question about wood and finish for shower seat

[Aaron Wingert]

A friend has asked me to build him a shower seat for his new walk-in shower. I suggested building it permanently and tiling it but portability is a big issue to him.

Not sure what wood to use. My first thought was to use teak, but he can't afford that (and I can't blame him). The teak alone would cost hundreds. He suggested mahogany. That might work, or I was also thinking ipe would be pretty solid for a long time. Whatever wood I use, I'll be using stainless steel fasteners and/or a lot of mortise and tenon joinery.

My concern has to do with the fact that this thing will get wet twice a day, and will generally live in a humid environment. I'll probably get some nylon feet of some sort so the end grain of the base/legs isn't always sitting on a wet shower floor. I'm not sure what sort of finish to put on it once I do figure out what wood to use. Teak oil? Spar? Mineral oil?

Any and all suggestions are definitely welcomed and appreciated!

[Bill White]

Don't think that a wooden bench will be wise unless made from teak or even redwood. Get him to pony up for the good material. That way YOU WON'T SUFFER the complaints afterward.
Bill :eek:

[John Jendro]

This might not be a popular response, but does it have to be wood?
What if you used a deck material like UltraDeck. You could cut off the grooved sides and use it like it was real wood.

John

[Brian Peters]

Teak is probably the only wood that would hold up for any extended period of time. But I wouldn't guarantee this seat/bench by any means, and I would think it would require at a minimum an epoxy finish. It would be cheaper to use stone than teak though.

[David DeCristoforo]

I think this is a "bad idea". Teak might be OK but it's going to get "funky" looking. Redwood? You ever get a redwood splinter? It will fester like crazy. I would not want one in my butt.

[Frank Hagan]

Boat hulls were made of mahogany, cedar, white oak and douglas fir, so I would think those would work. My concern would be staining and bleeding; the finish would look awful in no time in that environment, and you might get some staining on the surface it is sitting on.

I'll bet any finish you use will have to be re-applied yearly. You could ebonize white oak to make a black-colored oak piece that would only need periodic cleaning. But I would worry about staining from the iron oxide in the ebonized wood.

Brian is probably right on the epoxy. Several coats of clear epoxy would probably last the longest, as long as its not exposed to sunlight (UV degrades epoxy relatively quickly).

The advantage of teak is that it would not need a finish (other than oil periodically), and wouldn't rot or stain adjacent surfaces.

You asked about IPE, and I don't know ... it might work well, since they use it for decking. It might be a good candidate.

[David Cefai]

This seat is going to be subjected to a harsher environment that a boat hull. Wet-Dry-Hot-Cold.

I know it's not totally a woodworking solution but if it must be a custom seat rather than a bought one you could consider a stainless steel frame and use wood just for the actual top. That could then easily be periodically replaced.

Stainless steel tubing is not as expensive as you might think. If the water is low in chlorides then 304 will do. Otherwise it would be smart to use 316. The real cost for stainless steel is in the welding. It can run at $50 to 150, depending on pipe diameter, for food grade work.

[Aaron Wingert]

That's the kind of feedback I was looking for guys, thanks. I definitely have the same concerns, that's why I asked. This isn't anything that I'm making money on...Just helping a friend. The idea of staining scares me and it'll probably scare him too.

Teak's obviously the best option but it is just too unrealistically expensive.

[Jamie Buxton]

There's two kinds of teak in the lumberyards: forest-grown, and plantation-grown. Forest-grown stuff is quite expensive -- $20-$30 per bdft. Plantation-grown teak isn't bad -- less than $10 per bdft. You can't get long and wide boards in plantation-grown, but you probably don't need that for a shower seat.

I'd use plantation teak.

[Howard Acheson]

There are a number of woods that are just as good as teak for use in wet applications. In fact, the plantation teak generally available now is not as good as the old forest grown teak from Thailand and Burma.

Go to the Wood Handbook at http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr113/ch03.pdf and scroll to "Table" 3-10. It lists a number of woods that might be acceptable to you. Woods like white oak, cherry, walnut, many of the cedars, old growth baldcypress and american mahogany are good. One of the best is ipe which is fairly generally avaiable.

After you choose a wood, we can talk about finishes. Some woods require special considerations with finishes.

[ken gibbs]

Seven years ago I made two deck chairs for our salt water pier using Trex, Gorilla Glue, and galvanixed bolts. These chairs have been sitting through salt water exposure all of this time and only show the slightest coloration changes. I cut it on tale saw and it routes nicely with stock router bits. They have been through to hurricanes and are no worse for wear. I tied them to the pier to keep the wave action from knocking them off of the pier. Here is a hint of you decide to use Trex ($28.00 for a 16' piece at Lowes). Coat the ends and nuts of the galvanized hardware wtih Gorilla Glue and they will not show oxide during your lifetime.

[Prashun Patel]

If I had to have it portable, I'd make it out of ssteel tubing and composite decking on top.

However, I think you should revisit with him WHY it needs to be portable. If he can relax that constraint, a tiled bench is the most elegant way.

[Robert Reece]

http://home-decor.hsn.com/improvements-teak-shower-seat_p-4192808_xp.aspx

I'd strongly encourage him not to do a built in shower seat. If he's worried about the cost of teak, then he is certainly not going to kill himself to properly build a shower seat, which will be the first point of failure either way.

I'd also strongly disagree with everybody's assertion that you need to use anything special here. 6 or 7 years ago, I built a play structure for my kids. Everything that isn't in contact with ground is regular framing lumber with one coat of an outdoor stain. It still looks good today and it sits basically out in the woods. The only thing that rotted was where I screwed cross pieces to a ramp up to the back. Those cross pieces held leaves and water and dirt and they rotted. So just design something that will absolutely not hold water anywhere. Caulk it and paint and keep the feet elevated using some kind of plastic something.