Do bathrooms and floorboards mix?

[Theo Cupier]

We're putting new bathrooms in our extension that is being built at present. By default, we're installing floating green chipboard flooring throughout the new areas of house, upstairs and down.

We have been debating long and hard over our preferred flooring for the new bathrooms. Initially we considered a black and white chequerboard tiled floor, but haven't found anything sufficiently non-slip.

We have since become interested in laying "proper" plank floorboards in the bathrooms and leaving these exposed. Is this a sensible option for a bathroom? I know that the wood can be sealed to prevent water penetration into the planks themselves, but will the floor as a whole be sufficiently water tight to prevent water going through it into the ceiling of whatever room is beneath the bathrooms?

Are there wood floor treatments that will improve the seal of the floor surface as a whole?

(Also, if anyone can recommend good non-slip black and white tiles we'd love to hear it)

[Wordbird]

Is there a way to create a water resistant layer underneath the floorboards?
Alternatively, could you caulk between the boards with a clear silicon sealant?

We had the old bare (painted and uncaulked) boards in our bathroom for years and had no problems; we were just careful to use a bathmat and mop up any big spills. But that WAS pre-kids, so I don't know if they'd stand up to the kind of hurricane-force abuse our toddler can hand out.

[thedoctor]

Boards can be caulked with a sealer or you can look at our filling gaps in floorboards project. The use of mates etc is suggested in all cases here because its pointless waterproofing the underside of teh floor as the water would just sit there and eventually rot the boards. Our advice ios always to stay away from wood in bathrooms if possible. As builders we know how good it looks and believe me we love wood, but putting this against the complications it causes, it is just not worth it.