Teak bathtub

[Jeff Horton]

Lots of surface area with a box joint. Should be strong enough without the dowel I would think. Dowel wouldn't hurt a thing. How would you drill it straight though? One of two degrees off and you have ruined it.

Not sure the mitre isn't a better choice looks wise.

[Steven Peters]

I definatley prefer the look of the miter but I think the box joint will be stronger. I may forego the dowel just to keep things simple.

[Michael Cody]

One thing I noted, all those pic's on all those links, I don't see any box joints or aluminum corners, etc.. on the square tubs. The one Japanese tub is even made pinned butt joints, surely not as strong as a splined miter. I don't think a good mitered corner glued with a spline could be improved on too much. It would look much better than box joints or aluminum corner brackets IMNSHO. I would think, if you wish to reinforce the corners any, then a square tub wrapped with black rubbed bronze strapping would look most excellent. Much better than all that shiny stuff!

As far as other leaks, the wood will swell when it gets wet and force the joints together, splines in all the edges would pretty much insure against leaks once the wood in finished anyway, assuming the wood swelling. I surely wouldn't go to all the work of building a teak tub and then coating it with fiberglass and/or epoxy. Sort of defeats the purpose in my mind. Oil or at most varnish is all the farther I would go. I would want the wood to show through as much as possible for both texture and looks. Oh well just one persons opinion.. but I do have to admit, I love the oriental style and wood just fits there!

[Jeff Horton]

As far as other leaks, the wood will swell when it gets wet and force the joints together, splines in all the edges would pretty much insure against leaks once the wood in finished anyway, assuming the wood swelling........

I would want the wood to show through as much as possible for both texture and looks. Oh well just one persons opinion.

Maybe I need to explain my concerns a bit more. First the fiberglass. It will not hide the wood at all. Look at this boat



The deck is epoxy coated (not polyester!) with a layer of fiberglass cloth. You can not see the cloth anywhere! So you don't hide the wood at all.

As for the swelling your probably right that it would happen. But based on some experience around wooden boat and this is basically an inside out boat, even swollen wood boats leak some. My concern is that small leak and long term damage to the house.

Being a home inspector I regularly see what 'just small' leaks do. They destroy sections of the house and in hidden areas that the owners never see till the problem is usually serious.

My second concern is the wood swelling and shrinking because the tub will not stay full or water. So your going to have movement and an increased risk of breaking a joint and the a leak. Wood boats have to be soaked for at least a few days to ever swell up and seal after they dry out. This tub is not like a hot tub and will stay full of water, so the wood will not stay swollen I am afraid. It would most likely swell and shrink, that concerns me.

If it were mine, and I am not trying to tell you what to do Steven, at the least I would coat the inside and the top of the tub with a couple of coats of expoxy. It would keep the wood dry and prevent swelling and shrinking. I would give serious consideration to the glass because it would tie the tub together into one big unit. And it just looks hard, it's really not.

[Steven Peters]

My idea for the aluminum was that it would be hidden inside of the corner like a piece of spline. I would never build something like this and leave exposed metal reinforcement. I'm not real big on the barrell look. I do agree with you on the look of the mitered corner as opposed to the box joint. I'm just getting into the tearout phase of the bathroom right now and am getting a good firsthand look of some decent water damage.

Fiberglass would make the project much stronger but is not completely invisible. Also you still have to worry about yellowing over time, especially with epoxy. A polyester surfboard resin would be a better option in my opinion. Also due to the oily nature of teak, there will probably be adhesion issues between the composite and the wood.

I'll post pics of the bathroom shortly. For some reason the builder used drywall, metal lathe, 1" of plaster , and then ugly pink tile!