My knees have finally declared they need help. This years hiking has done enough additional damage that I am uneasy standing in the shower and feel a shower stool would allow me to safety bathe until we can get back home and get the bionic solution. The typical shower stools are four legged affairs with rubber non-slip feet. Is the base of the shower strong enough to take these four "point loads"? I certainly wouldn't want to have the flooring crack or puncture. Thoughts?
Thanks
Randy,
We'll all reach that point eventually - some sooner than others.
Our shower floor feels pretty sturdy. I remembered seeing a photo of the underside of the shower "floor" in a old thread. It shows the shower drain pipe sticking down through plywood. If, like in the photo, your shower floor rests on a plywood base, then it should be plenty strong enough to support the chair legs. Link to the photo below:
Shower not draining - Caused by unlevel coach? (https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=29810.msg254417#msg254417)
Randy, Susan broke her leg just above the ankle last winter while we were traveling. We got an Amazon adjustable height, 4 legged stool for the shower for her to sit on. It had rubber feet that were an inch and a half in diameter. It worked fine, no indication of floor stress.
Best part was it came with a suction cup shower wall handle. We both use it still and it is now a shower fixture.
Here is what we got.
Amazon.com: OasisSpace Shower Chair, Adjustable Bath Stool with Free Assist... (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B076315FWZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Randy,
No worries, we purchased the exact same shower stool Roger and Susan has. It's been in use for about a year. The rubber feet do a good job of spreading the load. The floor seems very solidly built.
We liked the suction cup handle so much, we bought another. Those handles are really handy.
Bob
Good luck with your knees. . .
We wondered about our shower floor too.
The side of our shower base has a large rectangular air vent which we temporarily removed. With a lamp looked inside and verified like others, that looking up we see (hopefully ¾") plywood which we assume supports the plastic shower floor.
Wanting to do what we could to improve the life of the shower, we installed a floor support through the air vent opening:
Rectangular piece ½" wood up against the "ceiling" of the under-shower space, lightly forced up with two turn-buckles pressed against the sound-insulated floor.
No idea if the support helps, but it makes us feel better.
If you are in doubt about the weight distribution, buy some small plastic cutting boards which will help distribute the weight
What Ernie is getting at is PSI, meaning pounds per square inch.
Standing on one chair leg concentrates ALL the weight downward on the one chair foot whereas distribution of the weight occurs when there are multiple chair feet on the floor.
A snowmobile stays on top of the snow because the PSI is very small due to the large track area.
Do like Ernie says. Calculate what the PSI would be if concentrated on one chair foot. All it takes to put most of the weight is leaning forward while seated. Ernie's idea is to distribute the weight over a larger contact area.
Better safe than sorry is the axiom applied here.
Our coach came with this. I believe FT installed them back in the day as an accessory. You might check with parts. Very sturdy.
Chris
I bought one of these a few months ago, I see they popped back up for sale on WOOT.com.
Very light, folds to a small size, very sturdy.
NATURA LIFE Folding Stool (https://sport.woot.com/offers/natura-life-b0932mvsrn-folding-stool-black-red?ref=w_cnt_lnd_cat_sprt_9_10)
Metal studs back behind to carry the load ?