HOW TO BUILD AN OUTDOOR SHOWER.

G’day Folks and welcome to my How to Build Your Very Own DIY Outdoor Shower out of Reclaimed Wood Blog Post!

 

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Please Check Out the video below 

that accompanies this Blog Post. Cheers ?

Here It Is! How to Build YOUR Very Own DIY Outdoor Shower Video.

 

 

First up… a question. Who…l repeat, who…does not like the idea of having their very own outdoor shower?? I can’t see to many hands going up. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of freedom in having an outdoor shower when you come home from a day at the beach covered in sand and salt or even having a wash down after a dip in the pool.

It doesn’t matter if you get water everywhere, in fact the grass or plants surrounding the shower love it, and the kids can get as rowdy as they like.

Before we kick off, it might be a good idea to see what we need.

 

Materials Required:

Reclaimed Wood Outdoor Shower Facade.

• Reclaimed Hardwood Fence Palings. 22 @ 2.1 metres (7 feet)
• Reclaimed Hardwood 70mm x 35mm: 3 @ 2.1 metres (7 feet)
• Reclaimed Hardwood or Treated Pine 35mm x 35mm (inch and a half x inch and a half) ): 2 @ 2.1m (7 feet)
• Exterior Grade 65mm (2  1/2″) Screws: Approx 26
• 50mm Galvanised Nails for Nail Gun.

 

Plumbing:

• Taps for hot and cold water.
• Shower Rose.
• Riser Shower Assembly x 1
• Shower Base Grate.
• All other plumbing supplies to be provided by plumber.

 

Shower Base:

• Approx ten, 20kg  bags of concrete mix. Depends on the size of your shower base.
• Steel mesh for reinforcing the concrete slab.
• Enough plastic to cover the base of the concrete slab.
• Formwork for the concrete. I just used 3 lengths of old floor board. 100mm x 19mm ( 4″ x 3/4″ )

 

Tools Required:

 

 

 

• Hammer
• Chisel
• Electric Planer. This is used to tidy up the reclaimed hardwood.
• Electric Sander. Great for giving the reclaimed hardwood a smooth, non splintery finish.
• Nail Gun. If you don’t have a nail gun, don’t panic, an everyday hammer and nail will do the trick.
• Circular Saw.
• Compound Mitre Saw. A circular saw will suffice if you cant find a mitre saw
•  Combination square.
• Drill. Cordless or corded…doesn’t matter.
• Hole Saw Kit.
• Electric Planer
• Spirit Level.
• Tape Measure.
• Shovel.
• Concrete Finishing Trowel
• Cement Edger.
• Pencil.
• Ear Muffs.
• Safety Goggles.
• Sawhorses. Here’s a link to my Easy to Build Sawhorse Video. Check it Out!

Please note that all of these tools are available from my Recommended Tools and Resources Page.

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Let’s Get This Show on the Road:

 

I’ve been wanting to build this DIY Outdoor Shower for a little while now and was wrapped in how it turned out. A very easy recycled timber project that anybody can do.

The first thing you need to consider is to whether you want a hot and cold water supply or just cold.

With my water supply, l was fortunate enough to have had a little foresight and had the plumbing for hot…yes hot..and cold water for an outdoor shower installed when l did my renovation.

 

 

If you haven’t, don’t stress, your plumber will be able to sort something out for you or if all you want is cold water, you could simply run a hose from your closest backyard tap.

Now that you’ve decided where your shower is to go on the wall, mark out on the ground the shape and size of your shower base. Mine was 1200mm x 1100mm (4 foot x 3.6 foot. Sorry about my expressions when converting to imperial. I’m a metric person and the conversions can be a little clunky…for me anyway ?) We are concreting an outdoor shower base that will have the drainage connected to the properties sewer.

 

PRO TIP:

You’ll notice in the above and below photo that l located my outdoor shower close to the gully trap. The benefit being that l could quite easily connect my drainage to the sewer system.

Once the shower base is outlined, level the area with a shovel until you get a nice flat and level site.

 

 

With the location of the outdoor shower sorted it’s time to build the backdrop for the shower that will be attached to the wall. For this I’ll be using reclaimed wood in the form of old hardwood fence palings and some old hardwood roofing timber that l salvaged from the partial demolition of my old house. This material is cut to size using my trusty Mitre Saw and sanded back.

 

 

 

I lightly planed and sanded the wood back to a nice rustic finish.

 

PRO TIP:

Hidden nails in reclaimed wood is always an issue as running your plane or saw over them can destroy the blade. Avoid this from happening by running a strong magnet over the wood prior to planing or cutting. The magnet will locate the nails for you to remove them. I use a really cool and inexpensive tool called a Studpop to do this. I also use this tool to locate wall studs Check them out!

 

Using the Studpop to locate hidden nails.

 

For the Outdoor Shower Facade l cut some recycled hardwood fence palings to size and also ripped a number of them down the middle. Having different width boards adds a little bit of aesthetic appeal. Behind the facade we will hide the plumbing pipes. From the picture you can see that l am going to install a Riser Shower Assembly which is the plumbing assembly that you attach your handles and shower head to.

 

 

PRO TIP:

To make your Shower Facade look a little more professional, try and position the Riser Shower Assembly so that the holes for the taps and the shower rose finish up in the middle of a fence paling. You may need to juggle the positioning of the boards to achieve this.

 

For the Outdoor Shower Facade Screen, you first need to build the framework for the fence palings to attach to. My Trusty Nail Gun was very handy for this. I also screwed the corners for added strength.

 

 

The overall height of the frame was 1920mm and the width, 1000mm ( 75 1/2 inches x 39 1/2 inches). The bottom of the frame was 140mm ( 5 1/2 inches ) above the top of the concrete shower base beneath. I’m 6’2″ and that gives me a comfortable height to be standing under the shower rose.

Once the external frame has been nailed, glued and screwed together, you’ll need to attach a backing piece of timber for the fence palings to nail to. I painted these with an exterior grade paint first before screwing to the frame just to give the backing board a bit more protection from moisture.

Nailed first.

 

 

Then screwed to the frame with my Makita Cordless Drill.

 

Frames done, now all you need to do is nail all those fence palings to the frame and this is where your nail gun comes in real handy.

 

 

As you can see in the above picture, l have a nail spacing on either end of the fence palings. This just leaves a little space for water to escape thus prolonging the life of the wood….l also think it looks good ?

 

 

 

 

Here’s how it looks from behind. Notice how l’ve added two extra lengths of support in the middle of the frame. Just make sure you position these supports so that they don’t get in the way of the plumbing that is to be installed.

 

See here how the framing is positioned to the side of the Shower Riser.

 

Before you hang the frame to the wall we need to drill the holes for the taps and shower rose

 

 

OK, you’re now well on your way ?. Before you hang the frame on the wall, we need to set up the formwork for the shower base concrete slab. It’s a very basic structure that l formed up using some old floor boards that l had floating around in the shed.

 

Square the formwork up to the house using a Builders Square.

 

 

 

PRO TIP:

Make sure your slab is at least 100mm (4″) thick and if the edge of your slab is to exposed, use a smooth board for your formwork….that way when you remove the boards after the slab has cured, you will have a nice smooth finish to the edge of the concrete.

 

Plumbing:

It’s now time to connect the plumbing. You may want to do this yourself or you may want to use a plumber.

I directed the waste water to go into the sewer via the gully trap that was situated only a short distance away from my shower which was one of the main factors as to the position of the shower in the first place.

 

Setting up the shower waste to be connected to the already existing Gully Trap.

 

 

Connecting the shower waste to the Gully Trap.

 

 

All done!! That wasn’t to hard was it ??

 

PRO TIP:

Make sure that when you install the Shower Waste Grate that you position it below the height of the outside edge of the shower base to enable the water to drain toward the waste. As you can see in the photo below, the top of the shower grate is just over an inch lower than the outside edge of the slab.

 

 

Please Note that you will need to consult with your local authority in regard to how you should dispose of the water waste that your outdoor shower produces. Some outdoor showers utilize a pit filled with rocks under the shower while other outdoor showers have the waste directed into the storm water or sewer system.

What’s the Issue with That?

Technically the water is classified as ‘Greywater’ and should be funnelled into the sewer. The argument against this is that most local authorities don’t like excess water, like rain, blocking up their sewers which could happen from all the water being directed into the sewer system via the outdoor shower, especially in heavy downpours, and especially if there are a lot of outdoor showers in the area. This is why different authorities have different rules so please contact them for details.

Sorry about all the boring stuff, now on with the build ?.

 

Having the waste water directed into the sewer definitely solves the waste water issue and now onto connecting up the Shower Riser Set

 

You can see here how l used timber wedges nailed to the wall which helps keep the Shower Riser plumb.

 

 

 

Using a wrench, attach the Shower Riser to the plumbing coming out of the wall.

 

 

 

And there’s the Shower Riser Assembly all connected. Love it! ??

 

 

Hanging the Shower Facade to the wall is a piece of cake! It just simply screws to the wall. At the same time, the taps and shower rose are also screwed on.

 

 

 

As you can see from the picture below, it’s a really good idea, especially if you’re doing this yourself, that you sit the frame (which is quite heavy) on a temporary wooden frame.

 

 

To attach the frame to the wall it’s a great idea to find a wall stud or two to screw the frame to.

 

 

Using the Studpop Stud Finder

 

 

Success!

 

 

Now simply screw the frame to the wall!

 

PRO TIP:

Whenever using any fixings externally, ensure that they are suitable for exterior use. If not they will rust quickly and break off and nobody wants that to happen!

 

OK…we’re on the home stretch! Time to pour the slab ??

If the slab is butting up to any structure like in my case, the slab of my house, it’s a good idea to seperate the two slabs with a length of Expansion Foam. This will help counter the effect of expansion which does happen with concrete.

 

The Expansion Foam comes in rolls like you can see below.

 

Cover the ground with about an inch of Crusher Dust, also known as Quarry Dust, and compact it down until you have a nice solid base. Keep the crusher dust about 50mm away from the side of the formwork

Just as a mater of interest, Crusher Dust or Quarry Dust is available from all landscaping supply businesses and is basically a by product from the mining industry. It’s made up from very small stones and dust)

I just knocked up a home made compacter out of some wood found in the shed.

 

With the Crusher Dust compacted, find some black plastic and cover the base. This helps prevent moisture coming up through the slab.

 

 

 

Now for the fun stuff! Time to make a Big concrete mudpie ? Mix the concrete in a wheel barrow and pour into the formwork.

 

 

Spread the concrete out with a shovel.

 

Once you get close to the top of the form work with the concrete, place in the reinforcement mesh and work it into the mixture with your foot.

 

 

 

Pushing the mesh down with my foot.

 

PRO TIP:

Keep the reinforcement mesh about two inches away from the edge of the formwork. The reason being that if the mesh is exposed to the outside air in any way shape or form, it will rust which will cause the concrete to blow out and crack.

 

Smooth the concrete over with a straight edge of some sort which could be a straight piece of wood or even your spirit level.

 

 

During the process, from time to time, tap the side of the formwork with your hammer. This will force the concrete to the edges of the formwork which will ensure that when you remove the formwork, you will see a nice uniformed and smooth edge.

 

 

Complete the job with a Concrete Finishing Trowel  followed by a broom (an every day kitchen broom will do the job nicely) that you gently drag across the surface once the concrete has almost gone off. This leaves fine lines on the surface that makes the shower base less slippery.

 

 

To finish the job off, using a Concrete Edger, run it along the edge of the formwork and the concrete. This will leave a nice rounded edge to the slab.

 

 

So that’s it Folks! I hope you enjoyed and found this Blog Post useful. Our entire family absolutely love the shower and there’s always a race to see who gets to it first after a day at the beach ?.

As per usual you can find me on all the Socials…just scroll to the bottom of the page for all those links.

 

Alrighty, be safe, and till next time, l’m outta here..Cheers!