Outdoor Showers: Siting, Plumbing, Drainage and Materials

Why an outdoor shower earns its place

Most additions to a house get used occasionally. An outdoor shower gets used constantly, because it solves a problem that recurs every time somebody comes home wet, sandy, muddy or covered in sunscreen.

It keeps that mess outside. It gives you somewhere to hose a dog, rinse a wetsuit, wash a child who has been in a sandpit, and shower after a swim without walking through the house. In a holiday property it is one of the features guests mention. In a family house it is the reason the bathroom floor is not full of sand.

It also costs a fraction of an indoor bathroom, because there is no room to build, no membrane over a floor and no ceiling to line.

Where to put it

Siting is the decision that determines whether it gets used.

Against an external wall with plumbing behind it. The cheapest and simplest option by a wide margin. If the bathroom, laundry or kitchen is on the other side of the wall, hot and cold are already there. Going around a corner from the plumbing is fine; going to the far side of the house means a long trench.

On the way in from wherever the mess comes from. Between the gate and the back door, or between the pool and the house. If it is not on the natural path, it will be used twice and then ignored.

Somewhere with morning or afternoon sun. A shower in permanent shade is cold and stays damp, and it grows moss on whatever it is standing on.

Away from bedroom windows. Outdoor showers are loud in a way indoor ones are not, and the plumbing noise carries.

Not against a wall you care about. Repeated wetting of a rendered or painted wall, or of unprotected cladding, causes problems. Either tile or clad the wet zone, or set the shower far enough off the wall to keep it dry.

The plumbing

Hot and cold, if you can. A cold-only shower is a rinse station. A mixed shower is a shower. The difference in use across a year is enormous.

A mixer, not two taps. Easier to set, and it means people actually adjust the temperature instead of enduring it.

An isolating valve inside, so the outdoor line can be shut off and drained for winter or while you are away.

Short runs. Long runs mean a long wait for hot water, which quietly kills the habit.

Backflow protection where a hose or handheld outlet is involved. A licensed plumber will handle this as a matter of course.

A licensed plumber, always. Connecting to potable water and to drainage is licensed work nearly everywhere, and doing it yourself creates problems at sale time as well as risk now.

Drainage, which is the part people skip

This is where most outdoor showers go wrong, and it is worth being blunt about it: shower water is wastewater, not rainwater.

On a sewered property, the expectation in most places is that the shower drains into the sewer through a properly trapped and vented connection — the same as any other fixture. Letting it soak into the ground beside the house risks saturating the ground under a footing, creating a permanently wet, slippery, smelly patch, and falling foul of local plumbing requirements.

On a property with an onsite wastewater system, it is a capacity question. The system is rated for a load, and adding a fixture may need advice or approval first.

There are legitimate designs that irrigate to a garden area, particularly for cold-only rinse showers, but whether that is acceptable depends on your council, your state's plumbing code and the site. Ask first. It is a five-minute phone call, and it is much cheaper than rebuilding.

Practically, whatever the connection, you want:

• A floor that falls to the drain, checked with a level rather than judged by eye
• A grate you can lift and clean, because sand, leaves and hair will collect in it
• A trap that will not dry out and let odour back
• No water running toward the house or into a subfloor

The floor you stand on

Timber slats or a small deck. Comfortable, drains freely, and looks right against a house. Needs a durable or treated species, stainless fixings, and airflow underneath so it dries. It will need maintenance.

Tile or paving on a falling slab. The most durable and the easiest to keep clean. Choose a genuinely slip-resistant surface — a rating that is appropriate for a wet external area, not an indoor floor tile. Dark tile in full sun gets hot enough to be unpleasant.

Pebbles or gravel over a drain. Looks beautiful in photographs, collects sand and leaves, and is not comfortable underfoot for long. Fine for a rinse, poor for an actual shower.

A tray or pan. Simple and cheap, and better than nothing, but it moves, it holds water and it looks like what it is.

Materials that survive outside

Everything on an outdoor shower is exposed to sun, rain, and in coastal areas, salt. Specify accordingly.

• Tapware in a better base metal, not the cheapest electroplated option. Salt and UV together destroy thin finishes
• Stainless fixings, every one of them. Galvanised screws will streak rust down a wall within a season near the coast
• Stainless or solid brass shower arms and heads, or good quality plastic, which does not corrode at all
• Marine-grade or fully exterior-rated hardware on any hooks, rails or shelves
• No particleboard, no MDF, no untreated softwood anywhere in the assembly
• UV-stable screening, because shadecloth and thin polymer panels go brittle

Rinse the hardware with fresh water occasionally if you are near the sea. It genuinely extends its life.

Privacy and screening

How much you need depends entirely on the site, and the trap is over-enclosing it. A fully enclosed outdoor shower becomes a damp, dark, mouldy little room — which is exactly what you were trying to escape.

Better approaches:

• Use the house. A recessed corner, a wall return or a garden wall does most of the work with no new structure
• Screen the sightline, not the whole thing. Usually only one direction needs blocking
• Vertical battens or slats with gaps, which screen at eye level while air moves through
• Planting. Slower, cheaper, and better looking than a fence
• A door only if you genuinely need one, and if so, one that does not seal the space

Check whether a screen or enclosure over a certain height needs approval where you are, and whether it affects a boundary setback.

A short specification checklist

• Hot and cold, with a mixer and an internal isolating valve
• Licensed plumber, and a drainage connection confirmed with the council
• A floor that falls to a cleanable, trapped drain
• A slip-resistant standing surface, comfortable enough to use barefoot
• Stainless fixings and corrosion-resistant hardware throughout
• A hook or two, and a shelf for soap, out of the direct spray
• Screening that shades the sightline without sealing the space
• A hose connection nearby, since you are already running water there

Where it fits in a renovation

The cheapest moment to add an outdoor shower is while the wall behind it is already open — which usually means during a bathroom or laundry renovation. If you are planning either, raise it then rather than a year later. It is often a very small addition to the plumbing scope at that point.

See laundry renovations for how the wet zone inside the back door should work alongside it, and the cost page for how additions like this sit within a broader quote.