Bathroom Flooring – What’s Best for the Elderly

When it comes to selecting new flooring for the bathroom, it’s essential to give thought to safety. If you’re living in a home with elderly adults than you’ll want to select a flooring material that can aid in preventing slips and that is durable enough to support impact. The ideal type of flooring will also have a simple maintenance process, and complement the bathroom’s interior.

Before you purchase flooring for your bathroom, be aware of the safety ranking of popular flooring choices on the market:

Ceramic Tile
While ceramic tile flooring is low maintenance, it has a safety ranking of only five out of ten. Small tiled ceramic has enough texture to provide some support and aid in preventing slips and falls. However, ceramic is cold and hard which makes it unforgiving under impact. Also, when the ceramic floor gets wet it becomes even more slippery.

Carpet
Who doesn’t love carpet flooring? Carpet is soft, warm and is the most comfortable flooring option. Carpet flooring especially when combined with underpadding will provide a soft cushion in the event of a fall. Carpet also decreases the risk of falls. The safety ranking of carpet flooring is seven out of ten.

However, let’s be real! Maintaining carpet in the bathroom will be challenging to say the least! Since the bathroom is susceptible to moisture you’ll have to figure out a way to prevent molding and keep the carpet clean and free from other contaminants that carpet attracts, yet still keep it clean.

Rubber Flooring
Rubber flooring isn’t the most aesthetically appealing type of flooring. Surprisingly, it’s also very expensive which you’ll need to take into consideration if you are on a tight budget. However, rubber flooring is the safest choice of flooring for homes with elderly adults. It has a very forgiving surface and it’s not slippery when wet. The safety rank of rubber flooring is ten out of ten.

Natural Stone
Natural stone flooring in the bathroom is simply beautiful. You’ll find that there are a large variety of colors and designs on the market. However, natural stone flooring has a super-hard surface that can possibly cause more damage upon impact. Natural stone flooring has a safety rank of four out of ten.

Luxury Vinyl Tile and Plank
This new growing product category provides a good combination of being easy to clean, softer than tile and stone, and if you choose the right type, more slip resistant than other surfaces. This flooring type is becoming the bathroom surface of choice for homes with elderly residents.