Wood Floor in the Bathroom? Yes please!

Conventional wisdom suggests that a solid wood floor has no place in a bathroom, but I am here to tell you that it can be done... and it can be done without fuss and be a relatively care free material that feels far better underfoot than tile. Truth be told, when it came to our bathroom remodel, my first choice was tile, as I felt like most people do and I just wanted a durable, bulletproof floor. However, when I checked the floor for level (flatness actually, as a floor need not be level for tile, just dead flat), I found that the back wall was over two inches higher than the transition at the door... which would have required me to use a substantial threshold at the door to mate the bathroom floor to the floor outside the bathroom. I think stepping into or out of any room is a bummer, so I decided it best to salvage the hardwood floor that was in there.

After stripping the linoleum and steaming off the associated glue, I found that there were several different species of wood that were used over the last 100 years to patch in repairs. There were also deep dark water stains in this wood that dictated the need for a dark stain to blend in these areas. The problem with this is that these different woods take stain very differently and I knew I'd end up with an uneven mess after all is said and done. Here is a shot after the linoleum is up and before a good sanding ... 

and after a good sanding ... 

You can really see the difference in the wood species, and the color difference would only be exaggerated by a typical staining process. The answer here is to use a 'gel' stain which is designed to sit on the surface of the wood more than penetrate. It is very 'workable', so one can blend light and dark areas easily. I typically stay away from this type of product in my vanity work, because I like to see the wood in those projects, but here, the gel stain offers an ideal compromise...

You'd really never know what a mess it was under there!  I applied 5 coats of water based poly for a little extra protection and this floor has handled daily traffic and showers with ease with no sign of distress from fairly constant moisture...and it has been well over a year. 

So in the end, I got to keep the original floor with no transition into the adjacent room, saved some bucks on tile and substrates, and the floor looks better and feels far more natural than chilly tile !