A Reynolds-type equation for finite hydrodynamic bearings, (plane slider and cylindrical journal), with rough surfaces (longitudinal, transverse and isotropic roughnesses), has been solved using the stochastic finite element method considering film thickness to be a stationary, ergodic stochastic process with mean zero. Mean steady-state characteristics have been obtained and compared with those obtained by previous investigators. The effect of a spatially randomly varying component of roughness has been studied by giving different input standard deviations of film thickness and calculating output standard deviation of maximum pressure for different scales of fluctuation using the first-order second-moment method. © 1997 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.