cedar tub enclosures - durable?
Hi everyone, I’m planning to renovate my bathroom – currently I have no tub, only a shower – and am thinking about using tongue and groove cedar for the walls, including the walls in the tub enclosure / shower area – like a sauna, basically. I’m wondering how the cedar would hold up over time…
Hi everyone,
I’m planning to renovate my bathroom – currently I have no tub, only a shower – and am thinking about using tongue and groove cedar for the walls, including the walls in the tub enclosure / shower area – like a sauna, basically.
I’m wondering how the cedar would hold up over time if left unfinished, like in a regular sauna? I’m not sure if the planks would warp or get moldy with 2 showers being taken per day. Saunas are high-humidity areas but I don’t think the walls are being hit with water all the time the way shower walls would be. I’ve searched the site and found lots of references to cedar benches and the like, but didn’t find any for cedar shower stalls or tub enclosures.
I’m also wondering if there is another type of wood I should consider – I’ve heard of white aspen being used in saunas, which would be nice because of the lighter color since the bathroom is tiny (i’m going to be knocking down a wall to add a tub). Does anyone have any experience with wooden walls for tub enclosures or stories to share?
Thank you in advance!
You know, it might make sense for the wood planks to be kind of “floating” above a waterproof wall surface. That would give you the feeling of a wood wall, but let the air circulate around the boards, letting them dry better between uses. If you think of an outdoor wood shower, the wood is exposed on all sides, so it can dry quickly. It could look really cool, if you have the space to lose (the walls would intrude into the stall more than if you just put up tile, in this design).
In that link provided by vanburenproud, I notice a couple of things:
(1) The “wood” enclosure shown, if you look at the text, is a veneer attached to a waterproff substrate with some special waterproof adhesive. I’m also guessing that the veneer has some sort of waterproof topcoat. Not really the same thing as cladding your shower walls in solid wood.
(2) It looks to me like the only wood in that shower is on the wall with the showerhead. That wall would get the least amount of spray. The wall opposite the showerhead looks to be glass. It’s hard to see what’s going on with the side walls in that photo. But it would make sense to me to limit the wood to the walls that are not going to get as wet.
I would think that, at the very least, if you’re going to try something like this you should make sure that you install very good ventillation in that bathroom to help dry the shower between uses.
Panasonic makes the best bath fans. They’re very quiet, and they even have energy-efficient green models. I think I would leave the bath fan on at all times to keep the air as dry as possible.
Most outdoor-type woods can take an occasional soaking if they’re then allowed to dry out. I would be wary of letting any wood stay wet too much though, no matter how naturally oily it was.
If you try this, let us know how it turns out, and how it holds up!
Huh.
My inlaws had a slightly awesome wood-walled shower for thirty years. I’m assuming preserving it wasn’t part of their recent bathroom renovation but it held up fine. No idea what kind of wood it was.
Cedar is most durable when it is quarter-sawn and AIR DRIED. Kiln drying of cedar evaporates the natural oils that make cedar so waterproof. You will not find this grade at Dyke’s (although they sell cedar oil to replenish the aromatic quality of cedar, but that’s only topical.
The last time I needed this grade of cedar (for the Lott House) I ordered it from Liberty Cedar in RI. The driver told me it’s no big deal to stop in Brooklyn as they make two deliveries to the Hamptons each week.
Sounds potentially cool. But wood is commonly used in dry saunas, which are not exactly a high-humidity environment at all.
I have seen teak used in bathrooms as an accent, but not as a wall. That said, here’s a link to a pre-fab shower surround made of teak:
http://www.trendir.com/archives/000595.html
But of course, my cursory “wood shower” google mostly turns up people saying it’s not a good idea.
If I were you, I would make the room watertight, and then look into adding wood as a decorative element, like cabinetry. That way, the wood doesn’t have to be responsible for actually repelling water.
I mean, obviously it can be done, the link above says so. But a teak bathroom sounds like a lot of maintenance and upkeep and checking, and if I did something like this I would personally worry all the time that the wood was failing and getting all wet behind, and I like to sleep well at night.
sounds like a stupid idea and it is a code violation