There are many beautiful designs that are not functional. Some require a skilled housekeeper to maintain for example. Others like wood floors in a bathroom need the user to exercise a degree of caution in terms of use that aren't practical for many households.

My neighbor has a wood floor in her bathroom. She lives alone and dries herself in the shower or bath before exiting so the wood isn't subject to wet towels or water staying on the floor.

Keep in mind that wood also can't be cleaned to the same degree of sanitation as porcelain, tile or even marble. While this can also be said to be true of wood in a kitchen and wood kitchen floors are more high maintenance than other materials, I think there is less need for people to want kitchens "sanitized" than bathrooms. But again, wood kitchens are really not suitable for every household either.

Everything is a balance of course - I have marble floors and counters in my bathroom and some would never have those because of worry about high maintenance. However, I live in an household with adults so I am not worried about excessive wear and tear. And of course, I am not horrified by the thought of a patina developing.

I also think that designs in homes for wealthy people don't have to be practical just like wealthy people don't worry about whether something is timeless. They have the money to repair, restore and rip out whereas middle class people are thinking about the longevity in terms of both function and aesthetics since they are less likely to spend $100,000 in the near future if they get tired of the aesthetics or if the materials they choose wear out and/or are delicate.

One of the pictures is painted wood checkerboard floor. I’d do that in tile.
Or copy another bathroom of his that has tile. I think practicality wins and tile can be/ is just as nice:) love that style too...

The problem with wood tile is that one cannot install hardwood abutting the wood tile as it doesn't look right. So you and any other people buying your house would be very limited in terms of flooring choices.

Have HW in one bathroom, I shower - in the shower, so floor stays dry. Regret not putting in second bath. Get more water on HW floors in front & rear entry (Chicago rain & snow) than bathroom.

I adore wood floors in bathrooms, and refinished the original 1927 fir floors in my last house's main bathroom. Wood of all tones is gorgeous with white fixtures, and if you have cold feet like me, the last thing you want is a chilly tiled bathroom floor, brrr. Wood is warm and quiet.

We used Waterlox floor finish for the fir, had a clawfoot tub as our only shower, and never had issues with water intrusion in the 7 years we were in that house.

As the user above says, we actually get far more standing water on the wood floors by the front and back doors from snowy boots during our Maine winters.

We have yellow pine floors throughout including the bathroom. They make some pretty convincing wood looking tile floors now too.

Thank you everyone for the input!

I have brazilian cherry in the master bathroom and in the first floor public powder room. The kid's bathroom has tile.

Wood still looks great in the master bath after 25 years. Powder room flooring had a little damage (water spotting) to the finish on the flooring behind the toilet, from tank condensate dripping one year. Fixed the problem that caused the condensate and the floor has been fine since.

If you want wood floor, choose a good species and use a good finish. All will be well.

IMO it is not much more risky then having it in a kitchen where water is always ending up on the floor! Carrying wet items across the room, leaking dishwasher, kids spilling cups of water etc. We had it in our last homes powder room without issue.

@MongoCT Hi Mongo, long time no see! You helped me with my own bath and kitchen remodels over 10 years ago on GardenWeb, so a very belated thank you. :)

To me it seems that any water disaster bad enough to irreparably damage a real wood floor would also damage many of the other types of flooring discussed here, and unless one has something like Kerdi/Ditra installed in the entire room, even tile would be at risk due to the wooden/pressboard/whatever subfloor. Unlike vinyl, laminate, etc, real hardwood can be infinitely refinished.

We're frankly sloppy housekeepers and never had a single issue with our douglas fir floors in the sole bath in the house, even with a clawfoot tub shower that meant a lot of drippage.

As you can see from the above comments, this can be done. It is entirely possible. In fact, many of the bathrooms in old houses in Europe (ie. 150+ years old) have wood throughout...including bathrooms. It can work.

The main reason we, as pros, suggest AGAINST it is because we KNOW most N. American homeowners have complained about 'wood floors' acting like 'wood floors' in other areas of their homes. In short, we work with the average homeowner with the average knowledge about the average hardwood floor. And that can mean a whole-lot of 'nothing' when it comes to knowledge/reasonable expectations of the homeowner.

So long as homeowner (that would be you) understands wood. And understands finishes. And understands the draw backs of wood in a *POTENTIALLY wet environment, then homeowner can be prepared to love/accept wood in a bathroom.

Notice how it is all about 'homeowner' internalized expectations? Right. Wood is wood is wood is wood. The laws of PHYSICS do not change with the 'expectations' of the homeowner. In fact the ONE VARIABLE in the 'good wood vs bad wood' conversation is ALWAYS the homeowner.

Wood is wood is wood is wood. It does not change. What you want to make sure about is the HIGH END bathroom fan/evacuation unit is VERY efficient. Yep. Upgrade the fan by several hundreds of dollars so that the moisture (humidity) in the air (steam) is removed QUICKLY.

After that you are good. I have no issues with wood in a bathroom - I wouldn't do it myself - because I know more than enough about wood to be able to 'curb' my expectations.

Long story short: If you love it, go for it. Use solid hardwood that is site finished....and use NARROW planks...just like in the good ol' days....3" width is about as wide as I would go.

Seriously, you folks are great. Thanks again for the input. Incredibly helpful!!

@Circus Peanut

Just seeing this now...You are most welcome!

We have heart pine floors with a Waterlox finish in all downstairs rooms, including the bathrooms. The bathrooms were tile before.

So far, we haven't had any problems. We are empty nesters with no pets, which made the decision easier. I would definitely do it again.

@mongo Am about to embark on a full to-the-studs redo of our main bath and will be looking for layout help, so came back to Houzz. See you in the bathrooms forum!

We have hardwood on the entire downstairs including powder room and master bathroom. The kitchen and entry door area are more of a PITA to keep up than our bathroom. There’s never been any damage in the bathroom. But the DW leaked and ruined our whole kitchen several years ago. I wouldn’t want wood in kids’ bathrooms though. No one but us uses our bathroom except grown up DD who loves our shower and begs to use it when she visits. I wish we had tile in the kitchen but the bathroom has been no problem.