Yuck - Carpeting in closets is bad enough, but in a "loo," it's gnarly!! I'd throw down sheet vinyl before I'd carpet a bathroom (but would recommend tile over any other flooring for a bathroom).

Guess you've never been to S. CA and looked at homes. There are probably a LOT of bathrooms with old, VERY yucky, gnarly carpeting. At least it would be clean, and NEW~NO males in the house, just me.

Ceramic is just as bad when you think about all that pee absorbed into the grout, and the smell of that can be pretty horrific itself.

Guess the only thing that doesn't absorb is 'good old fashion' linoleum. ;o)

patty_cakes

I just moved from SoCal (Orange County) after having lived there 9 years ... never saw carpeting in the bathrooms. Mostly ceramic or porcelain tile, stone, or sometimes vinyl.

If I were looking to buy a house or condo, a carpeted bath would be one of those things that I'd think, "I'll have to replace this before moving in."

It wouldn't stop me from buying, if I liked everything else, but it would be something I'd think about the cost of replacing.

I agree with the last poster. I'd much prefer to see peel-and-stick vinyl tiles from Home Depot to brand-new carpeting, and would mentally deduct from the sale price an amount to redo the bathroom floor. All of which seems sad, since it will be newly installed. Are you sure you can't just stop the carpet at the entrance to the bathroom and leave the floor the way it is, however it is?

is your floor concrete--could you just stain and wax--that is a cool--very modern look--expensive to do in new builds...we have carpet in both baths--came in home originally and instead of going to tile my husband wanted carpet because it is warmer on his feet...
it is yucky...but we will probably try to resell w/o putting in tile...once you start to redo one facet of a room, everything else needs to go too---
as Ginger said to Richard on an early Real Deal show this season--'it would be like putting whipped cream on an onion" if you were to change only one bad thing in a room...

Good Lord, yes, please just stop the carpeting at the door and put down some peel and stick!!! At least there will be less work for us to pull up the peel & stick and lay down tile than it would to cut out the carpet, tack strips, get a carpet kicker, put in a new threshold...

Just say NO to carpet in the bathroom, even NEW carpet!!

Ewwww, just say no. Would it be cheaper to just get some no glue vinyl? If it were me I would much rather dispose of vinyl later than to have to replace carpet immediately.

I have two men in the house and the thought of carpet in a bathroom makes me shudder. It sounds like you have done quite a bit of work! Good luck with your house!

Ewwww, carpet in the bathroom .... I can just see it getting wet and mildewy from the bath/shower and, of course, worse.....

Just take up whatever is there and paint the floor with garage floor paint with flecks. Then use a couple bathrugs.

I live in SoCal, and can't say that I've seen any houses with carpeting in the bathroom. Sorry.

Get some peel and stick vinyl, if you can't bear to do real tile. Some of the stuff looks fairly decent, and it's fast, cheap, and easy to do.

Engineered wood flooring was installed a couple of years ago in the kitchen/eating area, sitting room off the kitchen, as well as the powder room, and more recently the living room..... i've decided to carpet the 'loo' and vanity areas. It's an '84 condo, and the original flooring was lino, which i've ripped out in preparation of the tile, but have re-thought the idea, and am going for a quick fix so I can finish packing stuff up for storage.

Ceramic is just as bad when you think about all that pee absorbed into the grout, and the smell of that can be pretty horrific itself.

I'd go with peel & stick. We just did this in 2 bathrooms as doing anything else doesn't add to resale in my area.

I've shopped for peel & stick till I was blue in the face and found a few that were decent. There's one from Lowes, looks like the real stuff; not sure if your Lowes has it, it's called Cryntel Italian Stone - Eurostone. I did a google but didn't come up with any pictures other than this, it's similar to the 2nd set of pics, 3rd pic on the right. It's a beige tile with slight grays and creams. Home Depot has their version of it also, the one from Lowes seems to be pretty popular.

It was pretty easy to put down, hubby started it, I finished it. Cutting the tile was a bit harder than the softer tiles, but the look is so much better. I'm really happy with it.

I agree with the others, carpeting in the bathroom, Major Yuck! Very unsanitary. It would be the first thing that gets ripped out IF I bought the house in the first place. I would deduct money from the asking price because of carpeting in a room that shouldn't have it. Put down area rugs or bath mats over the floor treatment you choose that can be removed and tossed in the washer if you need rugs in the bathroom. NancyLouise

I meant carpet in the bathroom of course, anywhere else it is a neutral depending on market

I live in SoCal, I did have a house with carpet in the bathrooms, it was also built in the 80's, a popular but bad idea. I removed all the carpet soon after buying it.
Since you are updating everything, don't stop at the bath. I haven't seen carpet in any new construction, doesn't mean it isn't there. If you want it to look up to date, which of course you do, don't do carpet.
Porcelain tile is the nicest, but depending on your price range, peel and stick might do. BTW, grout is sealed, it is easy to clean.

Ok, ok, OK! I hear y'all! I will check out the new looking peal'n stick roselvr posted~thank you roselvr, from the pic, it looks pretty nice.

Now, would it be ok to carpet the vanity area, which is separate from the 'loo'? You know, it's that little tiny space with the shower.
For those who have lived in S. CA and never encountered carpeting, you're lucky! When moving here 23 years ago in a very nice area in north county, the spec home had been completely carpeted, includig all full baths. The PR was lino. When my ex built a new home(same area)6 years ago, the standard was the same. He probably didn't even think about upgrading to tile~in a new build, it would be an upgrade.

One DD lives in Mission Vjeio,and removed the carpeting from her baths, and she's in a upscale gated community. The home was built about 16 years ago. I'm just wondering how many of you CA's are the original owners. If not, the carpeting might have been re-placed with tile, but was original to the home.

Thanks again guys for being so honest in your opinions. A few of you said it wouldn't stop you for buying, but might ask for a lower price because of it. ;o)

patty_cakes

If there is a shower there, do not carpet

Re: carpet in bath in southern California. The apartment I rented in Los Angeles in 2001 had carpet in one bathroom, but the owner replaced it with sheet vinyl before I moved in. I think the other bath had also had carpet, but it had already been replaced.

I think that sheet vinyl is preferable to vinyl tile in a bathroom, but tile is easier to DIY. If you use sheet vinyl, you can also caulk around the edges to make it more waterproof.

I wouldn't carpet by the vanity. I would continue what ever flooring you are using and use a throw rug. JC Penney has really nice throw rugs

Agree with everyone, carpet in the bathroom is just icky.
I live in SoCal, and never seen a carpeted bathroom. Now, our old house (in LA county), built in 1987, has the vanity outside the bathroom. The vanity area is carpeted, but the bathroom is tiled.
If I remember it right, we rented an older apartment in the Silicon Valley in '95, I think the tiny bathroom/loo was carpeted, and I could just imagine the mold/mildew growing under the carpet! Eewww!

No carpet near the vanity or shower either!! That's just as bad! I can't tell you how many times my DH has left the end of the shower curtain open to let water run out all over the floor or my 2 year old poured a cup of water down the from of him after just brushing his teeth! Please be kind to your buyers, no carpet anywhere near an area with water!!!

It already sounds like your condo has been updated nicely! Your buyers won't understand why you decided to "update" your bathroom with carpet! That's not an update, as many have said, it's a thing of the past that needs to REMAIN in the past. ;+)

When we bought our house in Seattle the PR had carpet. I had never seen that before in my life! I have 2 boys so that carpet came up toot sweet and we put in some lovely tile. It wasn't a deal breaker for is, but none of the other houses we looked at had carpet in the bathrooms.

If the shower was not in the vanity area, I could live with it -- reluctantly.
But with the shower there -- NO.

We had carpeting in the vanity area (just a sink) and it also got pretty disgusting. Eventually we replaced the carpeting with cork. I would do tile or vinyl any place there is water.

You really want to finish the entire place. Don't stop with just one thing to be done (carpeting in wet areas). The place will look odd - everything all updated and redone EXCEPT for this one crucial item (which everyone seems to think is yucky). It may make buyers pause and make them wonder how well done or thorough the other fix-ups were.

Thanks again everyone for all your personal opinions. Getting an objective opinion is important and I can think of you all as prospective buyers.

I watched an HGTV show last night about the best 35 things you should do to sell a house. It was mentioned not to scimp on bathrooms, so i'm back to my original plan of tiling. It won't be anything elaborate, just simple, but at least it will be tiled!

Thanks again for coming to my rescue and making me see the light. ;o)

patty_cakes

it sounds like you've done some really nice updates--and since the bathroom floors are bare already, hopefully the tile will go in quite easily.

Good luck w/ your sale!

I'm going to tack a question on here, but if it doesn't get a response, I'll start a new post later.

About the carpet in the bathroom, both of our bathrooms have carpet from the door to the end of the vanity only. The tub & toilet are at the far end of the bathrooms & that area is tile. I just ripped out the carpet from the hall & one bathroom & want to put down wood. Are there any objections to wood in front of the vanity?

I personally wouldn't put wood anywhere that was likely to get very wet, but wood is quite popular in kitchens, so maybe it'd be ok in front of the vanity. But why not continue the tile that's by the tub and toilet for a more continuous look?

I think wood in front of a vanity is okay. I continued the wood when I had it installed in a sitting room connected to it.

This post was from quite along time ago, when I was at the beginning stages of getting it ready to sell. I ended up putting in 18" Italian porcelain tile placed on the diagonal in both baths. My condo is now listed and i'm stoked to be finsihed with all the work, sweat, and a few tears I put into it! ;o)

Congratulations Patty cakes. That tile sounds pretty.

Unfortunately we can't continue the tile in the bathroom. I doubt they make it any more & I don't really want to rip it out because it looks great with the tile on the walls around the tub.

Haven't seen carpet (in baths) in socal in years... last time i saw it was in the late 80s. (plus the wall to wall mirrors with brass trim) :)

replace it with ceramic , porcelain, marble, travertine or granite tile.

Marti, i'll bet if you look hard enough you can find a complementary tile for 'the loo'. It will look as though it was planned to be that way. Another way to bring the vanity/toilet areas together is have the baseboards of both areas done in tile, that is if you decide to tile the toilet area instead of add wood.

IMO, the wood might look more like an afterthought than a complementary tile. ;o)