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Shower Benches & Seats in Meridian, Idaho
Built-in, floating or fold-down seating, framed and waterproofed as part of the shower rather than added to it.
Short answer
A shower bench is permanent seating inside the wet area. It can be a masonry bench tiled to match the walls, a cantilevered stone slab that appears to float, or a wall-mounted fold-down seat that disappears when unused. All three have to be blocked into the framing and integrated into the waterproofing, because a bench adds horizontal surfaces and inside corners to a space designed to shed water.
Choosing the type of seat
| Type | Footprint | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Full-width built-in bench | Takes a full end of the shower | Most comfortable and most robust; only sensible in a shower with length to spare |
| Corner bench | Triangular, tucked into one corner | Efficient in a compact shower, though the usable seat is smaller than it looks |
| Floating slab bench | Cantilevered from the wall with clear floor beneath | Visually light, easy to clean under, requires substantial in-wall blocking |
| Fold-down seat | None when stowed | The right answer where the shower is too small for a permanent bench or the need is intermittent |
The details that make a bench comfortable
Bench height is the detail most often left to chance. Too low and it is hard to stand up from; too high and it is uncomfortable to sit on with your feet on a sloped floor. We set the finished height for the people who will use it, and we always slope the top surface very slightly toward the shower floor so it drains rather than holding a film of water.
- Finished seat height set against the users, not a default number
- Top surface pitched a few millimetres per foot toward the drain
- A single slab top where possible, so the seat has no grout joints
- Rounded or eased front edge rather than a sharp tiled arris
- Blocking sized for a cantilever load, not just for tile weight
- Grab-bar blocking added at the same time, whether or not a bar goes in now
If there is any chance a grab bar will be wanted later, block the walls for it while they are open. Blocking costs very little during a build and is disruptive to add afterwards.
A bench is a waterproofing problem first
Every bench adds inside corners at the wall-to-seat junction and a horizontal plane that stays wet longer than the walls do. The membrane must run continuously up the wall, across the bench top and down its face, banded at each transition. A bench built on the outside of a finished waterproofed wall — rather than integrated into it — is one of the more reliable ways to make a good shower leak.
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