Bathroom Flooring in Missouri: Costs and What Lasts
A bathroom is a small floor with a large downside, and the material choice is the easier half of the decision.
The floor is not the waterproofing
Water in a bathroom rarely arrives across the middle of the floor. It arrives at the toilet flange, at the tub or shower edge, and behind the vanity — and it goes into the subfloor rather than across it. That is why bathrooms are the second most common room to have soft decking, after kitchens.
Press around the toilet base and along the tub apron. Movement, dip or give means the decking needs attention before anything new goes down.
What works
- Tile or porcelain. The obvious answer and still the best one: waterproof, indifferent to standing water, and it takes an underfloor heating mat. On ground that moves it wants an uncoupling membrane, and in a small room that is a small cost.
- Sheet vinyl or LVP. Cheaper, warmer, faster and genuinely waterproof. Sheet vinyl has almost no seams, which in a small bathroom is a real argument.
- Natural stone. Handsome and demanding — it needs sealing, it stains, and marble etches under ordinary bathroom products.
What does not belong in a bathroom: solid hardwood, laminate and carpet. All three fail; the only question is how long it takes.
An estimate, not a quote. These are planning ranges for Missouri, not a quote. What you actually pay depends on your rooms, your subfloor and the material you choose.
Why small bathrooms cost more per square foot
A bathroom is mostly cuts. Around the toilet, the vanity, the tub apron and the door casing there is very little full-width material, so the waste allowance runs higher than the usual 10% and labor per square foot is well above the rate for an open room. Most installers also carry a minimum job charge that a small bathroom will hit. None of that is a markup — it is what the work is.
Common questions
Do I have to pull the toilet?
For a proper job, yes. Cutting around a toilet base leaves a seam exactly where water arrives. Pulling and resetting is an hour and a new wax ring.
Is underfloor heating worth it?
Under tile in a bathroom it is the one place most people say yes, and it is cheapest to fit while the floor is already up.
Can LVP go over old bathroom tile?
Often, if the tile is sound and flat and the height at the door still works. Grout lines need filling or they telegraph through.