Watertight Storage Box Ideas

[Keith Starosta]

The LOML has asked me to think about how I would go about making a watertight storage box for out deck. This box would be used to hold beach towels for use at our pool. I'm thinking I will make this box out of cypress, to match the "pool toy" storage box I'm making. I'm thinking that once I construct the storage box, I seal all of the joints with some kind of marine sealant, but I'm not positive. The biggest question is how I would make a watertight seal for the lid. I'm not sure where to start. Maybe some sort of gasket?

Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated!

- Keith

[fred woltersdorf]

how about getting a large plastic storage tub with a cover and then building a cypress box with a lid to fit over it.

[Gary Lee]

You could adhere some EPDM or shower liner material under the lid and do some sort of overlap over the sides....?

[Jim Becker]

how about getting a large plastic storage tub with a cover and then building a cypress box with a lid to fit over it.

LOL, that's what I was going to say. The compromise would be a plastic bin to protect things from water coming from the sides and a sloped cover that is constructed and coated such that it would not allow any standing water. The box still needs to be ventilated or any cloth items inside are going to get nasty musty.

[Jamie Buxton]

I don't see why the lid must have a seal. It just needs to overhang the rest of the box, and go down the sides a bit. Rain or splashes will fall on the lid, roll over the edge, and fall to the ground. No seal is necessary.

[Norman Pyles]

how about getting a large plastic storage tub with a cover and then building a cypress box with a lid to fit over it.
I was thinking the same thing. :)

[Glenn Clabo]

Keith...Wonder over to your favorite hardware store and pick out a door gasket that you can install in the lid. You don't want to put it in the box...the constant dragging out of stuff will wear it out. Also...a latch will keep the top from blowing up during one of those "little" thunder storms that fly through your part of the world.

[Keith Starosta]

Thanks for all of the great advice, guys!! I'm going to take some of these suggestions to "the committee" ;), and see where it goes from there.

- Keith

[Bob Noles]

Keith,

Go with the storage tub.... it will keep spiders and other unwanted pests out of the towels as well. :eek:

[Wayne Cannon]

Keep in mind that if the sides of the box can get wet by the lid (e.g., from wind-driven rain), without a seal there are still a couple of ways for water to get inside a box with an otherwise waterproof lip:
-- The cooling of the box (e.g., from a rain storm's breeze evaporating water) will cause the air inside the box to contract, sucking air through the lip along with any water that might also be there.
-- Water can be sucked through the lip by capillary action.

Neither of these would be a problem as long as the area around the lip stays dry.
[I mention this because I found a quarter-inch of water inside a large, lidded, Rubbermaid storage bin in which I store barbeque stuff outside year round. I don't know how it got there, but suspect one of the above two mechanisms.]