There is nothing more enjoyable than having a shower outdoor. However, outdoor showers might seem to be expensive or luxurious, but they bring happiness all along. Homes fixed with outdoor showers are pretty costly to rent or invest in. Installing these showers is a bit expensive and requires various fixations, including assembling materials and plumbing.
However, regardless of higher installing costs, outdoor shower fixtures add fun to your outdoor. One doesn’t require a lot of skills as well to come up with an outdoor shower. A shower in your outdoor will consist of a few things like a source of water, a solid base, and a showerhead. You can plan drainage or have the water flow down your backyard.
How to build a hot water outdoor shower
- Come up with a shower drainage
When you have decided where to fix your shower, ensure that you consider the background’s limitations on drainage. You might be required to have drainage that connects with the backyard’s waste drain. Come up with a drainage system that appears sloppy.
Your system may be made of concrete and even tiled. This way, it will last longer. You can fix a drain strainer at the base of your shower.
If there are no regulations on gray water runoff, it will be easier for you to develop a drainage system. You can build a French drain that will help direct runoff to, let’s say, the garden. Another option is to dig a dry well and fit it with gravel. The well will hold runoff underground hence seeping into the soil.
- Construct a shower base
Your outside shower fixtures need to be stable to ensure its safety and comfortability. Therefore, ensure you construct a strong base of about 30 by 30 inches at a minimum. Space can, however, be more extensive than this. Use non-porous materials to build your base. It ensures that water will flow to your drain.
A base made of timber or cement pavers will allow water running from your shower to soak into the ground. Some individuals opt to have freestanding showers instead of constructing one. These types of showers come along with a designed platform to fix them.
- Build a shower enclosure
One can decide to fix their outdoor shower with a privacy screen depending on the location of the shower in the backyard. Most of the time, the screen is usually at the back wall. Thus, ensure the shower’s back wall is made of wood or rigid vinyl. This is to fix the shower head and valve.
Sometimes one is forced to construct their outdoor shower next to the backyard’s fence or your house. The showerhead and valve can thus be fixed on the sidewalls or one of the fence supports. Designing an enclosure improves your home’s creative appearance. You can have your shower tiled inside and a curtain for privacy and protection from coldness.
- Mount your showerhead and valve
If you acquired a freestanding shower, it would be easier to fix it by just setting it in your preferred area. Ensure that it remains stable if you decide to move it to a different place. Several metal rods of a known length are fixed on the ground, and the shower riser is set into the rod with pins.
A propane shower comes with a handheld showerhead fitted out. Thus, ensure you fix it higher enough creating a vertical space under the showerhead. This is in case you are not using the handheld showerhead. It is vital to secure the showerhead, shower riser, and valve with pipe clamps.
Drill holes on the riser if it is hidden to enable you to fix the shower arm and the valve.
- Connect the water to your shower.
To hook up water into your shower will call for plumbing, which is done using a garden hose or fixed pipes. Before plumbing, ensure you adhere to the gray-water runoff authorizations. Outdoor showers will mostly be plumbed with hot water. However, in most cases, the shower will also have a cold water system plumbed.
For a hot water outdoor shower, a plumber needs first to set up a cold water faucet and then connect it with a hot- water valve. It is the easiest way to come up with a hot water shower outdoor. Ensure you use heavy-duty hoses that can sustain hot water through them. Use stainless steel hoses, which are more durable.
Installing hoses instead of permanent water lines is cost-effective. One can disassemble them when winter breaks for storage, hence avoiding issues of frozen pipes.
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Heating water for an outdoor shower
Showering in warm water brings a different feeling compared to refreshing on cold water. There are various ways in which we can get you can get your water warmed;
- Use the plumbing system in your house- Consider installing your shower near a source of hot water. If the bathroom inside your home has hot water piping, then you can fix an outdoor shower from the bathroom’s outer wall. You can connect pipes or use PEX tubes and bury them underground to your shower.
- Fit your shower with a tank-less gas water heater – This method is cost-effective in that it does not require plumbing. The gas heaters start immediately after the faucet is opened, delivering a continuous hot water flow. The shower water pressure enables this method to work effectively.
This method is advantageous in that only a single PEX tube is required to connect to the heater. The heaters can also be relocated to different places, as D-cell batteries power them.
- Use solar – The advantages of using a solar system to heat your shower water are that it’s easy to install, environmentally friendly, and hence cheap to maintain. Using a black hose, make several coils and make the structure get hit by sunlight. Coldwater will penetrate the pipe, get warmed, and flows to the shower. Water will come out from the showerhead depending on its pressure.
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Conclusion
Making an outdoor shower is very simple, not unless you need a more complex structure. Purchasing a simple hose-fed shower is, however, cost-effective. Professionals will be recommendable for complicated set-ups or hiring contractors to run the project.
Tapping your resting area with a hot water shower is the most enjoyable thing ever. If you have never had one before, try installing one with the help of these simple procedures.
