;
- a floorboard is laid on the logs. If the floor is not leaking, the boards are tightly adjusted to each other, if the floor is leaking, laying is carried out with preservation of gaps of 3-5 mm;
- water from the bath is removed through a drain well located under a water intake funnel in a non-leaking floor, or flows freely into the gaps between the boards, with a leaking coating.
Concrete floor mounting technology
To properly perform the installation of concrete floors, use the following technology:
- the soil, which is the basis for the floor, is tamped;
- sand or fine gravel is poured over the tamped surface, compacted;
- then a concrete screed 100-150 mm thick is laid;
- vapor barrier, thermal insulation and waterproofing are successively laid on top of the screed;
- concrete is again laid to a height of 50 mm, after which a leveling screed of cement-sand mortar is poured;
- the surface of the concrete floor can be sanded and primed. Tile is usually used as a topcoat.
The nuances of the device of the floors
When deciding what it is better to make the floor in the bath, you need to consider the temperature and humidity conditions in different rooms. For each room, the optimal solution is chosen.
In the waiting room
The dressing room connects the interior of the bathhouse with the entrance from the street. When choosing the material for the flooring of this room, it must be taken into account that it is not heated, but is to some extent exposed to moisture (snow from the street, water from buckets).
To preserve the flooring in the dressing room for a long time, it is assembled like a wooden floor over a rough floor.
In the steam room
To determine which floors are better in a steam bath, you need to understand how this room is used. If it is combined with a wash, the floors should be arranged as for a shower. If this is a separate room, it is possible to lay wooden floors, but to ensure effective air circulation and drying of the wood, logs are made at least 500 mm high.
In the shower
In the washing or shower room, it is necessary to provide flooring with an effective drain. As a material floorboards or tiles can be used. When choosing a wood coating, it should be borne in mind that due to the high humidity, the boards will have to be changed quite often.
In the rest room
The relaxation room is located far from rooms with high humidity, therefore, for the installation of floors in it, as well as in the locker room, if it is allocated, you can use a laminate or lay linoleum. Such a coating will provide the required comfort and at the same time it is quite cheap.