Imagine a tropical getaway, with an outdoor shower circled by a stand of verdant foliage. You can feel the sun’s warmth on your skin and listen to birdsong as you bathe. A rinse here becomes more than getting clean – it’s a sensory escape. You can bring that romantic notion home with an outdoor shower in your backyard. It’s nature’s healing at its best, and refreshing if you’ve spent a busy day gardening, have just come back from a run, or are keen to wash off the salt and sand of the beach.
“Adding an outdoor shower to your garden adds a whole new way to experience your outdoor space. It gives a real sense of luxury and a holiday vibe; the best part is it doesn’t have to cost a fortune,” Charlie says.
Charlie made this project with ShapeScaper steel edging, concrete and pre-painted fence posts set in a curve around the shower. A plumber connected the outdoor-rated tapware to the home’s hot and cold water.
Calatheas placed close to the shower will grow quickly to provide privacy. Zoysia tenuifolia, a low-growing grass, is planted in pockets near the stepping stones to eventually form a thick ground cover.
Charlie linked these lush plantings with the more native-themed garden beyond the shower by setting out a bed with lomandra, woolly bush (Adenanthos sericeus), westringia, chocolate correa, Casuarina glauca ‘Cousin It’, Blechnum gibbum ‘Silver Lady’ ferns and a ‘Gollum’ jade plant.
Gather your supplies
- ShapeScaper corten steel edging (150mm deep)
- ShapeScaper corten steel tree rings (575mm diameter, 150mm deep)
- Ki-Carma road base, 20kg bag
- Australian Handyman Supplies steel fence post in Monument, 65 x 65mm x 2.4m, and matching 65 x 65mm post caps
- Bremick 12g x 50mm B8 Hex roofing screws
- Craftright six-piece magnetic nut driver set
- Australian Builders High Strength concrete mix, 20kg bag
- Jack 25–40mm plastic reinforcing bar chair, 20 pack
- Jack 1800 x 1000 x 200 x 7mm reinforcing mesh sheet
- Sika Rugasol concrete surface retarder, 5L
- Ki Carma river pebble landscape stones, 20kg bag
- Outdoor-rated tapware and shower fittings
You’ll also need
- Level
- Heavy-duty gloves
- Angle grinder with fine blade
- Protective eyewear
- Ear muffs
- Tamper
- 90mm spacers
- Wide tape
- Short-handled sledgehammer
- Drill
- Pliers
- Cement trowel
- Garden sprayer
Safety tips
When operating power tools, wear safety glasses, mask, earmuffs, tie your hair back and wear protective clothing.
Ideally, the shower will be close to a water outlet and a drain or sewer pipe. Go to Before You Dig Australia (BYDA) or use the BYDA phone app to check what services might be under the soil.
Step 1
Remove existing lawn. Make soil level where the shower and stepping stones to the shower will be. (Use road base or river sand to help make it level if needed.)
Step 2
Get a plumber to put in a PVC pipe riser where the shower floor will be. This attaches to a sewage pipe to drain water away.
Step 3
The ShapeScaper edging will be the formwork for the concrete shower base. To curve a piece of edging, pop on a pair of heavy-duty gloves, rest one end of the edging on the ground and hold the other end, then stroke your hand down the length, using your body weight to press down, and gradually shape it into a curve. Wearing safety gear, use an angle grinder with a fine blade to trim ends if needed. Place ShapeScaper edging on the ground so the PVC pipe riser is in the middle and the ends of the edging are against the wall.
Step 4
Secure the edging with the flat steel stakes that come with it, with stakes no more than 800mm apart.
Step 5
Set ShapeScaper tree rings where you want the stepping stones to be. They will be the formwork for the concrete stepping stones to the shower. Make sure they’re level.
Step 6
Put a layer of road base in the rings and shower base area and tamp it down. The compacted road base needs to be 100mm deep.
Step 7
Now you need to install the posts to make a privacy screen around the shower. Dig a trench about 100mm deep and 150mm wide around the outside of the ShapeScaper edging.
Step 8
Tape 90mm spacers at the top and middle of the posts and place in the trench, leaving an opening for the shower entry. Ensure posts are level and drive into the soil with a short-handled sledgehammer. You want them to be a minimum 2m high for privacy. Attach posts to the ShapeScaper edging with hex screws.
Step 9
Mix concrete with water and fill the trench.
Step 10
Repeat steps 7–10 for the posts that will serve as towel holders, just beyond the shower entry. Put caps on all the posts and attach hooks of your choice.
Step 11
Trim the PVC riser in the shower area so it’s about 100mm above the road base. Cover the riser’s top with protective plastic.
Step 12
Place bar chairs on top of the road base in the shower base and the steps.
Step 13
Cut mesh to fit the shower base area and the stepping stones. Cut the mesh to fit around the PVC riser. Set mesh on bar chairs.
Step 14
Mix concrete with water according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Pour into the shower base and stepping stones. Smooth the surface with a cement trowel. Try to slope the concrete towards the drain in the shower base.
Step 15
Spray the concrete with concrete retarder. While most of the concrete will set in a couple of hours, the top 2–3mm will still be workable. After two hours, wash the concrete’s surface to expose the aggregate in the concrete mix, making the surface less slippery.
Step 16
Hang a shower caddy of your choice on the wall. Get a licensed plumber to install the taps, showerhead and drain. Put in plants around the shower and stepping stones, and mulch with river pebbles.
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