More About Tile vs. Marmoleum in Bathroom
I ‘d make tiles. For bathrooms, this is a better option than linoleum. Moreover, what prevents then remove the tile?
Guest User | 5 years and 3 months ago
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cate | 5 years and 3 months ago
Still can’t decide whether to go with unglazed porcelain hex tile or Marmoleum in our teeny bathroom. I’ve had both subs and the plumber over to give quotes. I find myself leaning toward one or the other and think I’ve made up my mind and then I flip flop. I like both materials. The one thing I really don’t like about the tile is that it will add 3/4 of an inch to the existing floor. Hate it when the bathroom floor isn’t level with the other floors. Then again, 3/4 of an inch is not a lot. How do you all feel about that? (Also perhaps we can finish the edge with stained and poly’d quarter round molding so it looks like it fits with the existing wood saddle? Or should I go with a bullnose tile edge or metal or something else?) What do you architects and experienced renovators say? I also like the idea that with Marmoleum, we’d be staying with the existing traditional floor coverings for this humble 1895 two-family. OTOH, I shudder to think that some future buyer will perceive the bathroom as being “unrenovated” (this could not be further from the truth) and will gut it. I know you must be thinking why should I care what a future buyer does and that’s true. However, the bathroom is more or less original and a bit rare, and modernizing it will surely ruin it (as countless renovations in identical bathrooms I have seen and lived with have shown). As for cost and convenience, the Marmoleum route is easier and less expensive, but it’s not a huge difference. My main concern is the result. (The aesthetic result. There’s no difference in terms of performance.) (One other vague thought is that if we do Marmoleum now, it’s always possible to do tile in, say, 10 years, if/when we want to sell, if we feel we made an error with the Marmoleum. Whereas the tile can’t be reversed.) Or will this be another instance of spending a fortune to make it look as if we have done nothing at all (TM)? This has been the leitmotif of our renovation. Perhaps we should launch a collection of embroidered pillows.
hkapstein | 5 years and 3 months ago
If you’re on the fence, I’d go with the tile. The linoleum is less water resistant, and more likely to fail in my opinion. I’m sure they say otherwise, but at the end of the day, however they coat it, it’s linoleum. If it’s the transition you’re worried about, just get a contractor who can install it thin. You can get quarter inch tile, and put it on quarter inch substrate and adjust the saddle. For even more height you could but boxes below the joists and mud it up.
2345bcde | 5 years and 3 months ago
I would go with the tile.
brokelin | 5 years and 3 months ago
I think you may have misconstrued what I wrote in an earlier post. I think you needn’t worry about what some future buyer with think, because they will probably renovate the bathroom anyway because it has a clawfoot tub (large or large-ish walk-in showers are what many people want now, and I can’t imagine that being reversed in future decades). While I no longer like climbing in and out of clawfoot tubs to shower, I still want a deep tub for bathing – but I feel like I’m in a real minority wanting a deep (or any) tub. I also like wall-hung bathroom sinks – they seem normal to me because my first childhood home, with the linoleum bathroom floor, had one – vanities always seem like lower kitchen cupboards that I don’t want to get down on the floor to rummage around in, especially in a small bathroom. My favorite bathroom as a adult had an original wall-hung sink, but people who’ve only known sink vanities can’t live without vanity storage under the bathroom sink, and find wall-hung sinks horribly old-fashioned.
My point was to go with whichever you prefer, and don’t worry about any future people. Given how I’ve seen prices rise in Brooklyn over the decades, I’ve seen people renovate perfectly nice already-renovated bathrooms, and nice old original bathrooms, that I would like as is – simply because they didn’t like the style that they considered outdated, or it didn’t have some one thing they had to have (a walk-in shower, large vanity, double sinks, etc.). There’s no accounting for people’s taste, or their need to renovate what doesn’t need renovating. You may hate the idea that someone will renovate your original bathroom, but you need to not care about what any next buyers will do – no choices you make will prevent their making changes if that’s what they want to do.
I also hate that little difference of floor level, especially in a room I’m likely to be walking into in my bare feet. That little difference hurts my foot if my foot gets placed on it just wrong – it makes the bones of my foot twist with a painful twinge. I had this with my tile kitchen floor in my coop – with the little quarter round at the edge of where the tile was higher than the original wood floor of the hallway – and it hurt my foot frequently. It wasn’t just a doorway in that instance, but a whole opening that was over 6 feet wide, so it may be that my foot was more likely to be placed at at 45 degree angle on the step, rather than the closer to 90 degree angle you get when entering a more narrow doorway like a bathroom. But even when I didn’t get that bone twist, it still was uncomfortable to step onto.
The bathroom floor off the same hallway, didn’t have that little tiny step up, but a slightly larger step up up, of at least 3/4 inch, with a thicker marble saddle with a flat top on it. That I almost never stepped on that in such a way that it hurt my foot. It may be that something with a slightly higher step up read differently to my brain, more like an actual step up, or it may be that having the wider marble saddle was a better visual cue to the step up (the kitchen had no saddle), or it may be the 90 degree angle at which I encountered the narrow doorway – either way, it just worked better. I think I’ve had a few bathrooms since with the tile higher than the original wood floors of the hallway outside the bath, with the marble saddle, and they never hurt my feet. I’d replace your wood saddle with with a marble saddle if you go with tile, which it sounds like you will likely (if you are thinking about future people (as it is the most common and thus most obvious choice) and don’t worry about the height difference.
Of course if the height difference really will bug you, that could be reason enough to decide to go with the marmoleum. (If a new buyer wants to have different tile on the floor than those you’d choose, in that case you having marmoleum in there would make it easier for them to install new tile, as they won’t have to demo the old tile.) I don’t think you’ll end up regretting whichever choice you make – sometimes it is hardest to decide between two equally good choices which have slight differences.
cate | 5 years and 3 months ago
Thank you for all of this wonderful advice, Brokelin, it is greatly appreciated. (Also, “There’s no accounting for people’s taste, or their need to renovate what doesn’t need renovating.” lol!) I attended an open house today which gave me an idea and you also mention it above: We can keep the wood saddle we have now, so we don’t have to change the door, and there is enough space to add a beautiful rectangular piece of marble to finish the edge of the tile. It will look pretty nice, I think, even with the additional 3/4 an inch height. At the open house, they had a fancy marble saddle and the step up to the bathroom looked great.
hkapstein | 5 years and 3 months ago
Maybe I’m picturing wrong, but the wood floor is probably 5/8ths to 3/4ths above the subfloor. The subfloor is probably 3/4 inch over the joists. So you have about 1.5 inches to work with. Tile(1/4)+radiant mat(1/8)+ ditra(1/8)+thinset(1/8)+subfloor(3/4) = 1.375. The wood could be thinner, but you should be able to come in within a quarter inch to half an inch. The saddle could be raised or rabbeted to cover the difference, but when you’re that close it should be possible to get a a nice result.