Teak Shower Door

[Dean Egnater]

Has anybody ever tried to make a teak shower door?

[Jamie Buxton]

IMHO, wood in a shower isn't a terrific idea. I have a glass enclosure around my shower. If I don't squeegee it down after every shower, soap scum and such build up on it rapidly. Even with squeegeeing, every few months I need to scrub it with a mildly abrasive cleanser like Comet. Doing that sort of thing to wood would be pretty hard on it.

If you want teak for the looks, you might consider a glass door, with wood on the outside.

[Andrew Duncan]

I built a shower in a kind of shell scroll design so that it has no door. The center of the scroll is a teak octagonal 8" diameter floor to ceiling pole that contains pipes and shower heads. The teak was finished in 10 coats of Interlux "Rubbed Effect" varnish. After 8 years, it looks like it did when new. As the previous poster noted, it has to be cleaned just like the rest of the shower, but I don't use abrasives on it. The bathroom also has a teak top on the vanity and teak trimming on top of glass block walls forming the shower, etc. I think the teak looks unique and would certainly use it again.

There's no reason that a door shouldn't prove equally durable and attractive. If the shower head(s) are going to be aimed directly at the door, I might have some pause and would seek additional advice from folks who know more than I about finishing for marine purposes.

[Dean Egnater]

Thanks for the lead on the varnish

[Carl Fox]

The used to use teak for the decks of aircraft carriers. (can you imagine the deforestation?) I figure they must have known what they were doing. Salt water, rain, airplanes landing on it, fuel spills. It must be tough stuff.

What about just letting it weather?

[Bill Wyko]

My kitchen is teak and I'll be building some cabinet doors in the bathroom out of teak but I'd stay away from direct contact to water unless you want to constantly maintain it.

[Tim Lesak]

Teak and Cypress are both very oily wood and do hold up very wall to moisture. Cypress actually grown in swamp areas and Teak it a very popular material for swim platforms on ski boats. Go ahead and make your shower doors, keep in mind you will do alot of maintenance to keep it lookin good

[Mike Cutler]

The used to use teak for the decks of aircraft carriers. (can you imagine the deforestation?) I figure they must have known what they were doing. Salt water, rain, airplanes landing on it, fuel spills. It must be tough stuff.

What about just letting it weather?

Aye' and can ye' say holy stones thar' matey. ( Just kidding Carl.;))

It is tough stuff. If you really want to use it for a shower door, look into applying a marine epoxy finish to it.

[John Browne]

You don't want to do this.

Teak has traditionally been used extensively on boats, both interior and exterior. It is dense and quite water resistant. Used externally, if untreated it will go gray and get extremely hard--commonly you see this for decking in yachts. Exterior teak is often varnished--it's beautiful, but the varnish is subject to failure from UV or damage and because the teak will swell and shrink with changes in humidity and temperature.

Interior varnished teak (I had a ton on my last boat) relies on fairly even humidity to survive. Put it in a boat with poor ventilation where the humidity can rise and fall dramatically and the teak will pull itself apart.

No matter how hard you try, I believe putting it in a wet environment will eventually cause failure. The head doors of my 45' sailboat were teak (raised panel). Even though the shower used a curtain, the door would get splashed. We always wiped it down immediately after taking a shower, and it still began to show signs of movement after awhile. To have just sprayed water on it would have destroyed it, I would bet.

If you do it, use West or System III marine epoxy for glue--don't even think about Titebond. Then coat the entire door in several wet coats of the same epoxy. After that you can put some sort of finish on it. System III has a bar finish that might work for the whole enchilada. But if you ever have to remove that finish you're in for a miserable time.

Sorry not to be more optimistic...:D