My wife and I have been looking at a lot of houses recently, and one thing neither of us understands is people that have carpeting in their bathrooms, including in the toilet room.
Bathrooms get a lot of water splashed around, urine dribbles, shower splashes, shaving cream blobs, toothpaste accidents, and even toilet overflows. Having carpet in such an environment seems really, well, kinda odd. Tile or linoleum, accompanied by floor mats, is clearly much easier to keep clean. At least it is to us.
So what’s the deal? Please fight our ignorance, why do people have carpet in these areas, and how do they keep it clean?
The house I live in came with carpet in the main bathroom. Not just carpet, but SHAG carpet. Someday I’m going to put on a biohazard suit and tear it out. It must have been a 70’s thing…
Maybe not wall to wall carpeting, but I do like a washable rug in the bathroom. I just hate the cold tile feeling under my feet, whether standing at the sink, drying off from a shower, sitting on the throne, or taking a leak. (I allow a few inches from the bowl to keep it from getting pee splattered on). Yes, I’m a hopeless case, I even like ketchup on my hot dogs!
Our house was built in 1985. Carpet in the master bath. Other two bathrooms have tile or wood.
So I spent all day yesterday ripping carpet out, and then the padding. And yes, the bottom of bathroom carpet is just as bad as you would think it would be. Some very large water stains, and quite a bit of dark stains near the toilet. I really don’t want to dwell on that too much.
Didn’t remember to put on a mask until I was halfway through. Hope I didn’t breath in any previous house owner cooties!!
Since a number of fatal accidents in the home occur in bathrooms, I’d assume that they are trying to minimise potential harm compared to cracking heads or ankles on cold stone tiles.
Not that I’ve actually seen carpet in a bathroom. Usually lino.
My current bathroom had carpeting. This was the brainchild of my landlord, who converted the building to apartments 30+ years ago. He also, for some reason I can not fathom, has carpeting in his home bathrooms. I think maybe he just hates laying tile or something. Anyhow…
After a Plumbing Incident I discovered mold and rot in the carpeting near the bathroom and shower. So I told him about it, said I’d save him the trouble of coming out to take care of it as long as he OK’d me ripping out the decaying carpet. He said OK. So I ripped it out and into the dumpster it went.
He offered to recarpet the bathroom for me.
:eek:
I’ve preferred the bare concrete floor these past few years to a carpet in the bathroom, thank you very much. Much easier to keep clean. Although I do have a washable throw-rug for in front of the sink and shower.
Carpet is more comfortable to walk on with bare feet, but you can get the same effect with a loose bath mat that can be washed from time to time, and replaced easily when it’s worn out.
If you have an elderly relative living with loose rugs or mats around the house, please take steps to get rid of them! Unfortunately, an elderly relative of mine who liked having the little rugs on her wood floor suffered a severe injury when she slipped on one of them. Don’t let this happen to someone you care about.
Or you could just put a non-slip rug pad under them, and then everyone is happy.
And yeah, I don’t think there’s any level of shampooing or vacuuming that would make me happy about a bathroom carpet. Of course, the last owners put a parquet wood floor in my bathroom some 40 years ago, and it’s none too salubrious now.
Although it’s not often featured on HGTV, there’s nothing wrong with vinyl (or some other modern) flooring. It will last quite a few years & can be replaced cheaply.
Bathroom carpeting is disgusting. Washable rugs & mats (nonstick to protect the fragile) are the way to go.
I don’t get why people install carpet anywhere. Slippers are so much cheaper and easier to clean.
Our first house came with gray berber carpeting in every room, even kitchen and bathroom. Underneath it was beautifully preserved red oak, vintage white hexagonal tiles, and some really hideous (but at least washable) 1970s vinyl. We sent the carpeting off for recycling and cleaned up the existing floors, except for the vinyl, which we replaced with cheap but updated vinyl tile. The house sold to the first people who looked at it, and one of their favorite features was the flooring :D.
Yep. The house my parents bought when I was little had shag carpeting in the bathroom too. It was gone within a couple of months of moving in, replaced with tile.
I remember, back in the 70s when I was just a wee deckchair, that some people had carpeted their toilets. I think that needs more explaining that a carpeted floor does.
Because around our house, your feet aren’t the only thing that touch the floor. That was true for us even before the Firebug came along. And if you’re going to sit or lie down on the floor, carpeting is WAY more comfortable than wood, however pretty the wood may be.
And I know - how about a wood floor, with rugs where you want something softer? Well, damned if I know what it is about rugs and the padding that goes under them, but I’ve never been on one that’s as comfortable as even cheapo wall-to-wall carpeting.
Gotta admit, though, that it’s a sin to put carpet over something like that.
