How To Build An Outdoor Shower!

Building an outdoor shower is not only possible, it is more common than most people realize. Showering outdoors is functional because you can clean off the dirt before it gets tracked indoors. It also makes a good location to rinse off some gardening clothes and tools.

Showering outdoors during the summer can also be very invigorating, especially for someone who enjoys the outdoors, gardening and nature. Feeling the warm sun's rays directly on your body as you shower is very relaxing. This is likely one of the reasons hot tubs are popular.

The first consideration is how large to make the outdoor shower. If you just want a place to wash off the dirt, then a 4-foot square shower stall is more than adequate. Building anything in multiples of 4 feet is good because it makes the best use of standard 8-foot lumber with very little scrap.

If you are looking for more a relaxing shower in the outdoors, a larger shower stall would be better. This provides room for shelves to hold shampoo, soap, etc., and also pegs to hold your clothes out of the path of the water spray. Even a larger stall with a bench for undressing is more convenient.

The location of the outdoor shower stall impacts how you heat the water. If one side of it is attached to your house, it is easy to run both cold and hot water pipes from inside your house. Be sure to install indoor shutoff valves to turn off the water during the winter to avoid freezing.

If you locate the shower stall remote from the house for better sun exposure or a better view, it would be wasteful to run a hot water line that far from the house. It would take forever to get hot water out there, wasting both water and the energy to heat it.

Being a gardening person who likes nature, consider building a simple solar water heater. This can be as simple as a tank of water mounted above and to the side of the shower stall. Run just a cold water line to it and paint the tank flat black. The heat from the sun should warm it enough to provide a comfortably, naturally heated shower.

The other option is installing a small electric instantaneous water heater for the shower stall. Only one cold water line needs to run to the shower stall. When hot water is needed, the instantaneous water heater warms it as the water flows through it.

Make the shower stall with cedar or pressure-treated lumber. The top should be open, and the sides should be just high enough to provide adequate privacy yet an open feeling. If it is near your garden, consider using open lattice on the sides with climbing vines for privacy.

Use one entire side as the door and face it toward the sun. Install thick millstones or limestone on the floor. The sun's rays will heat the stone floor and radiate this heat up to your body while you shower.