A bathroom floor lives with standing water and steam, and the two floors in the range for it are porcelain tile and rigid vinyl listed as waterproof; the walls of a shower can take the Berry Alloc panels. In Bath 79% of homes are houses, most of them semi-detached houses (29%), so the questions are the subfloor and the underlay rather than impact sound.
The Bath and North East Somerset district counts 79,250 households in the 2021 census, and the mix of houses and flats in that count is what decides how a bathroom floor is specified here.
Semi-detached houses are 29% of the Bath and North East Somerset stock, and the semi's bathroom is upstairs on a timber floor, often over the kitchen. The floor over joists is checked for level and stiffness before a tile goes on it, because a tile over a floor that flexes cracks at the grout; the rigid vinyl floats over it and is the more forgiving of the two on timber.
Terraced houses are 27% of the homes in Bath and North East Somerset, and a terraced bathroom in Bath is often a later addition, on the ground floor behind the kitchen or in a first-floor extension over it. A timber first floor under a bathroom is the case for the rigid vinyl, which floats and is light; a ground-floor slab takes either floor once the reading says it is dry.
Owner-occupation is 66% in Bath and North East Somerset, and an owner refitting a bathroom in Bath is choosing between the tile's permanence and the vinyl's warmth, and, on the walls, between tiles with grout and panels without. The bathroom guide and the panel guide linked below take each decision in turn.
Source: ONS, Census 2021, Bath and North East Somerset (E06000022) · Postcode districts: postcodes.io (ONS geography) · Range: our product catalogue
Delivery to Bath
We deliver across Bath and Somerset. Most in-stock orders reach Bath within a timeframe that depends on the delivery postcode. We also cover Bristol, Frome, Wells, Trowbridge, Bradford-on-Avon and the surrounding Mendip and West Wiltshire areas.
A Georgian floor is suspended timber over a void ventilated by airbricks that later work has often closed up. Before anything goes over it, the question is whether air still moves under there — Lansdown, Bathwick and the streets off Kingsmead all hold houses where it does not.
In porcelain, the 600 x 1200 mm tiles: Luna Blanca Matt Porcelain Floor Tile, Night Lux Matt Porcelain Floor Tile and the polished Taj Mahal Pearl; the matt faces are the usual bathroom choice. In rigid vinyl, the click planks such as BML Light Oak SPC Click Flooring and the BML Cement Light SPC Click Floor Tile, listed as waterproof. For the walls of a shower, the five Berry Alloc Wall & Water Shower Panels, 600 x 2400 mm, listed as waterproof.
Bath and North East Somerset in the 2021 census: 79,250 households, 78% houses, 21% flats.
Bathwick, Lambridge and Combe Down sit inside the BA1 and BA2 delivery area, together with Kingsmead, Lansdown, Newbridge and the Bathavon North and Bathavon South wards of Bath and North East Somerset. What stands out in the 2021 accommodation figures is conversion: 5.9% of homes are flats inside former houses, on top of 13.5% purpose-built, so 21.4% of the stock is flatted. An upper floor carved out of an older house rests on joists never designed to be split between two households, and deflection plus sound transfer governs the build-up, which usually means a floating layer over a resilient mat and door heights checked before any underlay is ordered. Ownership stands at 65.3%, a little below the 66.7% recorded in 2011.
More than a quarter of Bath lives in a terrace, and a further one household in eighteen in a flat carved out of a larger house. Much of that stock is Georgian, much of it is listed or in a conservation area, and both of those change what can be done to a floor before anything is chosen.
Delivery times and options depend on the delivery postcode. See Delivery & Returns for the applicable estimate.
Guides
Before you choose
Before you order in Bath
The edges, not the middle The bath, the tray, the door threshold: sealed as the fitting instructions describe. That is where water gets under a floor.
Matt or polished A polished tile is a different floor when wet. The HSE's pendulum grades tell you how different; a matt face is the usual bathroom choice.
Timber floor under a tile A first-floor bathroom on joists flexes. A tile over it needs a stiff base or it cracks at the grout; the vinyl floats over it.
First-floor bathroom on joists The semi's bathroom is upstairs on a timber floor that flexes. A tile needs a stiffened base; the vinyl floats, and the panels avoid grout.
The bathroom over the kitchen In a terrace the bathroom is often a later addition over the kitchen, on joists that were not sized for a tiled floor. The vinyl floats over them; a tile wants a stiffened base first.
A floor the bathroom is built around A tile bedded before the sanitaryware stays for the life of the bathroom; the vinyl and the panels are changed with it. Decide with the fitter which this bathroom is.
Porcelain is permanent, cool and hard, and suits a wet room with a fall; rigid vinyl listed as waterproof is warmer, quieter, floats over a timber first floor and can be lifted. Both need the edges sealed properly, which is where a bathroom floor fails if it fails.
Are the wall panels a replacement for tiles?
In a shower enclosure, yes: a panel runs floor to ceiling in one piece with a joint every 600 mm instead of a grout line every 300, and it is listed as waterproof by the manufacturer. The panel guide explains the datasheet and the fitting.
Can I lay a bathroom floor over underfloor heating?
The tiles and the rigid vinyl are listed for it. The screed is dry on a reading and the system commissioned before the floor goes down; the surface limit in a bathroom under EN 1264 is 33 °C.
What flooring suits Bath’s Georgian townhouses?
In a Georgian townhouse what goes under the floor is more constrained than what goes on it, and the constraint is depth: the finished level cannot rise past a threshold or a stair nosing that is part of the fabric. A thin build-up matters more here than in anything built since.
Do you deliver bathroom flooring to Bath?
Yes. We deliver across Bath and Somerset from our UK warehouse, including the BA1 and BA2 postcode districts. Delivery cost and timing depend on the delivery postcode and are shown at checkout, and samples come by post first so the floor can be seen in the room before the full order.
Can I see a bathroom sample before ordering in Bath?
Yes: cut samples are £1.99 each, up to two per product, posted to your Bath address. Two or three side by side on the floor, in the room's own light morning and evening, settle the colour faster than any photograph.
All ranges
More flooring pages for Bath
Every range and room for Bath, each on its own page with the same housing data read for that floor.
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