Microcement Bathrooms: Pros and Cons, Honestly

Microcement is the material people ask about most and understand least: a thin, hand-applied cement finish, sealed, that turns a bathroom into one surface with no tiles and no grout anywhere. It is genuinely good at some things and genuinely dependent on others, and the honest guide says both. The microcement page is where it becomes a request.

What it is good at

• One seamless surface: floor, walls, the shower, sometimes the basin – no joints, nothing to hold water or dirt
• A soft, hand-finished look that reads as plaster or stone, in a wide range of colours and textures
• Making a small room feel larger, because there is no grid on the walls
• Going over existing tiles when they are sound and well bonded, which avoids a strip-out
• Suiting the Mediterranean, modern and minimalist rooms the island builds

What it depends on

The substrate, first and last. Microcement is applied in thin coats and it follows what is under it; a sound, stable, correctly primed base gives a surface that reads as one piece of stone, and a base that moves, cracks or holds moisture gives a surface that does the same a few months later, in a room that is wet every day. Then the waterproofing: the sealer on top is the last line, not the first, and the wet area under the microcement is waterproofed with the falls formed and the corners detailed before a single coat goes on. And then the applicator, whose hand is in every square metre and whose experience of bathrooms specifically is the thing to ask about.

What it is not good at

• Hiding a problem: over loose or hollow tiles or a failed wet area it covers the fault for a season
• Being repaired one square at a time: a damaged patch is refinished, not replaced like a tile
• Surviving the wrong cleaner: like a sealed stone floor, it dislikes abrasives and harsh chemicals
• Grip on a shower floor if the finish is chosen for looks rather than for feet – ask by name

The questions to ask an applicator

• What is the substrate, is it sound, and what preparation does it need?
• What is the waterproofing under the wet area, and who is doing it?
• Which finish and sealer, and is the floor sealer specified for a floor that is wet daily?
• How is the junction with the glass, the drain and the fixtures detailed?
• Can I see a sample on a board, and a bathroom you have finished?
• What are the care instructions, in writing?

Microcement or tiles

Both work in a bathroom on the island when the work under them is done properly, and both fail when it is not. The comparison takes the two side by side; the short version is that a small bathroom, a finca that wants plaster, and an owner who dislikes grout point one way, and a family bathroom, a floor that wants visible grip, and an owner who wants pattern point the other. Many rooms use both.