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At first glance, building an outdoor shower in a country house is a simple matter. I put a cabin and a water tank behind the house and you can swim. However, everyone thinks so until it comes directly to the construction itself. Here questions immediately arise with the selection of material, the organization of drainage and water supply, and the correct determination of the dimensions of the shower house. To quickly deal with these issues, we propose to consider step-by-step instructions on how to build a summer shower for your dacha with your own hands and connect communications to it.
Drawing a drawing of a summer shower
The simplest garden shower consists of one bathing cabin. To build a house you do not need to create complex drawings. Most often they adhere to standard dimensions of 1x1x2.2 m, as shown in the photo. It is impossible to build a shower stall below these parameters. After all, about 10 cm of height will be taken up by the pallet under your feet, and the watering can will hang from the ceiling about 15 cm. A cabin that is too high is also not needed.There will be problems with filling water, and it will be difficult for a short person to reach the tap installed in front of the watering can.
The width and depth of the shower are selected individually. It is not advisable to build a shower stall below the recommended standards. It will be too crowded inside. If the owners are quite obese, the width and depth of the cabin are selected so that it is comfortable for people to bathe in the shower.
If you have the desire and means to build a shower with all the amenities, you will have to approach drawing up the diagram more carefully:
- Lighting is provided in the shower for night use.. It can be any low-power flashlight, but it must have a high degree of protection from moisture. During the day you can use natural light. To do this, a window is cut out on top of the door or any wall of the shower stall. It can be glazed to prevent drafts.
- It's better to buy a square tank. It can be installed on top of the cabin instead of the roof, which will save on roofing material. If the shower you have made will be used during cool times of the day, the tank must be purchased with heating. The built-in heating element will allow you to heat water for a country shower using electricity at any time of the day.
- You cannot create a completely clogged shower stall.. The accumulated steam inside will make it difficult to breathe. As an option, an opening ventilation hatch is made on the side or rear wall of the shower house at the top.
- You can't do without a changing room in the shower. It can be done inside the stall, then the size of the shower house itself will have to be increased. The space for clothes is simply separated with a film screen. A comfortable locker room is organized in the waiting room. It is erected separately adjacent to the shower stall.To do this, you will need to install additional racks and cover them with any sheet material. Inside you can install benches and even a small table.
The diagram of the shower house should show all the little things, including hooks for clothes, shelves, mirrors, etc. If the shower is designed for a large number of people, the drawings show the passage of the sewerage system and the location of the drainage hole.
Foundation for a summer shower
Garden shower cabins are lightweight, but you need to remember the weight of the water tank installed on the roof. In order for the house to stand securely, a foundation is built under it. Let's find out how to build a simple foundation for a shower stall:
- Concrete is used to construct the foundation in the form of a monolithic slab. In an area the size of the shower stall, a hole no more than 50 cm is dug. Formwork is knocked down around the hole, the bottom is covered with a 20 cm thick layer of sand and crushed stone and a reinforcing mesh is laid. Next, everything is filled with concrete mortar so that the future slab protrudes 10 cm above the ground. Red brick can be used as formwork. Before pouring the concrete slab, it is necessary to lay a sewer pipe for drainage, otherwise it will be impossible to do this later.
- For a wooden shower stall it is easier to install a pile foundation. To do this, holes about 1 m deep are drilled along the perimeter of the building with a drill. Sections of asbestos or metal pipes are inserted inside. They should protrude 20 cm above ground level. All pillars are leveled in the same plane, and then filled with concrete. Concrete is also poured inside the pipe, but an anchor pin is first inserted. When the concrete has hardened, the frame of the bottom frame of the shower stall is knocked out of a wooden beam and, after drilling holes, it is put on studs.Now all that remains is to tighten the frame to the foundation pillars with nuts, and you can install the shower house.
- As an option, a summer shower in a country house can be installed on a columnar foundation. Its design resembles a pile analogue. The only difference is in the manufacture of supports. In the corners of the future shower stall, holes measuring 20x20x50 cm are dug. If the house has a dressing room, then additional holes are added in the center of the long walls. As a result, there should be 6 of them. The walls of the pits are covered with roofing felt, anchor pins are installed in the center, formwork is installed around each recess and filled with concrete. Next, the wooden frame of the lower frame of the cabin is attached to the studs.
- A solid shower stall with brick walls is erected on a strip foundation. A trench 50 cm deep is dug along the perimeter of the future building and formwork is installed. The bottom of the trench is covered with a 10 cm layer of sand and crushed stone, reinforcement is laid, and concrete is poured. The height of the foundation should protrude from the ground by 10 cm.
When the foundation for the shower is completely ready, we begin to install the sewer system.
Organization of water drainage in the shower stall
In a dacha shower, the method of organizing the drainage of dirty water depends on the type of soil, the type of foundation and the number of people living. If the foundation is made in the form of a monolithic slab, then before pouring it, a plastic pipe with an elbow is laid. The slab is poured so that there is a slope on all sides towards the drain hole. The sewer pipe is taken outside the cabin and connected to the general sewer system or connected to a drainage well.
A built-in shower with a sewer connection is ideal for a large family. After swimming, there will be a large amount of dirty waste and they will not fit in the small pit near the shower.
When the shower is designed for 1–2 people, the drain can be arranged directly under the stall. However, this option is suitable for summer cottages with loose soil. Let's say the shower stall is on a pile or columnar foundation. This can also be done on a strip base. Inside, select soil 50 cm deep. Half of the hole is filled with any stone or gravel. The second part is covered with fine crushed stone up to the ground level. When the shower stall is ready, a wooden lattice tray is placed on the crushed stone. Wastewater will be absorbed into the soil, passing through the drainage layers.
Sometimes summer residents simply lead the pipe from the shower into the garden. Not a very good solution, but if you do this, then the place where the water is drained should be warmed by the sun. If the water does not have time to evaporate within a day, over time you will end up with a swamp with frogs and a cloud of mosquitoes around the shower.
Shower options
Now we will look at how to make a shower in the country from different building materials. In each case, step-by-step instructions and a detailed description of the work performed will be provided.
Economy option
A little trick will help you save on building a shower house. The fact is that a blank wall of any building can serve as a booth. Even better if it is the inner corner of an L-shaped building. A small water container with a watering can is attached to the wall of the building. Various shelves, hooks and other devices are also attached here.A semicircular partition is fixed on top of the wall and a curtain made of opaque film or tarpaulin is attached using rings.
The floor must be equipped so that water flows further from the foundation of the house. It is optimal to concrete the area or install an acrylic shower tray.
Construction of a wooden shower house
In this photo, the shower at the dacha is presented in the form of a wooden house. This is the most common structure. The wood is easy to work with and retains heat well in cold weather.
The procedure for constructing a wooden cabin consists of several steps:
- To make the frame you will need a wooden beam. For the corner posts of the house, blanks are taken with a cross-section of 100x100 mm. On top there will be a tank with 200 liters of water, this is where the thickness of the timber is taken from. Two additional posts are placed in front between the corner posts. They can be taken with a section of 50x50 mm. This will be enough to hang the door.
- The front corner posts of the shower house are made 20 cm higher than the rear ones. The result is a slope for a pitched roof. If a square tank is installed instead of a roof, then all the racks are made the same height.
- All racks are attached to the wooden frame of the lower frame of the shower stall using metal corners and hardware. A similar strapping is made on top. For stability, the racks are reinforced with spacers. Depending on the shape and size of the tank, a frame is knocked down on the top trim of the frame to install the container.
- The finished frame of the shower house is sheathed with boards 20 mm thick. The door is assembled from the same blanks. The boards are laid in one row, knocked down with two lintels and one batten obliquely so that the door does not warp. The door frame is assembled from a 40 mm thick board.It is attached to the frame door posts with self-tapping screws, and the door is attached to the frame itself with hinges.
The finished shower stall is opened with colored varnish, and the door is covered with film from the inside. Otherwise, the wood will swell when water gets in, and it will be difficult to close the door.
Shower cubicle made of polycarbonate
Now let's look at how to make an outdoor shower with a beautiful polycarbonate casing. For a shower house, you will need to make a similar frame, only not from wood, but from a metal profile with a cross-section of 40x60 mm.
The principle of manufacturing the frame is the same as an analogue of a wooden shower stall. All the same racks with jumpers, only metal and they need to be welded. By the way, such a shower frame can be welded separately, and then placed on the foundation and secured with anchor bolts. Another method of manufacturing a metal frame is based on concreting the racks in the foundation. Next comes the strapping of the upper jumpers and spacers.
To cover the shower frame, fragments are cut out of a sheet of opaque polycarbonate 10 mm thick. It is attached to the metal profile with hardware with a sealing gasket. The shower door frame is welded from a similar profile, attached to the counter with hinges and sheathed with polycarbonate.
The video shows an example of a polycarbonate shower:
Shower house made of corrugated sheets
Now we will find out how to make a shower at the dacha with our own hands from sheets of corrugated sheets. It should be noted right away that this version of the shower stall is in greatest demand among summer residents.
So, any of the considered frames will be suitable for corrugated sheeting: wooden or metal profile. The only difference is that the frame is reinforced with additional jumpers to give it rigidity. After all, the corrugated sheeting is very soft and without jumpers the shower stall will “play.” The sheets are screwed to the frame of the house with galvanized self-tapping screws and a rubber washer. For aesthetics, they are matched to the color of the corrugated board.
Brick shower house
The brick walls of the shower house are laid on a strip foundation or concrete slab. During the masonry process, frames for doors and windows are installed. For a country shower, it is enough to remove half a brick from the walls. On the last row, lintels made of wooden beams are built into the masonry. The roof and water tank will be attached to them.
The shower door can be bought ready-made from plastic or knocked down from boards. It is optimal to weld a frame from the profile and cover it with corrugated sheeting. It is advisable to install the window frame on hinges. This will make it possible to arrange ventilation inside the shower stall.
Installing a shower tank and water supply
The final step in the construction of the shower is the installation of the tank. You can make it yourself from any plastic or stainless container. To do this, a hole with a diameter of 15 mm is drilled in the bottom, and a piece of pipe about 30 cm long with threads at both ends is secured with nuts. A hole for the pipe is cut in the center of the cabin roof. The tank is installed on the roof of the shower house so that the pipe exits through the hole under the ceiling inside the cabin. A tap and a plastic watering can are screwed onto the free threaded end. The tank is fixed to the frame of the shower stall, filled with water and covered with a lid.
If you buy a store-bought tank, the kit will already include a watering can, faucet and all the fasteners.The container will only need to be placed on the roof of the shower house and filled with water.
If you install a heating element inside the tank, the water can be heated during the cold season. However, we must remember about security measures. To avoid electric shock when swimming, the heating element should be disconnected from the power supply.
The video tells how to build an outdoor shower:
Building a shower in your country house with your own hands is not that difficult. You just need to prepare a diagram, purchase materials and slowly complete the work.
