Sunday, August 20, 2017

Building a Wooden Shower Mat for the Agile

 
A fellow sprinter forum member made a really nice teak shower mat on his Agile and that got me interested in making one for my RV. Currently, there are no commercially available wooden shower mats for the Agile so you have to make your own if you really wanted one.


 
Teak is hard to find here locally so I have to settle for Redwood instead. Our local Home Depot store sells pre-sanded 1.5” x 1.5” Redwood lumber in 8’ and 10’ length. I used two 10’ long lumbers which are then split in half using my table saw.

The next task is to make a full-size template of our shower floor from cardboard. Agile shower floor is odd shaped with lots of curves, so it took me several tries of fitting-cutting-and refitting to get the right shape.

Next is to configure the slats placement then trace it to your template. I use tile spacers to give me consistent gaps. I then cut individual slats to length using my Miter saw then sanded all the pieces smooth.

Once the pieces and the crosspieces were positioned over the template, I marked out where to drill for screws. I did counter bore the holes to keep the heads of the screws plush with the cross-pieces. I used stainless steel screws and waterproof wood glue to hold them together.

With that done, I then traced the template shape into the wooden mat and used a jig saw to cut it to its final shape. I sanded everything smooth and rounded over the edges of the shower mat.

I added another crosspiece at the very end of the mat to prevent it from tipping up during use.
 
I applied an Oil-based Penetrating Clear Stain and Sealer to protect the wood.
UPDATE: After several weeks of using the shower, I noticed some mildew growth to the underside of the mat which are embedded into the wood grain. To correct the issue, I decide to apply multiple coats of Indoor/Outdoor Spar Urethane coating for added protection.
 
 I added several round rubber feet to the underside of the mat to prevent the crosspieces from scuffing the shower bottom.
 
The round rubber feet (7/8" Screw-On Rubber Bumpers) are pressure fitted into the cross-pieces 3/4" diameter holes. I use 3/4" Forstner bit to make the holes. Agile's bathroom shower floor is not totally flat with shallower area at the center. You have to carefully adjust the depth of individual holes so the wooden mat sits level into the shower floor.
 
To remotely open and close the drain plug without removing the shower mat, I fabricated a simple opener using a 2.5" long stainless screw and a star shaped plastic knob (Hillman Universal Star Knobs). The plastic star knob is available at our local Lowes Hardware store for a much cheaper price than Amazon sells.
 
The tip of the stainless bolt was split in the middle about a quarter of an inch deep using a Dremel tool. The split should slide freely into the drain stopper center turning knob.

A small piece of aluminum tubing is permanently attached on top of the plastic drain stopper turning knob. The aluminum tube acts as a guide for the stainless steel bolt so it does not wander off. The two pieces (stainless steel bolt/knob and drain plug) should easily separate when you remove the wooden mat for cleaning.
 

The plastic knob/ bolt just sit on top of the wooden mat and can easily be removed.
 
And there it is! Thanks for looking.
 
 
 

3 comments:

  1. nice project. You see any issues with the redwood vs teak wood. Was looking at doing the same thing in a airstream. There is a source for AS bath mats but they are real pricy. after seeing yours i feel like I can do it my self. thanks carl

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    1. Thanks. I have not noticed any issues with the Redwood yet. The mat is sealed with oil penetrating sealer with several layers of Urethane coating and still looks shiny as of today. Redwood is softer than Teak and if untreated it will wear out faster. Redwood can also splinter and is more prone to developing molds along the wood grain as it tends to hold more water if not treated.

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