Shower Bench. Prefab Seat or DIY?

Shower Benches…what is the best design for benches…here are a few. Bear in mind you dont need any body’s kit. You just need a good bit of skill at knowing how water moves. If you follow the water downhill in your mind, you can plan out a great installation.

Metal Brackets….there are some prefab corner seat frames that you can bolt to the wall. I am not crazy about these only because when someone sits on the bench while showering a lot of water can collect behind the person sitting and can really sent a lot of water at the bolt connections. If you do a good job caulking and sealing the connections you are probably ok.

Precast forms that you can tile over….generally not a bad concept but you need a flange to go up and under your tile….they really need a flange just like a shower pan to do the job. Exactly how you fasten the pan into place is critical and taping and sealant is critical for these to be completely waterproof before they are tiled. I am not a fan of cornerseats because they also  tend to be small and dont leave much “butt-space.”

Studs & Plywood can make a fine seat if you pitch the entire seat and if you put shower pan liner on the top and get it up and under the tile backer and then out over the tiled face of the bench. I like this system as long as you are using a single piece of stone to cover the liner. Tiling the seat portion of a bench is a bad idea, since the grout joints facing up will eventually let water in. Its a tiny bit tricky to wrinkle the liner at the front edge to make sure the water at the front edge doesnt run behind the tile backer.

Trestle benches are probably my favorite design…if fact they are my design. In a large pan you simply cut three pieces of stone and set the seat after the shower pan and walls are tiled. These are assembled with either silicone rubber caulk or epoxy so it is not necessary to fasten through the tile. By cutting two pieces that stand up on edge and a third that spans across you can build the simplest bench that never leaks. Your two vertical pieces need to be made from plywood patterns that you cut to account for the floor’s pitch and the pitch of the seat. The third piece that goes across to form the bench can be held off the wall to allow water to drain out the back. A  stone fabricator can generally make one of these for a few hundred bucks if he can use his dropped pieces from countertop work. They usually have very little use for these small pieces anyway and are happy to make something from them.