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Folding Shower Seat Installation

Grab Bar Specialists

Installing the seat is not difficult but will require an experienced carpenter or handyman.
You will need experience in light framing, drilling and installing ceramic tile may be required.
We recommend installation by a qualified tradesman.

Tools required:
Electric drill, masonry bit, punch.

Typical installation:
The typical shower wall surround may be a 2x4 wood stud frame, covered with gypsum drywall, tile board or plaster. The shower wall finish is usually ceramic tile. These materials alone are not adequate to support the fold down seat unless you can mount into existing wood blocking or wall studs. You can use a 1/8th-inch masonry bit, drill through the tile grout to determine if studs are in place.

Strong wall support is required:
Installation of the wall mounted folding shower seat requires wood blocking in a typical stud wall. This is not a problem in new construction. We suggest installing continuous 2 x 12 wood blocking between the studs, starting from the floor plate up to at least 24 inches above the shower floor. Remodeling an existing shower can be more involved. If the shower backs up to an interior wall, consider removing the wallboard and installing the blocking from the backside. If not, it may be required to remove and replace a portion of the existing shower wall tile.

Anchoring hardware requirements:
Once the wood blocking is in place and the wall finish has been installed, mounting the folding shower seat is simple. Position the shower seat at the required height, normally 17-19 inches above the floor. Use a marker to mark the flange and wall bracket screw locations. Use a punch and hammer to carefully nick the tile to prevent the drill bit from wondering. Use a masonry bit and drill through the tile. All anchoring hardware must be carefully selected to insure proper installation.

OUR SHOWER SEATS ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS THE MOUNTING HARDWARE CHOSEN AND THE WALLS ON WHICH THEY ARE MOUNTED.

IMPORTANT INSTALLATION NOTE:
The actual "in use" load bearing capacity of any shower seat, however, will be limited by the strength of its mounting surface and installation hardware. We recommend that shower seats be installed using 2" minimum thickness "in wall" solid wood backing material with #10 x 2" stainless steel, phillips-head, machine screws, fender washers and nuts. Or using a wall embedded, minimum 12 ga. (2.8mm) steel anchor plate with #10 x 24 stainless steel machine screws. in conjunction with the wood backing for tiled shower walls. Please contact the factory for further mounting recommendations.

Under no circumstances should any shower seat be mounted to drywall, sheetrock, plaster, fiberglass, acrylic or other similar "hollow" wall surfaces without appropriate wood or steel backing material.