Wooden spa seating

[coilerman]

We have a gunite finished spa and I thought about adding wooden slats to the seating platform for comfort and to add a bit of a Japanese onsen look to it. I'm not sure how wood would hold up to a salt water pool but when you visit a Japanese onsen (bath house), they use wood liberally throughout. It gets aged and weathered over the years and looks absolutely gorgeous.

Has anyone done something like this?

 

[PoolGate]

I think it'd look good. Probably could use Teak if you have lots of money otherwise white oak should hold up pretty well. I'd go with through mortise and tenon construction.

 

[coilerman]

Since we have winter here, I was thinking of making them removable. Epoxy some threaded inserts into the spa and attach that way. I looked at teak and wow, it's pricey as you know. I was thinking of white cedar which is what I think they use in Japanese spas.