paneling shower with cedar/redwood

[robertel]

I am thinking of paneling my center bath shower enclosure on my 1975 airstream with narrow cedar or redwood boards glued to the walls and urethaned. I'm wondering if anyone else has tried this?

[LiLNomad]

There is a small pict of this in the Airstream Living book page 101. Sorry dont know how to attach here.
LilNomad

[Globie64]

This might work for a low-use application like an RV, but I've seen it done in houses here and it is hard to make it not look funky- it takes maintenance. I would almost suggest using cedar and oiling it, get a good cedar and let it gray out. The oil will be much easier to keep up on than a urethane finish- if the finish fails and water gets behind it, its a mess to correct and will never look right. I tell clients when working with natural materials, work WITH it, it will do things you can't fight. It could be a nice, warm look with the wood. BTW, my whole house is sided with cedar boards inside just not the showers.

[Globie64]

I wrote oil, but I was thinking more of a thin penetrating oil sealer.

[Canlib]

I'm with Globie. A hard finish on a soft wood is asking for trouble and making repairs to that finish is nearly impossible.

[ALANSD]

My house is all cedar outside. It does have drying out and cracking issues.We keep it well preserved.

[Royce]

Stay away from the urethane for sure for the above mentioned reasons. My preference is Waterlox brand of a tung oil blend for anything that I care about. It is on the hickory floors in the house, I use it on the wood canoes, entry doors, furniture and harps that I build. Durable and easy to repair when needed.

[jm2]

I love the look of natural wood as much or more than anyone, but you may be asking a lot from it in this application.

you'll probably want to use material with a thin and plain tongue and groove pattern, in no less than a "clear, all heart" grade.

I think that I'd try to configure some sort of horizontal batten arrangement to attach the boards to at the top, middle, and bottom, keeping a small airspace, a "rainscreen", behind the boards. (water drainage still needed through the middle + bottom. hmm, have to think about that detail?)

given the wet / dry, expansion / contraction of the wood, you probably want to try to use only one fastener (stainless steel nail ?) per board at each of those three points.

given your "wet" use, I think I'd put no finish on it at all. that way, you can still clean and brighten it periodically with a little oxalic acid ("wood bleach") when it darkens.


that said, I would also defer to the technical experts at the Western Red Cedar Lumber Association and the California Redwood Association


if you do choose to use some sort of coating, apply many coats (at least three, maybe five or six, depending) on all six sides of the wood before hanging your paneling.

marine grade product, not merely residential exterior product would likely perform much better....

you might like to look up "Sikkens Cetol Marine" products, or Deks Olje D1 and D2 at OWATROL MARINE - Deks Olje


best,

[noreen&sal]

Both sides have to be finished. To prevent warping. I would use polyurethane. I have done kitchen counters and bathroom vanities with good success. But I have never done a shower. No problem to wipe down a counter top, but I dont know about showers. Sal.

[cameront120]

As jm2 mentioned, you'll need an air space (google rainscreen system) behind the wood for water and condensate to escape, otherwise you'll have a wet condition leading to mold and rotting wood inside your trailer. I second the notion of not treating the cedar with any finish. Let the cedar breathe naturally. As it develops a patina, you may decide you like that look. If not, you can easily clean it up, as suggested above.

[CanoeStream]

Cedar & redwood are rot resistant and not rot proof. My approach would be to use a penetrating oil finish and not one that forms a coat on the surface*. And even an oil finish doesn't penetrate to the core. This application would mean that the wood cores would be damp all season long (more critically, these are the warm months). Like any of us with cedar decks, you will see rot some years down the road. Proceed with gusto if, 1. you have a spare shower to reinstall after rot happens, or, 2. you're 72 years old and only will be using this for a dozen years before digging a pit and being buried in your Corvette Excella II.

.
* Encapsulation inside a finish has comparisons to epoxy coating in boatbuilding. The epoxy capsule will fail somewhere and allow water inside the wood -- where it can never dry out and will rot all the quicker. This can succeed if one has a trailered daysailer that can dry out between uses. Like an old wooden barrel, you're better going old fashioned if the boat (shower in this case) will be staying wet -- acknowledge that it is going to stay wet. Be prepared for some expansion/swelling.

Long as we're talking boats and rot resistance -- how about hackmatack?

Built my wife some nice window boxes out of heart redwood once upon a. Poured the potting soil in. Looked great but they started falling apart at about the 8 year point. Not many woods work well if wet constantly -- even worse if in soil contact.

[CanoeStream]

I like the idea of a spacer that Cameron is seconding.

Hackmatack = tamarack = larch

YouTube - Monty Python's Flying Circus - The Larch

[cameront120]

Off topic alert! Tamarack was used as the foundation logs for log homes built by settlers and Metis in Saskatchewan. The wood was most resistant to rot. Some of the cabins I studied, which were over 100 years old, still had good, solid foundations, while the other logs were starting to show deterioration. In a past life, before getting into Architecture, I was in Anthropology, so that sort of stuff fascinates me.

[Bill M.]

Been a woodworker for a long time. Built some boats. My suggestion is to just do not do it. Works great in a Sauna. Works great for water tanks that stay wet. Lousy for repeated wetting and drying. Seems like it will get slimy and moldy.

[pmclemore]

And dark; the small showers are dark enough already. I'd reconsider - after all, one does not spend any more time than necessary in an Airstream shower. Navy showers and all that.

Now, if you really don't intend to use it and wish to simply make it a decorator item, then....

nah.

Pat

[barts]

Clear finished wood can be made to work - but I'd use several coats of epoxy (West System or similar) and then polyurethane over that. It's a lot more work, but can look very nice.

Pygmy Kayaks are finished that way....

- Bart

[jm2]

Originally Posted by CanoeStream

Long as we're talking boats and rot resistance -- how about hackmatack?

and, they make great "knees" in a boat.

Originally Posted by Bill M.

My suggestion is to just do not do it.... Lousy for repeated wetting and drying. Seems like it will get slimy and moldy.

Bill might also be right with his suggestion. the slimy moldy potential would also have much to do with how often the shower gets used.

for a "daily driver" the wood may be impractical, but for a shower being used occasionally, I am, truthfully, unsure?

in any case, if you're going to press forward on this, you might also consider using teak or honduras mahogany rather than cedar or redwood.

any other "wooden boaters" out there to weigh in on this one?


best,

[noreen&sal]

I am an old "wooden boater". Teak or mahogany are good choices. But I still believe it has to be sealed/polyurethaned both sides to keep the wood from expanding/contracting. If God wanted fiberglass boats, He would have made fiberglass trees. Sal.

[noreen&sal]

In 1992 I built a 18 foot cedar strip canoe. Strips were 1/8 x 1 inch. Inside and outside were fiberglassed, sanded, and Polyurethaned. The canoe has sat under a tree in my back yard [in the shade] and is still strong. Sal.

[Smartstream]

We lived on our sailboat for 10 years and used the shower daily. The interior of the boat was teak including the heads and showers. The teak was varnished however the floor grate in the showers was unfinished. We never had a problem. There was one significant difference from an Airstream, ventilation. The boat had dorade boxes with vent scoops that provided ventilation continuously year around. When it got cold you just had to turn up the heater. Without the ventilation the boat was damp and musty.

Airstreams are sealed pretty tight, in spite of the leaks. I don't know that you could get enough continuous ventilation short of running a dehumidifier continuously to make wood of any kind in a shower work. By the way apitong, the wood used on truck and trailer beds holds up to weather but also needs to be ventilated.

Cheers, Dan