Bathroom Flooring in Cardiff

A good many Cardiff terraces have their bathroom downstairs, at the far end of the extended scullery, on a slab rather than on joists, and that changes the answer: porcelain from the tile range has the rigid base it needs, and the room can take the weight of a full-height tiled wall. Upstairs, over the single-storey extension, the joists flex and the light BML vinyl tile on a levelled, sealed deck is the floor that keeps its joints closed.

An owner-occupied city takes the long view in the bathroom: the extra layer of plywood or tile backer that stiffens a timber floor before porcelain goes on it is money spent once. The Berry Alloc panels are the alternative to tiling the walls, interlocking boards with no grout to fail. Whichever floor goes down, the shower is tanked first; in a terrace the room below is the kitchen.

Semi-detached houses are 30% of the Cardiff 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 30% of the homes in Cardiff, and a terraced bathroom in Cardiff 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.