Originally Posted by
stut
They're the norm in several older Scandinavian buildings, with wooden floors, too (the typical Copenhagen shower, on a switch tap with the sink, can take some getting used to!). But the expectation is that the whole area would be tiled and sloped towards a central drain.
In Danish and Swedish and Norwegian houses, the wet floor bathrooms are indeed usually tile floors or some kind of coated plastic type flooring with the floor designed toward a central or side drain.
Scandinavian residences with tubs most often have rather deep bathtubs -- not all that good for an aging population. But I guess that is why it helps that most such bathtubs are not permanently fixed to the wall and floors.
Mold/mildew is a major problem in many a Scandinavian house -- more frequently than it is in US houses aimed at sort of the same kind of socio-economic demographic range -- but it seems to be more of a problem in relatively younger housing stock than in the oldest housing stock. I'm not sure how much of that is due to a change in construction material and workmanship ability as it is due to the building season getting longer and longer and the rush to go from foundation preparation to final key handover.