How To Make A Font For A Bath With Your Own Hands, Wooden And From Other Materials - Step-by-step Instructions With Photos, Videos, Dimensions And Drawings

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

How can you make your own bath tub

There are quite a few types of fonts. If you devote some time to this issue, then you can choose the only correct option for a bath. Moreover, if you have the ability to work with your hands, you will build this product yourself.

Content

• 1 Functions of the font
• 2 Font design
• 3 Types of fonts
• 4 The choice of the future design of the font and the material for its construction

• 5 Construction of a wooden font

  • 5.1 Features of material selection
  • 5.2 Calculation of the required material
  • 5.3 Table: Materials Required
  • 5.4 Tools
  • 5.5 Font making process
  • 5.6 Video: assembling a wooden font with your own hands
  • 5.7 Operating rules

• 6 Construction of a concrete font

  • 6.1 Advice on the choice of material
  • 6.2 Table: Required material for a concrete hot tub
  • 6.3 Tools for solid construction
  • 6.4 The process of building a font
  • 6.5 Video: do-it-yourself concrete font

Functions of the font

A hot tub should be in any bath. The Russian steam room with a broom and a special composition of water poured onto the heater is the most useful of all types of such structures. The high temperature and steam in the bath dilates blood vessels, increases blood circulation, and tones the skin. But this is also a very big burden on the heart. It is imperative to neutralize the heat in a special way, instantly cooling the body. Thus, blood vessels are trained, skin turgor, heart function, mood improve, hypertension, colds and viral diseases are treated, a general hardening of the body occurs. It is good if the bathhouse is on the banks of the river or the site allows you to build a pool next to it. In winter, after the procedure, you can fall right into the snow. If you can't place it like that, then the only way out is to install a good font with ice water in it.

The hot tub can be placed both inside the bathhouse and outside

Font design

Any hot tub is a container for immersion in cold water installed in the dressing room. Size, shape, material may vary. They have only one thing in common - water supply and drainage. The latter can be carried out into the city sewer (if available), into a cesspool or simply to a site in the irrigation system, but only if the bath is on a slope.

The hot tub can be equipped with a large number of different devices:

• railings;
• benches inside and outside;
• steps;
• stairs;
• filters;
• massage nozzles;
• water purification and heating systems.

But it can simply consist of a container with a drain and a tap.

A small wooden hot tub filled with a shower hose

Types of fonts

Each owner can choose the design that is ideal for his bath.

Hot tubs are either the size of a small pool or designed for one person. Each of them has its own advantages. In a large font, the water is not heated for a long time and is not polluted. A small one is easier to fill, in addition, it can be installed even in a city apartment if a mini-sauna is installed there.

The shape of the font is:

1. Round. It's beautiful, but not quite ergonomic. It is difficult to fit such a font into a small rectangular dressing room. Most often they are metal, plastic or acrylic, but sometimes they are wooden.

   

   Round plastic bath tub is quite practical.

2. Oval. The most traditional shape, although not ergonomic either. Such fonts are usually made of wood, like wine barrels - from planks (they are called rivets or lamellas) and metal or wooden rims.

   

   The industrial-made bog oak Bentwood font looks very presentable

3. Square. These fonts are often stationary, built of concrete and tiles, but they are also found with wooden cladding.

   

   A designer hot tub for a bath with headrests, steps and wooden cladding is most often stationary

Font and material differ. They are:

1. Plastic. The simplest and cheapest type of hot tub. It is easiest in terms of weight, installation, connection of the drain structure. Possesses excellent performance properties: durable, mobile, easy to clean. Unlike wooden and iron fonts, plastic ones can be installed next to the bathhouse on the site.

   

   Acrylic font can be decorated with wood

2. Metallic. Also relatively inexpensive hot tubs with the same installation advantages. But there is also a significant drawback - they cool very quickly, so it can be unpleasant to enter them.

   

   A stainless steel hot tub with a water filter installed on site is a rather complicated design

3. Concrete. The construction technology is similar to home swimming pools. They are finished with special waterproof paint, mosaics or tiles.

   

   A concrete tub, finished with mosaics, is almost a swimming pool with filters and a water heating system

4. Wooden. They have healing properties and are environmentally friendly. Ready-made wooden fonts are among the most expensive. As a rule, they are made of precious wood and are a worthy decoration for your bath. A cedar font is incredibly useful and durable. This tree is not subject to decay and drying out, it is saturated with essential oils that will aromatize water for a long time, increasing your tone and healing the body. A larch font has the same qualities. The oak structure gives the water regenerating properties and improves the body's resistance and sleep. Fonts are also made from pine, birch and beech.

   

   A wooden cedar bath will significantly improve your health

The choice of the future design of the font and the material for its construction

Construction and material are interrelated. Their choice equally depends both on the place of installation of the future font and on your skills. If you are an expert in laying bricks, tiles and mixing cement mortar, then it is better to take on a concrete structure. If you love and know how to work with wood - then for cedar or oak. But still, the design and size of your bath, the presence and type of sewage system will be the determining factor.

A concrete hot tub holds a much larger volume of water than a wooden one, but requires a well-thought-out drainage system and significant financial costs. But it is often easier to build and will last much longer. A wooden font is very difficult to manufacture precisely in terms of tightness, you need to have great patience and accuracy when assembling, to accurately observe the geometry of the parts.

Construction of a wooden font

Making a wooden bath tub has its own characteristics.

Features of the selection of material

If you have the opportunity to purchase expensive cedar, larch, beech and oak wood, then this is the best option. It is resistant to decay and deformation, durable and pleasing to the eye. But you can use pine, birch or ash, but only wood specially treated to prevent decay. Boards should be grooved, but round. It is also worth choosing a well-dried material without knots. The optimal board thickness is 40 mm.

Calculation of the required material

The first thing to do is to determine the desired dimensions, then draw a drawing of your future font.

The hot tub must be equipped with a drain

You can also use special programs.

An approximate volumetric drawing of the future font will help to draw up a special program

Based on the size of the font and the width of the boards that you have already looked after, calculate the amount of material required for the walls and floor. Then determine how much timber you need to make the steps.

Table: Materials Required

Name	The size	number
Board on the walls of the font	120x40 mm	40 pieces
Board on the bottom of the product	120x40 mm	12 pieces
Beam on steps and legs (if necessary)	120x120x2000 mm	10 pieces
Stainless steel metal flexible strip	70х3х3000 mm	3 piece
Bolts, nuts, screws
Waterproof elastic wood glue
Antiseptic
Wax water-repellent treatment for wood
Siphon drainage design		1 piece
Sewer pipes

Tools

Certain tools need to be prepared in advance, namely:

• saw (grinder, jigsaw);
• hammer, including one with a rubber head;
• set of screwdrivers;
• drill;
• nozzle - a crown for wood;
• drills for metal;
• sandpaper of different fractions;
• brushes.

Font making process

To make a wooden font you need:

1. Cut the boards and beams into pieces of the required length - for the floor, walls, steps and fasteners.

   

   Grooved planks for the font must be treated with antiseptic impregnations

2. If necessary (slight deformation or the presence of burrs), lightly trim them with a plane.
3. Sand thoroughly first with coarse sandpaper, then fine to a state of smoothness.
4. Saturate the material with an antiseptic, let the composition absorb and dry the wood.
5. Cover boards and beams with wax liquid. If you are planning to assemble the font with glue, then it is better to use this tool when the product is already completely ready.

6. Lay the planks for the floor of the font on a flat surface, grease the grooves and grooves with glue, knock them together with a rubber hammer and fix the structure with clamps.

   

   The planks for the bottom of the font must be carefully connected to each other.

7. When the glue is dry, remove them and mount two additional perpendicular boards using self-tapping screws. It is possible not to use glue for fastening the elements, but to do only with connecting beams. But then a truly jewelry fit of the boards to one another is needed. Tightness in this case will be provided only by swelling of wood from moisture.

8. Carefully check the required bottom dimensions so that later the side walls are assembled from the boards without gaps.

   

   In advance, you need to accurately determine the number of boards for the walls of the font

9. Cut the bottom with a jigsaw or grinder according to the intended shape.

   

   The cut-out bottom of the font and the prepared wall boards, siphon and hoops can first be connected without fixing to determine the correct dimensions

10. In each wall board, cut a square groove from one end to connect with the bottom of the font.

11. Now you can start installing them one by one, adjusting them to the bottom and to each other, knocking them out with a rubber mallet. They can be fixed with glue, but its use is optional.

    

    The bottom of the font should fit into the groove of the side wall to the end

12. When half of the boards are installed, drill a hole in the bottom for the drain. It should not fall into the location of the fixing bar.

    

    The drain hole must not be made in the fixing bar

13. Install and fix the drain structure with a siphon in the hole, after generously coating the wood with sealant.
14. Continue wall assembly.

15. Finish the construction with the last board, driving it from above with a rubber hammer with effort. If you accurately calculate the dimensions of the bottom, ideally the prepared number of boards will go to the wall, and there will be no need to additionally make a narrower last element.

    

    The last board is installed by hammering it in with a hammer with a rubber nozzle

16. Cut hoops from the metal strip. Better if there are at least three of them. The length of the hoop should be equal to the circumference of the font plus 1–2 cm.
17. Bend the ends of the rims by 2 cm on each side. Drill holes in them for bolts and nuts.

18. Each hoop should cover the font at the required height. Connect the ends with bolts and nuts. Tap the hoop with a rubber mallet for a better fit to the wood. There should be a small distance between the ends, which will tend to zero as the nuts are tightened, and the hoops will tightly fix the entire structure.

    

    The fixing hoops should fit snugly around the font structure

19. Seal the junction of the bottom and sides of the hot tub.
20. If not done before, cover the surface of the product with a wax waterproof impregnation.

21. Mount the steps. There are no specific rules for this process. You need to do this so that you like the end result. If you wish, you can build a shelf for soap and benches inside the font.

    

    A bench inside the font can be made from scraps of boards

22. Install the finished structure in the place assigned to it. The surface must be absolutely flat, because distortions are detrimental to the product. If necessary, pieces of wood or stone can be placed under the bottom of the font to level the structure.
23. Connect the siphon to the sewer pipe.
24. Fill the tub with water, determine the presence of leaks after a few hours. If they are, then it is worth tightening the bolts on the hoops and leaving the water for a while. If done carefully, the leaks will stop.

Video: assembling a wooden font with your own hands

Operating rules

If you want the font to serve for a long time, then you must follow some rules when using the structure:

1. You can not leave water in it for more than a day. But it is also not recommended to keep it without water for a long time - it will certainly dry out and begin to leak. True, this can sometimes be eliminated. To do this, it is enough to pour water into it and give time to swell again.
2. Do not install such a hot tub on a warm floor or near heating appliances.
3. You need to wash it with a mild, non-corrosive detergent, but it is desirable that it is also antifungal. For the same purpose, it is necessary to periodically completely dry the product.

Construction of a concrete font

You can also make a bath tub from concrete.

Material advice

The amount of material depends on the expected size of the font - its depth, width, length and wall thickness. The last parameter is usually 15–20 cm. The amount of concrete for a product can be determined by multiplying these values. Usually, 7 bags of material, 50 kg each, are consumed per 1 m3 ^of pouring, while 1 part of cement, 3 parts of sand and 5 parts of fine gravel are used to prepare the solution. It is recommended to use a grade of base material of at least M400, while it is advisable to add to it substances that increase moisture resistance, for example, water glass. The sand is fine, homogeneous, washed.

Table: required material for a concrete font

Cement	M400
Sand	Homogeneous, fine
Crushed stone	Small, fraction size up to 10 mm
Liquid glass or other waterproofing mixture
Reinforcement or reinforcement mesh	Section 5–8 mm, mesh size 10 cm
Roofing material for waterproofing
Board or chipboard for formwork
Tile adhesive
Ceramic tiles or mosaics
Waterproof rubber paint (when not using tiles or mosaics)
Ceresit CX 5 grouting solution
Formwork nails

Monolithic tools

For the construction of a concrete font, it is necessary to prepare:

1. A device for mixing concrete.
2. Shovel.
3. Grinder for cutting fittings.
4. Welding machine.
5. Saw for cutting boards or chipboards.
6. Plumb line or level.
7. Square.
8. Diamond blade for tile cutting.
9. Putty knife.

The process of building a font

The very process of erecting a monolithic font takes place in several stages:

1. Foundation construction. You need to start the process by digging a pit. Typically, a concrete font has a height of 1.5 m and an area of no less than 1.5 m ² per person while bathing. It is necessary to add to these parameters the thickness of the walls and the margin for the formwork, which will make it possible to determine the dimensions. Traditionally, the foundation of the font should be placed close to the base of the bath itself.

   

   The height of the pit must be greater than the dimensions of the foundation

2. Align walls with a plumb line or level and angles with a square.
3. Formation of a depression for the drain pipe and a protrusion for installing the pump (if the bath is located on a hill, then there is no need for it).
4. Installation of drain pipes, their withdrawal from the main pit into the prepared ledge or immediately outside the bath. The pipe at the drain point should rise 80 cm above the bottom. The hole is sealed tightly.
5. Fill the bottom of the excavated pit with a layer of sand at least 20 cm thick. Diligently tamp it, having wetted it first. On the sand, you need to pour a layer of crushed stone 10 cm, tamp it.
6. Laying on all walls and the bottom of the pit for waterproofing. It can be several layers of roofing material.

7. Installation along the walls of the pit of the formwork from chipboard sheets or boards.

   

   The height of the pit must be greater than the font itself

8. Reinforcement mesh installation for the strength of the casting.

   

   Reinforcement mesh installation on top of the formwork guarantees structural reliability

9. Installation of beacons at the bottom of the pit.

   

   Lighthouses are needed to install the second layer of formwork

10. Collecting the second layer of formwork.

    

    Since the height of the font is significant, several layers of formwork will be required.

11. Installation of structures on beacons. It should not reach the bottom of the font with sand and gravel by 20 cm.

    

    The second layer of formwork must be installed on the beacons

12. Pouring concrete. This is a very responsible process, it must be done at one time, otherwise the font will leak water. Therefore, concrete is mixed in the amount calculated in advance, and even with a certain margin. It should have the consistency of liquid sour cream. If there is no concrete mixer, then the solution is mixed in a huge trough with a shovel by hand.

    

    You need to pour concrete in one go

13. Pouring the bottom along the bottom edge of the second layer of the formwork. This must be done so that voids do not form. After filling, it is necessary to use a vibrating plate so that air bubbles come out of the solution.

    

    At the end the bottom of the font is poured

14. Drying of concrete. This can take about two weeks.

    

    After pouring the font, the concrete must be given time to harden.

15. Removing the formwork. The hot tub must be left for another 14 days for final hardening.

    

    After removing the font formwork, allow the final hardening

16. Elimination of surface defects using Ceresit CX 5. All walls must be viewed. Let the structure dry.

    

    Defects of filling with a special solution are eliminated

17. The plaster of the walls is clean, after which it is worth aligning the ends, making slopes on them. Allow to dry.

    

    Plastering the ends is a mandatory step.

18. Font waterproofing. It is better to use a mastic-based material. You need to give it time to dry.

    

    Covering with a waterproofing compound must be mandatory

19. Installation of a pump connected to the sewerage system and drain pipes.

20. Coating with rubber paint or facing with tiles or mosaics.

    

    The tub can be painted or tiled

21. Finishing treatment. If desired, you can fix handrails and ladders on the side.

    

    If desired, a ladder can be added to the font design

Video: do-it-yourself concrete font

It doesn't matter what design of the font you choose for the bath, you can make it with your own hands, but subject to some skills, desire and dedication. Strict adherence to technology is also required. Only you can make a product that will serve for many years.