The Best Material for Custom Shower and Pool Seats

Best Material for Custom Shower and Pool Benches

Jared 00:07
Alright guys, this one's a little bit unique outside of our space, but someone's looking to add a custom shower bench. For somebody that's disabled, with half inch thick material at the top, they need to be able to slide across the bench and into the shower. Additionally, does this material hold up well with soaps, chemicals, etc. So, you know, again, let's talk that through.

Matt 00:28
So we've done that a couple of different times, actually, we've worked with a few customers on that. Starboards are good option, you know, supported appropriately half inch would work, supported appropriately is the key there, you know, three quarters, what we try to recommend, it just gives a little bit more rigidity, it also gives a little bit more, I think it just looks cleaner, it looks more appropriate. But, you know, in addition to doing it in Starboard, from a chemical perspective, Starboard is fantastic for it, it's super easy to clean. I mean, it really doesn't get better. Now, I would say,

Jared 01:02
Is there a chemical you can't use? You know, we talked about acrylic, not using ammonia based products to cause crazing. You know, what are you not going to put on that you could use...

Matt 01:09
It’s really nothing, the only thing that I would say could hold you back from using, like any particular chemical will be the fasteners that you use to install it right? If you use stainless steel, don't use a chlorine bleach on it, it's going to cause it to rust. Now if you have maybe powder coated fasteners, or you have it hidden fasteners or something, you could pour straight chlorine on it if you really had a stain you're trying to get out for whatever reason.

Jared 01:33
So the material itself, there's not really a chemical that's going to cause it to degrade.

Matt 01:37
No, no, it's very easy to clean, good stain resistance. It's great.

Andrew 01:41
Yeah, and you know, you say this is outside of competency. And certainly it is out of sight out of the marine industry and our boat outfitters brand. But we as a, you know, OEM manufacturer, right teak our parent company, what we do is build, you know, component parts for people and we supply a shower seat manufacturer, and they mount it to their own hardware. I think they have some folding tables, but we cut Starboard bases for them. And so not only is it a good material, but it's a proven materials, material that they used for a long time and works really well for that application.

Matt 02:10
Awesome. Believe it or not the majority of the questions that we get for seat bases and showers and such are looking to make them teak, really.

Andrew 02:19
Interesting and which teak is a fine option.

Matt 02:20
It's a great option because it is made of wood that's designed to hold up to those elements. I mean, they put it on boats out in the elements, it has a high oil content, which makes it hold up very well in those environments. Now, it is going to be more work to maintain it over Starboard. But a lot of times these customers are looking for maybe form over function in some cases. Now not to say that it doesn't function well. But it does require more upkeep.

Andrew 02:46
Yeah, quite a bit more upkeep, right? I mean, you can't just install teak and never think about it again.

Matt 02:51
You're oiling it regularly Right? Or you're varnishing it.

Andrew 02:55
Yeah, so I mean if this was a set it and forget it utility type of thing I would say Starboard far exceeds teak and it almost sounds like the way that that's written like it is more of a utility question they're making a change yeah, but you know if I wanted you may be the most beautiful folding thing you know, teak is obviously really good looking for sure it Starboard works great.

Matt 03:15
And to kind of touch on what you mentioned there. We do make seat bases for showers and shower grates for the marine industry out of Starboard. Yeah, teak. Yeah, so I mean, those are good points to make. I mean, it's not it's not limited to you outside the marine industry. We do that for a lot of the cruising boats as well.