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I love the idea of the luxurious texture of wood flooring in a shower. Does this add significant maintenance/cleaning concerns to the shower?

Wood floor cover in shower

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Wood and water don't tend to mix very well. – BMitch♦ Aug 9 '12 at 18:13
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You would definitely not use wood as the actual base of the shower. If anything, the wood would simply sit on top of a tile or vinyl floor which is a standard shower floor. The wood used would have to be something that can stand up to a lot of moisture (eg, a tropical wood or composite). You also need it to drain appropriately, eg, lots of spacers between pieces of wood, as standing water will rot and grow mould. – gregmac Aug 9 '12 at 18:23
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The floor in that picture is almost certainly linoleum or vinyl tile – Brad Mace Aug 9 '12 at 18:50
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Another option would be a wood grain looking ceramic or porcelean tile. – auujay Aug 9 '12 at 19:19
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@bemace, I thought the floor in the shot looked a lot like Ikea's PLATTA. If that example is not real wood, there are lots of examples of real wood in "glamor" shots of showers: google image search: "wood shower" I'm wondering how functional it is in real applications. – Anticipation Aug 9 '12 at 19:59
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up vote 6 down vote accepted

There are woods used in wet environments, mostly those that are fairly impervious to rot - teak, cedar, redwood, mahogony (less so).

Untreated: Sometimes cedar, redwood and teak are left natural. In almost all these cases, they are not exposed to prolonged soaking. Even in saunas they are misted and then dried, not soaked the way a shower soaks. On Boats they get spashed, they dry. When they are left untreated, the wood weathers, loses its color and eventually becomes somewhat rough. Cedar and redwood are fairly soft, and on a floor will wear out, probably quickly. Teak will last longer but will roughen up and wear out eventually. Also untreated wood tends to hold water and is more prone to developing mold or organic growths, such as bacteria, especially in a shower that is not exposed to sunlight.

Treated: These woods can be finished with a penetrating sealer or a hard marine finish, like spar varnish or the harder polyurethanes, or even an epoxy finish. Even then, these finishes need to be redone often, sometimes every year, depending on the amount of soaking and other wear.

Finished or sealed Wood can be used in bathrooms where there is just an occasional spash or where the wet is quickly mopped up. I have hard pine floors finished with several coats of poly in my bathroom that works fine. My shower is a porcelain tub.

On the whole, it would be very questionable to put wood in a shower floor.

Disclaimer: There are some newer exotics used on outdoor decks such as ipe. I am not familiar with their waterproof characteristics, but even in deck use, the soaking is probably not as complete and frequent as a shower.

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Check out the link below (including the comments) to a Houzz idea book about using wood in shower. Lots of sceptics, but several of us have wood in shower without problems. I have Ipe. http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/6413925/list/18-Knockout-Ideas-for-Wooden-Floor-Showers

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Answers that depend on an external link don't work well on SE (links go bad over time). The link also doesn't explain the maintenance and cleaning concerns that the OP has. If you update your answer to include this, I'll be happy to change my -1 to a +1. – BMitch♦ May 22 at 2:26

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