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Bath floor extremely hot under rugs

6 years ago

I have a heated bathroom floor, and had bath rugs with latex backs on it. Late last night I found that the tile floor was burning hot under and around the rugs, but fine everywhere else. I could not stand on the tile with bare feet. I immediately removed the rugs. The rugs have always been warmer than the surrounding tile, but never hot.
Has anyone else experienced this? I don’t want to damage the floor heating, but need rugs that won’t skip for safety. Thanks for sharing solutions and information.

Comments (10)

  • PRO
    6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    Why do you need rugs? The floor is warm! If you’re talking a bath mat to absorb moisture, a plain heavy terry one that goes down for use, and gets hung up after like hotels provide should be sufficient.The tile floor itself should be non slip.

    I have heated floors, and have just adopted the 2 towel use for showering, rather than a separate mat. One for me, one for the floor. Both get hung up afterwards. The laundry is just easier that way.

  • PRO
    6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    Contact a commercial flooring maintenance company to apply an anti slip coating to them. It will need to be maintained maybe once a year. Tile in wet areas is required to be non slip. https://www.tcnatile.com/images/pdfs/COFHandbookLanguage_Website.pdf

  • 6 years ago

    The mats are too insulating. You have to go to a thinner mat. Like a rigid towel. Other than that, you need to drop the heat on the tiles.


    This is the lesson of "too much insulation" over electric heat. And I agree that the rugs can be picked up after each use.

  • 6 years ago

    Thanks to all. The floor is new, and installed by a licensed contractor. No one mentioned this requirement, even the tile store as I was selecting tile. Darn!


  • 6 years ago

    Sigh...I know. All these silly little things we learn AFTER things are dealt with. Every thing has a learning curve. Thankfully you learned the "do not put down insulating mats over in-floor electric heat" rather quickly.


    It is an easy fix. You have a lovely warm floor (usually these floors are not to HEAT the room...only warm the toes). The room should have a main heat source and the heated floors should be supplementary.


    You might want to look at it as a way to get the new coloured towel/mat scheme you always wanted. A little bit of shopping and you are done.


    As for the anti-slip rating, this should have been discussed at the tile shop...but sometimes things get lost in the excitement of finding new things to look at.

  • 6 years ago

    Thanks:)

  • 6 years ago

    Towels are also what I use in lieu of bath mats or rugs. I cycle them somewhat so that the bath towel I use to dry becomes the towel on the floor although when all my towels are clean, I will just use a clean one :-)


    A towel on the floor makes the floor non-slippery if that is the reason for your use. Obviously the towel itself isn't safe for walking which is why a rug would be non-skid but it is perfect for preventing slips from wet feet when coming out of the shower or tub. I discovered this hack when I had to use the "shower of death" in a place I was renting. The floor was shiny 12" x 12" marble tiles with no grip or grout but the towels worked perfectly.


    The beauty of the towels is that I don't have to find a place to hang a mat and I had no reason to want to cover my floors aesthetically with a mat or rug.

  • 6 years ago

    I’ll give it a try. As you say, it would be just for drying dripping wet feet.
    Thank you, Helen.

  • 6 years ago

    There are non-slip coatings that can be used on tile, but I have no idea how they react to a heated floor. For sure, the heat would have to be off after application until it cured. If you google "nonslip coating for tiles" you can find a lot of products to investigate. I find comments under the youtube videos helpful to read. Once you find a product that sounds right for you, call the company to see if it can be used on a heated floor.

    Dee thanked Nancy in Mich