Replies

1. 
   Jamie_Buxton | Sep 26, 2005 07:44am | #1

   An American hot tub is darn near the same thing -- well, a wooden hot tub at least.   Search with that phrase and see what you get.   There ought to be some old hippy articles -- reprints of Mother Jones or something.

   Be aware that a real wooden ofuro leaks.  It is used in a room which has a waterproof floor with a drain.   Also, if you use it regularly with soap, it will accumulate soap scum and bad stuff.   That is, you can't really substiture a real wooden ofuro for the bathtub in a standard American bathroom.  There are tubs in the style of the ofuro which are watertight and can be more easily be built into a bathroom.  One example is http://www.americh.com/single_product.php?item=tubs&id=15

    

1. 
   Petey | Sep 26, 2005 02:49pm | #3

   Thanks, I checked that site, I was leaning towards a wooden tub. The round tub( hot tub) would work, it just looked like the Japanese style was not to complicated. ThanksJust another homeowner...

    

    

2. 
   pqken | Sep 26, 2005 07:58am | #2

   I live in Japan so I’ll share my thoughts on this subject. I’ll also be showing my ignorance as I haven’t lived in the States for a while so I don’t know what’s available there.

   We just replaced our bath with a modern ofuro recently. We live in an old farmhouse and the ofuro we replaced had the choice of being heated with wood or gas. So when taking a bath you needed someone stoking the fire.

   The water is HOT by western standards. The water is heated directly and released into the bath not a hot water holding tank where it would cool. I would check to see if you can get a system like this to start. There are many variations to this, some a metal plate that water flows over is heated so you get hot water on demand.

   As you may know in the Japanese bath you wash first and then slip into the tub and soak. So basically you’re looking at a large sealed room with a large bath in it, no toilet. The design of the bath varies widely, like anywhere else. Materials as well, Stone, wood, molded plastics, and the like. I‘ve always thought a wood ofuro would be nice, something I could make. But I’m cautioned against it because of mold.

   Hope this helps...

1. 
   Petey | Sep 26, 2005 02:52pm | #4

   I thought the wood used inhibited the growth of mold, hinoki or Port orford cedar ?Just another homeowner...

    

    

1. 
   pqken | Sep 26, 2005 04:01pm | #5

   Can't say from personal experience, I'm just repeating what some other people have told me. I was planning to remodel our bath and a wood tub was my first choice. The carpenter who advised against it is old enough to have used one when small. He mentioned you can’t keep it clean (mold/mildew discolors the wood even if sealed) and they leak eventually. Being older and more experienced I didn’t question him.What I do know is people generally don't use wooden baths now. I've seen one in fifteen years and that was in an old style Japanese hotel. It had mildew growing in the wood. My experience tells me the Japanese attitude toward this may be that it isn't a pretty sight, especially in a room where you clean yourself.The Japanese people do enjoy the natural esthetics of wood so there must be reasons wooden tubs aren’t popular here. Off hand a couple of big differences here are the bath is used everyday, the water would be re-heated and used again or used to wash clothes (thus there is constantly water in the tub), climate can be very warm and very humid or dry and cold (read wood movement thus hard to seal), and the water is very hot. Some Japanese ofuro's are quite small, and some large. They are used to soak in only. Washing is done outside the tub on the floor. Strange for westerners but makes a lot of sense. In the west we wash in dirty water when we wash in the tub. In Japan, as mentioned washing is out of the tub, you rinse, and then enter the tub clean. One benefit to this is other family members can use the same water.Hopefully this helped, I’ll ask around and get more information and then get back to you. pqken

   Edited 9/26/2005 9:34 am ET by pqken