This post details how to make a shower bench that will not cause waterproofing problems and that will increase usability. Dumb shower benches are made from wood boxes that eat up floor space, stub toes, and cause water leaks. Smart shower benches float above the floor to save shower space, are fundamentally waterproof, and match the wall tile pattern. Read on for detailed info about how to install a floating shower bench!

Conventional Shower Benches

Quick and dirty shower benches are made from 2×4 and plywood framing. There are three reasons why this is not a good idea.

FIRST, it eats up shower floor space. Putting a big tiled box on the floor will make even a large shower space feel cramped. It also makes a nice big toe stubbing obastacle for when you’ve got soap in your eyes.

SECOND, it creates a waterproofing problem. You can’t let moisture get into the wood framed box. So, a conventionally framed bench really complicates the waterproofing if you’re constructing a conventional flexible PVC vinyl or fiberglass shower “pan”. You end up with far more seams and corners to deal with.

THIRD, it complicates the shower design. You ideally want every design element of a shower (bench, niche, fixtures, etc) to line up purposely with the wall tile design. For example, you want the top of a tiled shower bench to meet flush with a horizontal grout line. It is however VERY difficult to make perfect alignment happen with a box framed shower bench. It takes a lot of experience (and added time) to make the finished top of a tiled shower bench land precisely to plus or minus 1/16th of an inch height when starting with bare framing.

Conventional box framed shower benches also make glass shower enclosures more complicated. Unless the entire bench is in a 3-walled alcove, you’ll need to wrap glass around it. This means you won’t be able to install sliding glass. Instead you’ll have to use a custom cut glass panel and door. You’ll also need to have the fixed glass panel notched very precisely if your conventional boxed shower bench has an overhang. And, you’ll need to carefully plan ahead to prevent major design problems at the end.

This is why box framed shower benches are a pain to size precisely, difficult to effectively waterproof, and complicate designing and installing glass enclosures. And that’s why I don’t recommend conventional box frame shower bench installations.

“Better Bench” Floating Benches

There is fortunately a better way to make either a rectangular or triangular shower bench. Using a metal framed and tiled floating bench avoids all the waterproofing and design problems of traditional wooden box framed shower benches.

My favorite is “Better Bench” for any tiled shower bench application for three reasons. It’s simple and inexpensive, especially compared to needlessly overengineered junk like this. It’s also very straightforward to install using just basic materials. Any competent tile installer who can follow basic directions can install the Better Bench hardware. And it can be guaranteed for a literal lifetime. A properly installed “Better Bench” avoids every problem that a wood framed box bench comes with.

How to Install a Floating Shower Bench

Here is an example for how to install a simple triangular floating shower bench in five steps.

Step ONE: plan beforehand

Advance planning is the key to making any floating shower bench installation easy. While you’re framing the shower space for curb placement and niche inserts, simply decide where you will want the bench installed. You won’t need to preplan the exact height, but you will need to guesstimate within 3in or so how high you’ll want the finished shower bench to be from the tile shower floor.

Then simply add some 2×6 blocking between the studs centered on your best finished bench height guesstimate. You can also use hollow wall anchors to install a metal floating shower bench frame anywhere. But planning ahead to install wall frame blocking beforehand will make it easy to later install the floating shower bench frame with simple bolts and screws.

Step TWO: install your waterproofing and wall tile

Once you have framed blocking for the eventual bench install, you can then go ahead and waterproof and then tile the shower just like normal. There’s no need to complicate your shower waterproofing steps or tile layout decisions.

You will install the shower bench frame AFTER the wall tile install is done. So you can just go ahead and charge ahead with all the field tile.

Step THREE: install the shower bench frame

The metal shower bench frame goes on top of the already installed wall tile and secures to the wall framing with lag bolts and screws. This makes it easy to make sure that the finished top of the shower bench will line up perfectly with the rest of the wall tile layout.

Just test fit the bench frame and make sure the install location will make the finished top of the bench match exactly where you want it to be. Then drill. Simply use a 1/4in (or larger, depends on the size lag bolts you use) tile drill bit to make holes in the wall tile for the bolts and screws to go through.

The holes don’t need to be pretty, so you can use a cheap bit. Just make the smallest diameter hole possible for the screw/bolt size so you can make the waterproofing repair easy.

Now you can bolt the metal floating shower bench frame to the wall. Simply follow directions to make sure that the screw and bolt locations and sizes will hold at least a 300+ pound load. For this install, I used two 1/4-in lag bolts at the frame ends and two heavy duty construction screws at each apex. This made the bench frame rated for an 800lb load. I like to overengineer for peace of mind.

Be sure to fill each hole with silicone caulk before inserting the screws. This will waterproof the bolt holes. Also don’t overtighten the bolts. You don’t want to crack the wall tile.

step four: prep the shower bench frame for tiling

Simply fill the frame with sand topping mix concrete. This is the same main concrete mix ingredient that you use to make a shower floor slope. It’s cheap and easy for any tile installer to mix and pack.

This light fluffy concrete mix is also very water permeable. That’s why you don’t waterproof a “Better Bench” floating shower bench frame. All the moisture that’s absorbed by the bench during a shower simply passes through it. This creates a tiled bench that doesn’t need waterproofing, because it’s fundamentally impervious to mositure. It’s like a convenient chunk of concrete sidewalk hung on your shower wall.

step five: tile and grout the shower bench

Now you can simply tile the top and sides of the floating shower bench while you install the trim tile for the rest of the shower. It’s now easy to make the shower bench tile line up perfectly with the wall tile horizontal grout lines.

Here’s another triangular floating shower bench install example. You can see that both of these installs used ceramic tile for the bench top. But you could also cap a floating shower bench with a custom cut single piece of large format solid stone tile. Both of these clients just perferred a more vintage look.

The “Better Bench” metal frame is already pre-engineered with a 1/8-in finish slope. So unlike a custom niche or curb, you don’t need to think about making a perfectly sloped shower bench top. This makes covering the top of the shower bench easy. You can just tile it flat to the topping mix concrete fill or put any stone or tile-like material on it that’s cut to fit. The slope is already done for you.

The Bottom Line

Traditional wooden box shower benches are stupid. They waste space, are difficult to waterproof, and are a pain to plan and tile. Metal framed “Better Bench” floating shower benches are easy to waterproof (just put silicone caulk in the bolt holes), easy to plan and tile (just install to an ideal height and prep with drypack), and also save space. They’re also less expensive overall.

So don’t be a dope. Make a floating shower bench for your custom tile shower!