Pie floor in the bathroom. How to make a bathroom floor from waterproofing to finishing. Requirements for floor coverings

Renovating a bathroom, especially if you do it yourself, is a complex, expensive undertaking that takes a lot of time and effort. The main problem for inexperienced craftsmen is the floor in the bathroom. The microclimate of this irreplaceable room requires the materials used to have increased resistance to moisture, temperature fluctuations, and readiness for serious loads.

The floor covering mainly performs a waterproofing function, protecting the concrete base from destruction due to contact with water. This article will tell you how to choose a material for flooring, level it, and also waterproof it with high quality.

Bathroom microclimate

Flooring is a material used to cover the concrete base of the floor inside the premises being renovated. His appearance and performance characteristics depend on the conditions of the place of use. From this point of view, the bathroom is considered a demanding, complex room, where the finishing is affected by a whole range of negative factors.

Increased air humidity, direct or indirect contact with water, temperature changes, and hot steam lead to premature wear and loss of the decorative qualities of the material. When planning repairs, keep in mind that the materials used are affected by the following factors:

Important! If you are planning a renovation, keep in mind that the bathroom floor is exposed to water, temperature fluctuations, steam, and harmful mold microorganisms. All these factors have a negative impact on the flooring. Therefore, the cladding is carried out with specially developed materials with water-repellent properties, which will last in such difficult conditions for at least 10-15 years.

Requirements for floor coverings

When carrying out repairs yourself, it is difficult to do without the help of experienced craftsmen, because choosing a material that will last in the microclimate of the bathroom is quite difficult without professional help. Not every floor covering is suitable for rooms with high humidity; it must have a high degree of moisture protection, low porosity and absorbency, and resistance to stress.

To ensure that the floor in the bathroom does not have to be replaced a couple of years after installation, choose materials that meet the following requirements:

Moisture resistant. No surface inside the bathroom is safe from contact with water, but the floor is at risk. The coating is exposed to air with high humidity, warm steam, condensation, not to mention situations when emergency leaks occur due to plumbing failure. Therefore, floor covering materials must have a maximum degree of protection against moisture, minimal porosity and absorbency.
Mechanical strength. When renovating a bathroom, you need to take into account that the floor covering is subject to high mechanical loads, since heavy equipment and plumbing equipment are installed on it. High-quality floor covering material is resistant to point impacts and is not damaged by external influences.
Low slip coefficient on wet surfaces. An incorrectly selected floor covering can often cause serious injuries due to falls. Therefore, experienced craftsmen recommend paying attention to materials with a textured, rough surface that does not become slippery even when wet.

Note! If you are planning a bathroom renovation in the short term, choose materials for waterproofing and floor coverings with the maximum level of moisture protection. This requirement applies not only to finishing, but also to putty, grout, and screed.

Floor construction

Installation of floor coverings for standard sanitary rooms multi-storey buildings made of panels, brick, and monolithic concrete differs only in decorative finishing material. If in houses of recent construction do-it-yourself bathroom renovation most often consists of replacing the cladding, then in “Stalin”, “Khrushchev” buildings, and even more so in buildings more early years more serious reconstruction is required. The floor in the bathroom of any home consists of several materials that form a “waterproofing cake” of the floor, laid as follows:

Interesting! When renovating a bathroom with their own hands or with the help of professional craftsmen, many homeowners install heated floors. This term refers to a special technology for installing flooring using a thermal cable that connects to the electrical network and heats the surface of the floor covering.

Floor waterproofing

Having decided to do bathroom renovations with their own hands, homeowners are faced with a difficult task - creating a reliable hydraulic trough. In typical houses, they were carried out using fused materials, which is considered a very effective method of preventing water leaks into interfloor concrete floors.

The hydraulic trough made of roofing felt wears out over time, cracks and bald spots form on it. Ideally, it requires replacement after 10-15 years, but in modern realities it lasts more than 20-30 years. Therefore, if a bathroom renovation begins, the old decorative coating, waterproofing and even screed are dismantled. The new hydraulic trough is equipped with the following materials:

Important! When applying a waterproofing layer before making a bathroom floor and laying a decorative coating, do not forget that drying is important technological process, which cannot be accelerated or violated. Some types of waterproofing polymerize and harden within 10-14 days.

Types of cladding

To make quality renovations in your bathroom with your own hands, you need to choose the right decorative floor covering. This decision depends appearance finishing, lifespan of the floor and comfort of use in the bathroom. Experienced craftsmen It is recommended to use materials with a high degree of moisture protection with a warm, rough surface that resists slipping for floor coverings. The following options are popular:

Note! Flooring begins with careful preparation of the surface. To ensure an ideal result, the floor is first leveled, puttied, and then coated with a primer that increases adhesion.

Video instruction

To create a comfortable, beautiful and practical floor in the bathroom, it is necessary to find a balance between the technical capabilities of the design of this section of the floor and the desired finishing coating of the floor, which determines all its consumer qualities.

Here are the main problems that need to be addressed:

Possibilities for waterproofing.
Possibility of applying the desired floor covering.
Ability to do everything necessary work the selected option in a room where people live.

Waterproofing the bathroom floor is required by standards for multi-apartment housing. Even in an individual house, its installation is beneficial - this protective structure will ensure the safety of the underlying premises.

Two main types of floors

The easiest way is to install a monolithic or prefabricated bathroom floor reinforced concrete floor. This design allows you to arrange all the necessary layers from durable and rigid materials based on cement mortars. There is no need to limit yourself in the choice of waterproofing and front layer - on this basis you can do anything.

Many other types of prefabricated and monolithic floors, both ancient and modern, have the same qualities. For example - structures on steel or reinforced concrete beams with different types of filling, prefabricated structures from concrete and ceramic elements.

It is a little more difficult to install a floor in a bathroom using wooden beams - this type of construction is preserved in some apartment buildings and individual houses of old construction. Due to the fact that modern wooden floors are advantageous in some cases and in new construction houses, installing a floor for such a bathroom is still important today.

Natural restrictions for floors on wooden beams and on some other types of floors are associated with the following features:

the need for very reliable waterproofing wooden and steel beams;
restrictions on the weight of floor structures related to the load-bearing capacity of the floor;
the risk of deformation associated with the characteristics of wooden beams and wooden floorings on them.

Independent installation of the floor in the bathroom. Floor structure

When planning a DIY floor for your own bathroom, a home craftsman must first of all evaluate the technical capabilities for installing the desired surface finish. Here's the basic floor design (from bottom to top):

The floor structure is most often a reinforced concrete slab.
Leveling screed.
Waterproofing layer.
Leveling screed.
Flooring.

It is necessary to ensure that all the required layers will be placed in the space above the floor structures to the level of the finished floor. This is important both for new houses and for old ones where the bathroom floor is being renovated. In almost all houses, builders have provided the required distance from the ceiling to the finished floor, so that for a floor of a conventional design, all the necessary layers can be completed, even taking into account the fact that the bathroom floor should be 20 mm lower than the finished floor in living areas.

It is possible that the volume from the slab to the finished floor will not be enough to install water heating or use floor finishing from elements of considerable thickness. In this case, the floor for your own bathroom can be made with certain deviations from conventional solutions in order to save space for the implementation of your plans. Here's what you can do to make the layers of the floor structure thinner:

use the thinnest screeds from self-leveling mixtures;
use electric heating instead of water heated floors;
arrange coating waterproofing together with the lining.

In any case, when thinking about the floor in the bathroom, it is important to carefully measure the available spaces and calculate layer by layer all the structures that you plan to make with your own hands. The written list of floor layers, indicating their thicknesses, will be fully consistent with the professional design solution made by a specialist.

The order of work on installing the floor in the bathroom

The floor for any bathroom begins with a leveling screed - it is needed for reliable waterproofing. If the surface of the monolithic reinforced concrete floor is sufficiently flat, this screed can be omitted, but waterproofing can be installed directly on such a slab.

Pasted waterproofing is carried out with roofing felt glued to bitumen mastic. This technology has proven its reliability for over a hundred years. The corners must be carefully formed - without fractures or air bubbles, and the edges of the roofing material should be brought up to the walls by 50-100mm. In place of the threshold, you can lay a block; over time, it will be replaced by a box threshold, to which you need to glue the corresponding roofing material flap.

If the height of the finished floor relative to the ceiling is large, you can reach this level using sheet extruded polyurethane foam - EPS; this is easier than installing a thick screed. EPS sheets are laid on a layer of waterproofing, and the next layer of screed is made on top of them.

On top of the waterproofing, you can install water and sewer pipes - they will be hidden by the next screed. The height of this subsequent screed is usually higher than the lower one - it can reach 40-50 mm or more. When making a bathroom floor yourself, it is best to count on the fact that you will not be able to obtain a flat surface of the second thick screed with your own hands with high precision. It is much better to complete this screed with a layer of self-leveling cement-based mixture. It is not difficult to carry out any finishing on such a flat base - it is important to accurately maintain only the level of the surface of this second screed.

After finishing the second screed, it is time to lay the floor covering, for which it must be selected in a timely manner.

Choosing a floor covering for a bathroom

The most common ceramic tile coating is durable, wear-resistant, beautiful, and practical in maintenance and cleaning. Disadvantages include a feeling of cold and a slight risk of slipping. Floor tiles are much stronger than wall tiles and have a less slippery matte surface. It is advantageous to install such floor finishing for a long time.

The floor in the bathroom can be made of natural stone - there are dozens of varieties of marble alone, cut into thin tiles. This is a luxurious finish that requires an informed design decision. Marble and other types of stone are beautiful, durable, and wear-resistant, but, like ceramic tiles, they can feel cold to the touch and sometimes slippery.

The linoleum bathroom floor is a simple, inexpensive, practical design, ideal for use in a limited period of time. The choice of patterns is very wide, this floor is non-slip and even seems warmer than tiles. The advantages of a special waterproof laminate, which can also be used to make bathroom floors, are similar. Laminate feels slightly cooler to the touch than linoleum

A neat bathroom owner can make the floor for his bathroom even from carpet. This is a very pleasant-to-touch coating that only needs to be protected from splashes of water and be prepared for frequent replacement due to accelerated failure from inevitable splashes.

A wooden plank floor for a bathroom embodies all the beauty of an eco-friendly natural flooring, but is technically risky due to the risk of warping and other effects from high humidity.

It is best to make such a floor from mahogany - it does not rot, or from larch or oak, it is advantageous to lay it along the joists - so that the wood is ventilated from below.

As an option, it is possible to use boards that are generously treated with waterproof varnish on all sides.

Modern self-leveling floors for individual bathrooms are now available to everyone. This type of floor is beautiful, very smooth, with a natural stone pattern, and can be easily done with your own hands. The disadvantage - common for many other floors - is the feeling of a cold surface, as well as noticeable odors of a synthetic nature when using it.

An interesting, beautiful and surprisingly warm to the touch floor for a home bathroom made from sheet cork. A recognizable appearance, softness and warmth will make a room with such a coating comfortable and cozy, and its sufficient wear resistance and careful handling will ensure long-term operation.

Floors on wooden beams

When thinking about how to make a bathroom floor using wooden beams, you need to solve two technical problems:

Do not create excessive load on beams, the load-bearing capacity of which is inferior to many other types of floors
Ensure that the beams are insulated from moisture and, especially, from direct soaking.

If the beams are powerful enough, then you can build a thin reinforced concrete slab with a thickness of 70, 60 and even 50 mm on top of them, and on it you can make any floor with your own hands, as in a house with reinforced concrete floors.

Quite risky, but quite realistic if done carefully and with precision, a coating that contains an intermediate flooring, for example, made of OSB boards - specifically for installing roofing felt waterproofing. It can be covered with plank flooring on joists and even facing with ceramic tiles. The finished floor plane for such a bathroom is suitable for laying laminate, linoleum, carpet, and cork.

The most reliable waterproofing layer for wooden beams is a solid or welded continuous sheet of stainless steel. A home craftsman who manages to order or make such a structure from a stainless steel sheet in the form of a pallet with his own hands can be sure that the beams will neither get wet nor rot.

Correct and balanced decision on floor design

For many home craftsmen, making and installing many structures with their own hands is easier than deciding what to cover the bathroom floor with. For a successful and balanced decision, it is necessary to adhere to some specific and understandable logic of priorities. Here is an example of a methodologically sound sequence of consideration of floor problems for your own bathroom:

Based on the previously planned type of floor finishing, the composition and thickness of all layers of the floor for the designer bathroom are assigned.
All existing promising prospects are checked engineering Communication and their influence on the realization of gender.
When all technical problems have been resolved, we can begin to refine the front layer. Perhaps thinking about the technical side of the matter will allow us to clarify the design solution. As soon as you have confidence in making the right choice the design of the layers of such a floor and the covering material, you can get to work.

The accuracy and attentiveness of the master allows him to perform many works more carefully than specialists do.

Bathroom renovation is one of the most time-consuming tasks. The reason for this lies in the fact that there are communication pipes in the bathroom and constantly high humidity. You will have to overcome more than one obstacle when arranging the floor, and use special moisture-resistant materials. In this article, we will tell you how to make your bathroom floor aesthetically pleasing, strong, durable and protect yourself and your neighbors from flooding.

There are various options for arranging floors in bathrooms. This depends on the subfloor material and many other factors. In almost all apartments of multi-storey buildings in our vast Motherland, the installation of a bathroom floor can look like this:

The concrete floor slab is the initial foundation.
Rolled or built-up waterproofing.
The concrete screed is about 5 cm thick - in old Soviet buildings it is not made very well.
Waterproofing again - at this stage it can be coated or painted.
Leveling screed - made of cement-sand mixture or modern self-leveling mixture.
Flooring: various tiles, wood, waterproof laminate, cork flooring, linoleum, self-leveling flooring.

Scheme of a “warm floor” in the bathroom

A relative innovation is the “warm floor” system, which can also be installed in the bathroom. It is installed at the leveling screed stage and will make your stay in the bathroom even more comfortable. The presented scheme for arranging a floor in a bathroom is universal. For its high-quality implementation, it is necessary to responsibly and painstakingly complete the following stages of work.

Preparing the rough surface

If renovations are being done in a residential apartment, the first step is to remove any old flooring. If it was linoleum, then we pry it with a spatula or knife and rip it off. But most often in bathrooms, tiles were laid on the floor, so you can’t do without a hammer drill. We break the tiles and remove all the remains. During the dismantling of tiles or other types of tiles, the screed will most likely be damaged: cracks, splits will appear, and it may even crumble.

Therefore, it is advisable to remove the screed too. The concrete foundation should appear before us in all its glory. We sweep all construction debris out of the bathroom, then vacuum it to get rid of dust particles. At this stage, it is necessary to seal all the cracks and holes that are visible to the naked eye so that they do not increase in the future. To do this, you can use “tile” glue.

If the floor in an apartment is installed “after the builders”, there will be less preparatory work, since nothing needs to be removed. The concrete floor must be cleared of debris, dirt and visible cracks must be sealed.

Before applying waterproofing, the surface should be primed. Therefore, we treat the floor with a primer, thereby improving adhesion. waterproofing material with the floor surface.

When choosing a material for waterproofing, you should be guided by the exact stage at which it is applied and what part of the surface we want to isolate.

Waterproofing the floor in the bathroom is carried out with an overlap of 10 cm on the walls

If we have a floor slab in front of us, and not a concrete floor, then first we take roll or welded waterproofing. You can use bitumen mastic and thoroughly treat the entire surface, cracks and joints with the walls, making an overlap of at least 25 cm on them.

You can apply coating or painting waterproofing to the concrete floor. And if you plan to insulate the walls, for example, at the junction of a shower stall or washbasin, then you should choose adhesive waterproofing.

Application of coating waterproofing

Prepare the mixture. To do this, pour the dry component into a container, fill it with the liquid component and stir. The ratio should be 1:1, knead thoroughly until a homogeneous consistency is obtained.
Using a roller, apply the mixture to the entire surface of the floor. In hard-to-reach places and places of connection with walls and communications, you can use a spatula or brush. Consumption is approximately 2 - 3 kg/m3, but more precise figures are indicated on the packaging.
We lay waterproofing tape at the joints and joints.
We form a “trough” that will protect against water seeping through the walls. To do this, in parallel with coating the floor, we apply the mixture to the walls so that its upper edge protrudes above the level of the future floor by 5 - 10 cm.
Apply the waterproofing mixture in two layers. After applying the first one, we take a break of 4-6 hours. Then apply the next layer and wait for it to dry. We resume all subsequent work after at least 24 hours.

Easy painting method

Painted waterproofing of bathroom floors is short-lived

The painting method is easier than the coating method. Its significant drawback is its fragility. The average service life of painted waterproofing is 3 - 5 years.

If you still decide to use this particular method, then apply the solution to the floor and walls with a brush or roller.

Important! Waterproofing the floor in a wooden house will require additional steps. To protect the wood from the influence of moisture, thin linoleum is laid on the subfloor with an overlap of 5–10 cm on the walls. This will serve as additional protection.

What to decide before pouring the floor

Since you have decided to make the bathroom floor with your own hands, it is quite possible that you will want to move the toilet to another place, install a drain so as not to flood your neighbors, or install a “warm floor” system. It is at this stage that the decision should be made as to whether such constructive changes will be undertaken.

If you plan move the toilet, it must be connected by a pipe to the sewer. For this pipe to function properly, it must be at an angle. In this case, the overall floor level will rise by at least 10-15 cm, or the toilet will have to be installed on a separate pedestal. Therefore, at this stage we dismantle the old toilet, install it in a new place and connect it to the drain pipe. You don’t have to install the toilet yet, but just install the pipe.

Drain equipment will also raise the floor level by a few centimeters and for the same reason. In addition, the floor will need to be poured with a slope towards the drain so that water from the entire area of the bath flows towards it. We install the drain and mount the outlet pipe. In the future, it will be necessary to ensure that the neck of the drain protrudes above the screed. In the meantime, in order not to clog the pipe, it is worth temporarily plugging it with something, for example, a rag.

Water-heated floor pipes in the bathroom are installed before the floor is poured

Increasingly in bathrooms "warm floor" system is installed. The tiles are very cold to the touch, it is not very pleasant to stand barefoot on them in the morning after a warm, cozy bed. And a “warm floor” can provide a very comfortable feeling. You can install a water or electric floor in the bathroom. The “warm floor” system, consisting of pipes through which warm water passes, is connected directly to the heating pipe, if one is provided in the bathroom. Another way is to connect to hot water pipes or heated towel rails. Despite the doubts of the masses, electric underfloor heating can also be safely installed in the bathroom. The only drawback of this choice is the high energy costs, but the electric floor is extremely easy to install.

Important! If you want the water to remain in the bathroom in case of flooding and not flood the entire apartment or house, the floor in the bathroom must be made lower than the general level of the rest of the rooms. The second solution to the problem is to equip a high threshold so that the water does not overflow.

Therefore, before pouring the floor in the bathroom, we install all additional communications and determine at what level the floor and threshold should be.

Leveling the floor - screed

Leveling the bathroom floor is a must. Any floor covering, no matter what you choose, requires an almost perfectly flat base, especially if it is tile. A high-quality screed is the key to the durability and strength of the finishing coating. That is why this issue should be approached with full responsibility.

A leveling cement-sand floor screed in the bathroom is necessary if the base has significant deficiencies or height differences

Previously, there wasn’t much choice, and everyone screeded the floor cement-sand mixture. Today the market can offer a lot construction mixtures based on non-shrinking cements, as well as others self-leveling mixtures. All these options have the right to life.

The technologies for making screeds using different materials are not too different and have a common structure:

On the walls we outline the level to which we will fill the screed, taking into account whether we have additional pipes that need to be hidden. To do this, you can use a water or laser level.
We install beacons at a distance of 1 m from each other. You can use wooden blocks, metal corners, or you can purchase a plastic T-shaped profile. We fix them with cement mortar. To do this, lay out tubercles of mortar on the floor, to which alabaster has been added. We lay the beacons and, constantly monitoring the horizontal level, press them into the solution. Align the beacons with the marks on the wall.
Prepare the screed solution. This can be a traditional cement-sand mixture, or self-leveling if the floor has minor unevenness. Mix them in a bucket using a drill. We follow the instructions on the packaging of the self-leveling mixture. We make sure that the amount of water is optimal.
Fill the mixture to the top edge of the beacons. The self-leveling mixture will fill all the empty space without outside interference, and we use the rule to level the cement mixture.
We apply a rule, the length of which is at least 20 cm greater than the distance between the beacons, to the beacon strips. We stretch it towards ourselves, thereby filling the voids, leveling the solution and removing excess that protrudes beyond the beacons.
To remove air bubbles in the self-leveling mixture, roll over it with a needle roller.
We wait until the screed dries. The period depends on the brand and composition of the leveling mixture. It is extremely important to follow the instructions and maintain the required microclimate in the room, avoiding drafts.

Important! If you decide to install an electric “warm floor”, then the screed is poured in two stages. Beacons do not need to be installed. Pour the first layer and wait for it to dry completely. We lay thermal insulation and lay out a “warm floor”. Pour in the second portion of the leveling mixture and level it.

Which flooring should you choose?

Any finishing floor covering can be laid on a floor surface leveled with a screed. This will be the final stage of arranging the floor in the bathroom.

Linoleum in the bathroom rarely placed. Rather, it is an economical option or a temporary solution. Laying linoleum is very easy, it does not require additional care, is easy to clean, serves as waterproofing, but at the same time it quickly “wipes out” and becomes unpresentable.

Natural cork flooring in the bathroom is a good solution for lovers of comfort and warmth

Provides maximum comfort. The cork is very pleasant, warm to the touch, and it is impossible to slip on it, which cannot be said about tiles. It springs very well, returning to its original state. In addition, it does not absorb foreign odors and water, and is also resistant to the influence of pathogenic flora; fungi simply do not multiply on it. There is a very significant nuance. Only solid cork has the ability to not absorb moisture, and not HDF-based floors. You should choose a cork array 4 - 6 mm thick, glued to the base. Another important advantage of cork flooring is its naturalness, environmental friendliness and hypoallergenicity.

The self-leveling floor in the bathroom can mentally transport you to other lands

We started equipping it relatively recently. Firstly, this floor is easy to install. In fact, the last layer of leveling screed can be pouring the self-leveling floor. Secondly, such a floor itself has water-repellent properties, so there is no need for additional waterproofing. Thirdly, the operating temperature of the self-leveling floor allows you to install a “warm floor” system directly into it. And one of the most important advantages of this flooring is the variety of patterns and colors. You can install a floor that imitates natural stone, or use other decorative fillers.

But this technology also has a number of disadvantages:

It is necessary to prepare a perfectly level base.
Freshly prepared mixture is extremely toxic and flammable.
Unnatural coating.

How to make a self-leveling floor in a bathroom

All preparatory work has already been completed: the waterproofing has been completed, the screed has been poured. All that remains is to apply the self-leveling floor mixture:

1. Prepare the mixture. To do this, pour the dry component into water and knead with a drill at intervals of 1-2 minutes until you get a homogeneous consistency.

Important! Please note that to prepare a self-leveling floor mixture, it is the dry component that is poured into the water, and not vice versa, as is the case with other mixtures. The resulting solution begins to harden within half an hour to 40 minutes, so it makes sense to prepare it in portions, and not all at once.

2. Be sure to observe temperature and humidity conditions. The optimal temperature is +15 - +25 °C, humidity no more than 80%.

3. We will pour the mixture in strips. We fill the first strip along the wall, starting from the corner opposite the doorway.

4. Level and adjust the thickness of the layer with a squeegee or spatula.

5. Roll the layer with a needle roller to remove air bubbles.

6. We fill all other strips according to this algorithm: fill, straighten, remove air.

7. The self-leveling floor dries in about 3 days, but you can use it 6 - 12 hours after pouring, by which time it will have acquired sufficient hardness.

Important! The “warm floor” system can be turned on no earlier than after a week.

Tiles in the bathroom floor - a classic traditional option

Bathroom floor tiles“entered” the room with a confident step for a long time and continues to occupy a leading position among bathroom floor coverings. A variety of shapes and materials allows you to satisfy the taste of even the most sophisticated buyer. The disadvantage of tile is its relative fragility. If a tile is cracked, it must be replaced, but while the damaged one is being dismantled, others nearby may also be damaged.

Wooden floors in the bathroom look very nice, but are not very practical

It can only be made of teak or larch, since not every wood can withstand constant changes in humidity levels. The arrangement of such a floor requires careful additional waterproofing. And although a wooden floor is natural, warm, beautiful, it makes sense to lay moisture resistant laminate.

Laying the flooring will mark the end of the work on arranging the floor in the bathroom. No matter how long this painstaking process takes, it is an irreplaceable experience that should be in the baggage of every efficient owner.

Arrangement of the floor in the bathroom is perhaps the most difficult stage of apartment renovation. Communication pipes that need to be carefully hidden, high humidity in the room, which requires the use of special materials - all this only complicates the task. And if you decided to do the renovation yourself, you probably wondered: how to make the floor in the bathroom correctly, so that it is durable, beautiful, and does not flood your neighbors. In this article we will try to answer this question as succinctly as possible.

Do-it-yourself bathroom floor - a responsible task

In most cases, the installation of a bathroom floor differs only in the finishing floor covering. Otherwise, the design is approximately the same, especially for apartment buildings, and is a kind of pie made of various materials with different purposes.

Bathroom floor diagram

Most often, the floor arrangement in the bathroom looks like this:

Concrete floor slab;
Waterproofing (fused with bitumen or rolled);
Screed made of cement-sand mixture about 50 mm thick;
Waterproofing (coating or painting);
Leveling screed (cement-sand or self-leveling);
Flooring (tiles, linoleum, wood, laminate, self-leveling flooring).

For additional heating of the bathroom and to keep the feet warm, a “warm floor” system is installed. It is installed at the stage of performing the leveling screed, so it must be planned in advance.

How to arrange a bathroom floor with your own hands

If you decide to do all the work yourself, be prepared for the fact that you will have to “tinker” with the bathroom. Arranging the floor will require a lot of effort, patience and care. Each stage of work can take a relatively long time. In order for the structure to be durable, the materials must gain their strength - dry. Therefore, there is no need to rush - we don’t need a poorly made floor.

The technology for arranging a bathroom floor is unified and consists of several stages. Below is more detail about each.

Preparatory work

There are two scenarios for performing preparatory work, and they are determined by the current state of the bathroom: “after the builders” or residential.

Repairs in a residential apartment will require the removal of the floor covering and leveling screed. Most often, ceramic tiles were laid on the floor in bathrooms; to remove them you will need a hammer drill. Use it to break the tiles, then take out the remains. During the process of dismantling the tiles, the leveling screed will most likely be broken. Holes, cracks and splits will remain after the hammer drill. Therefore, we also remove the screed. In addition, if the apartment is old, it is unlikely that this screed was done efficiently in Soviet times, so there is no need to regret it. If linoleum was used as a floor covering, it must be carefully pryed off with a sharp knife and torn off. If the floor was wooden, we saw down some of the boards and then dismantled the remaining ones. Removing the leveling screed will also be necessary in order to properly waterproof the floor.

There will be significantly less preparatory work in the apartment “after the builders”. You just need to sweep out all the trash, if any.

Then it is advisable to vacuum the concrete base of the floor and. This applies to both residential apartments and new buildings. To prevent holes and cracks from enlarging over time, we seal them with tile adhesive. After it has dried, you can proceed to the next stage.

Floor waterproofing

For better adhesion of the waterproofing material to the floor surface, it must be primed. Therefore, we first treat the floor with a soil mixture and only then proceed to waterproofing.

There are several options for floor waterproofing: welded, rolled, coated and painted. Each of them is good at its stage of arrangement.

Waterproofing a bathroom floor using fused materials is one of the most reliable

Welded waterproofing used for processing floor slabs, it is performed with an overlap of at least 25 cm on the walls. A concrete floor is poured on top of it, on which you can also apply weld-on insulation, or you can use more modern materials.

Roll waterproofing useful for applying to walls where a shower stall or bathtub adjoins.

Painting method can be used for, but this option is short-lived. The average service life of paint waterproofing is 3 – 5 years. Although this method is the simplest and easiest: with a brush or roller you need to apply the solution to the floor with an overlap of 10 cm on the walls.

Coating waterproofing is considered the most optimal and durable in this case.

To complete it you will need:

Prepare the mixture by adding the dry ingredient to water and stirring thoroughly. The ratio of components should be 1:1. It is necessary to mix thoroughly to obtain a homogeneous mass.
Apply the mixture to the entire floor surface with a roller or brush. For hard-to-reach places, you can use a spatula or brush. The material consumption per square meter is indicated on the packaging, try to take it into account.
Apply waterproofing tape to the joints between the floor and walls and other structures.
Coat the tape and walls 10–15 cm upward with the mixture, thus forming a “trough.” This will prevent water from seeping through the cracks between the walls and the floor, as well as through the walls themselves. If suddenly there is a flood in the bathroom, the “trough” will be able to hold back some of the water so that it does not flow to neighbors or into adjacent rooms.
The waterproofing mixture must be applied in two layers. After the first layer, take a break of 4-6 hours. Then apply a second layer.
Wait for the waterproofing to dry completely. Subsequent work can only begin after at least a day.

At this stage, you need to stop and think about whether you will make any significant changes in the bathroom. Below you will find out what these changes are and how they affect further stages of work.

Design changes in the bathroom

Since you have started renovation anyway and are completely changing the floor in the bathroom, it is quite possible that you will want to make structural changes in the arrangement of the room. By improving and increasing the comfort of the bathroom, you can install a “warm floor” system, install a water drain, or move the toilet to another location if the bathroom is shared. It is necessary to decide whether you will do any of the above at this stage, before pouring the concrete screed.

Electric “warm floor” in the bathroom is laid on top of the first layer of screed

Installation of a "warm floor" system will significantly increase the comfort and convenience of staying in the bathroom barefoot. After all, most often tiles are laid on the floor, and they are very cold to the touch. It is especially unpleasant to step on tiles in the morning, when you just woke up and got out of a warm bed. In the bathroom you can install electric “warm floor” and water. Contrary to popular doubts, “warm floors” in the form of an electric heating cable can be safely installed in the bathroom. Moreover, it is very easy to install, and leaks are impossible. But there is one very significant drawback: high energy costs. The so-called “water heated floor”, consisting of pipes through which hot water flows, can be connected directly to heating pipes, hot water or heated towel rails.

Water drainage equipment will protect the apartment and neighbors from accidental flooding. And in everyday life, water poured on the floor will immediately go down the drain. In order to make a drain, the floor surface will have to be made with a slight slope towards it. In this case, the overall floor level will rise by at least 10 cm. It is necessary to install the drain and discharge pipe; during further work, the neck of the drain must always protrude above the level of the screed. You should constantly monitor this, but for now you can plug it with a rag so as not to clog the pipe.

If required moving the toilet to another location, you will also have to make a number of design changes. The toilet must be connected by a pipe to the sewer, placing it at an angle for high-quality water drainage. To hide this pipe, you will have to either raise the overall floor level by 15 - 20 cm, or install a separate pedestal for the toilet. At this stage, it is necessary to dismantle the toilet and lay the pipe to a new location. You don’t have to put the toilet back in place for now so that it doesn’t get in the way.

Important! A low floor level in the bathroom relative to the general floor level in other rooms helps to avoid flooding of the entire apartment or house, as well as neighbors. If it is not possible to make such a floor, you can install a high threshold. It will also hold back the flow of water up to a certain point.

Before pouring the floor in the bathroom, it is necessary to install all additional communications and know exactly at what level the floor will be located. Once everything is ready, you can start screeding.

Bathroom floor screed

The smoother the base of the floor, the better the installation of the floor covering will be, and the more durable the floor itself will be. Therefore, floor screeding must be approached with all responsibility.

You can level the floor in the bathroom with a cement-sand screed or a self-leveling mixture

The most common material for leveling screed is a cement-sand mixture. An alternative is a self-leveling mixture, but it will not work if the floor is too uneven or has significant flaws. As a last resort, you can use it for the second leveling layer.

The procedure for making a concrete screed looks something like this:

On the walls it is necessary to mark the level to which the floor will be poured.
Install the beacons at intervals of 1 m. To secure them, tubercles of cement-sand mortar to which alabaster is added should be laid out on the floor. Beacons are placed on them and leveled, guided by marks on the wall. At the same time, lightly press into the solution.
Prepare the screed solution by thoroughly mixing it with a drill.
Fill with solution to the top edge of the beacons.
For leveling, you can use a rule that is at least 20–30 cm longer than the distance between the beacons. The rule is applied to the beacons and pulled towards itself, distributing the solution over the voids and removing excess.
It is very important to wait until the screed is completely dry. At the same time, observe the microclimate indicated on the package with the mixture and avoid drafts.

To install an electric heated floor, the screed must be poured in two stages. After pouring the first layer, you should wait until it dries completely. Then lay out the thermal insulation and lay out the “warm floor”. Pour a second layer of solution on top.

Laying flooring in the bathroom

The final stage of floor arrangement is laying the floor covering. There are many options for how to make a bathroom floor.

As an example, consider the technology of self-leveling flooring:

1. Prepare the mixture by pouring the dry component into water and stirring with a drill and a mixing attachment. It is important to follow the proportions indicated on the packaging.

Important! During the process of pouring the self-leveling floor, the temperature in the room should be +15 - + 25 ° C, humidity up to 80%.

2. Fill the first strip, starting from the corner opposite the doorway.

3. Level with a squeegee or spatula, adjusting the layer thickness.

We roll the poured mixture with a needle roller to remove air bubbles; you can walk on the floor in “paint shoes”

4. Remove air bubbles by rolling with a needle roller.

5. Fill the remaining stripes using the same algorithm.

The floor can be used after 6 – 12 hours; by this time it will have gained sufficient strength, but will completely dry out within at least 3 days.

Important! If a “warm floor” system was installed in the bathroom, it can be turned on no earlier than a week after pouring the floor.

Bathroom flooring - which one to choose

There are several options for bathroom flooring. When deciding which one to choose, you need to take into account personal preferences, budget and operational features.

Cork flooring in the bathroom is environmentally friendly, pleasant to the touch and hypoallergenic

Recently, more and more people are installing a stopper in the bathroom. It really has a lot of advantages: it is warm and pleasant to the touch, does not rot, is springy, does not absorb water, and fungi do not multiply on it. It is almost impossible to slip on a cork floor, unlike tiles. The cork springs pleasantly underfoot, invariably returning to its original position. In addition, it is hypoallergenic and completely natural. But keep in mind that only solid cork has the ability to not absorb moisture. This does not apply to HDF-based floors. Therefore, choose a cork array with a thickness of 4 - 6 mm, glued to the base.

Self-leveling flooring in the bathroom will make your wildest dreams come true

One of the easiest to install is a self-leveling floor. It gained popularity quite recently. Its significant advantages are: ease of installation, waterproofing properties, variety of patterns and shades. In addition, a “warm floor” system can be installed underneath it. At the same time, self-leveling floors also have undeniable disadvantages: the freshly prepared mixture has a toxic composition and easily ignites, requires a perfectly flat base, is unnatural, which feels good to the touch.

Ceramic tiles on the bathroom floor - a classic of the genre

Ceramic tiles are still the most common and popular material for bathroom floors. And, despite the relatively complex laying technology and the fragility of tiles, the variety of shapes and colors, as well as the naturalness of the material, persuade buyers to choose tiles. It doesn’t even stop us from the fact that if one tile is damaged during operation, the whole section will have to be replaced. Because during dismantling of damaged tiles, neighboring ones will probably be damaged. Still, aesthetics and some tradition are more important.

Wooden floors in the bathroom are warm and cozy

Such a floor is rare today, because not every wood can withstand high levels of humidity. For wooden floors, teak and larch are used, which provide additional waterproofing. This floor is very beautiful, healthy and warm.

Experts recommend laying a moisture-resistant laminate instead of wood.

Linoleum

Linoleum can be used as a finishing floor covering in the bathroom. It will serve as additional waterproofing and is extremely easy to maintain and install. But it has a significant drawback: it quickly wears off and becomes “unpresentable.” Therefore, linoleum is used only as a temporary covering or an economical option.

Whatever flooring you choose, know that the main task is the high-quality implementation of all previous stages of work. Any coating will lie on a perfectly flat screed. Properly done waterproofing will protect against flooding.

It is believed that renovating a bathroom and toilet is the most labor-intensive and key stage in renovating an apartment. It is especially difficult if the bathroom, as often happens today, is accompanied by redevelopment: the demolition of the partition between the bathroom and the toilet, the expansion of the bathroom into the corridor, or even the creation of it in the place of the former room. More details on redevelopment issues - what should be taken into account when planning repairs, where you should not blindly rely on the will of the craftsmen, we are already partially. In this article we will highlight interesting aspects of bathroom and toilet renovation, which definitely need to be thought about before, and not after.

Preparing the floor for renovation

Preparing the floor is the beginning of your bathroom renovation. As a rule, a floor pie in wet rooms consists of a floor slab (subfloor, fiberglass sheet), double or triple waterproofing, a primer, a leveling screed, an adhesive layer and the tile itself, porcelain stoneware or other moisture-resistant material (for example, marble or granite). It is very important to remember that the floors in the bathroom are subject to increased load - the weight of the tiles is greater than, for example, the weight of the laminate, which can be said about plumbing fixtures. If you live in a house with wooden floors, it is strictly not recommended in this regard to remove old logs, or to fill them (or the space remaining after cutting them) with a deep screed. The weight of such a structure will easily break through the lower level of the wooden floor and fall on the neighbors’ heads. In this case, place base slabs (for example, DSP sheets) on the joists and place only a light leveling screed over them.

When preparing the base of the floor, you need to consider whether your bathroom will have an additional bottom drain in the floor. This grated hole is usually located in one of the corners of the bathtub, and the floor is laid and leveled so that it goes at an imperceptible angle to this hole. An additional drain pipe runs from it, leading to a common sewer pipe. Pipes laid in the floor pie should be additionally waterproofed.

If the base for the floor pie is not concrete, but wood, then before further actions, be sure to saturate the subfloor with a special stain that protects against rot, mold and bacteria.

Waterproofing device

The most important stage of renovation in the bathroom is waterproofing. In some Soviet-built houses, the issue of waterproofing was resolved very simply: both the bathroom and the toilet were solid “blocks” - cubes, where there were no seams between the floor and walls, solid concrete. Today, new owners mercilessly break old partitions, after which they are surprised when water quickly leaks to the neighbors at the first pipe break or blockage.

So, waterproofing is done right before the stage of placing tiles or porcelain tiles on the floor and walls - immediately after you have prepared the base for the tiles. The simplest and most modern option is coating waterproofing, and it must be done by extending 10-20 cm onto the walls, and applied in two layers. Some contractors recommend waterproofing the rest of the apartment at the same time, that is, applying waterproofing to all subfloors. Of course, this will protect you from claims from your neighbors if, for example, a pipe burst happens in your absence. However, one should not underestimate the advantages of modern materials: if you waterproof the entire floor extending onto the walls, then when it floods, your apartment will look like a single bowl for liquid, which will have nowhere to drain. The ceiling may simply not withstand such a load, and if there are pets in the house, then this is simply dangerous.

Ventilation

Ventilation of wet areas of the apartment is an issue no less important and pressing than waterproofing. Initially, the design of any apartment building means ventilation ducts and ventilation grilles in kitchens and in bathrooms and toilets. Ventilation ducts of the old design, which is no secret, are extremely bulky, and due to them the wall between the toilet and the room can be not 15 cm, but, for example, 65.

But what if this wall also interferes with a brilliant design idea? After all, old apartments cannot boast of convenient layout. So it turns out that ventilation ducts are usually the first to suffer - they are mercilessly cut or simply removed. This not only blocks the air supply to the apartments from below, but also has a bad effect on the climate in your own apartment. Unfortunately, without ventilation, mold and mildew quickly begin to appear in the bathroom; during water procedures, steam accumulates in the room without finding a way out, making it difficult for the bather to breathe and feel well. If possible, try to leave the ventilation grilles in place; if you are creating a bathroom in place of a living room, stretch a sleeve from the bathroom to the existing ventilation hole in which the fan is placed. Unfortunately, the draft in ventilation ducts is small, so if you need to ventilate a remote room, additional mechanical force is required, reminiscent of an exhaust hood.

Heating

An interesting point is the heating of the bathroom. Towel dryers made from bent pipes into which hot water from the heating system is supplied are very convenient - they not only dry the air, preventing the formation of steam, but also warm the room, which, due to the material used to decorate the walls and floors, can be quite cold.

Electric heated towel rails are not an alternative - they consume too much electricity, which is why they are not intended for constant use, which means you will enter a cold room in the morning. As for underfloor heating - a fashionable solution - it is not suitable for all apartments: both the material of the floors and the permissible load of the electrical network are important. An electric heated floor requires a large amount of electricity, which in old houses can lead to the collapse of the general house system. Water-based heated floor apartment buildings prohibited by law. Thus, modern reality makes it extremely difficult to heat a bathroom - which is why, if your old bathroom already had a heated towel rail powered by a common pipe, in no case should you lose the opportunity to get a legal source of heat and dryness in the bathroom.

If you decide to create a heated floor, there are also some tricks here. For example, despite the fact that in the usual pictures of floor laying the entire space is occupied by cables, in fact you should not lay a heated floor where heavy pieces of furniture or plumbing fixtures will stand. There are no air pockets or voids left in the layer of tile adhesive around the heating part of the cable, and the cable itself cannot be cut “as work progresses” - it should not have breaks. Be sure to take a photo of the laid cable before covering it with tiles - this will be useful if you need to drill holes in the floor or rearrange furniture and appliances.

Drain pipes

Drain pipes are those details that few owners prefer to think about. In the end, a master can take care of this. However, there are also rules here that you can and should think about - it depends on the quality of installation of sewer pipes whether you will have the pleasure of regularly “flooding” your neighbors or repairing blockages. These are the rules:

The diameter of the new drain pipe must match the diameter of the outlet hole in the ceiling. Narrowing of pipes, use of inappropriate sections that fall to hand, leads to the formation of blockages
Drain pipes must have a slope from top to bottom and a minimum number of “elbows,” that is, corner joints. If you find that after repairs the drain will go at an upward angle, ask the workers to create a small pedestal. Be wary of proposals to lower the floor level in the bathroom - first calculate whether this will lead to a change in the angle of the drain.

Access to water meters and other devices

Availability of water meters, taps for shutting off pipes, and floor heating sensors upon completion of repairs are important details that are surprisingly often forgotten. And it’s not surprising, because other masters will have to deal with them. Please note that although the meter can be installed anywhere in the pipe, it must be at the appropriate height, and so that it is possible to easily not only take readings, but also change or repair the meter without breaking the wall or removing plumbing fixtures. It's the same story with shut-off valves. Discuss these issues with the master in advance - there are often cases when, after installing all the appliances, builders, without hesitation, place a toilet in front of the hole or cover it with a stand under the sink. By the way, the space under the bathroom is a bad place for any control devices: accessibility will be very difficult.

No matter how much you would like to shift all the technical problems onto the shoulders of the craftsmen, control of the fundamental aspects of the repair on your part is mandatory, since, first of all, your comfort and safety depend on the correctness of the work performed.