We build a summer shower for a summer house with our own hands
Start bringing your vision to life with careful design. As they say, measure seven times and cut only once. To get started, review finished projects summer shower and make your own based on them. The space allocated for the shower, the availability of building materials and the desired dimensions are taken into account. Here you need to take into account the volume of the owners themselves.
Even a beginner can easily create a shower project on his own. A simple drawing or small drawing will help calculate the amount of building materials, avoid some mistakes and unnecessary costs.
An outdoor shower should be spacious and comfortable. It is necessary to provide space for clothes and bath accessories - at least 40-60 cm. The height of the shower should be about 2.50 m. Dimensions interior space, which are most common - 160x100 mm and 190x140 mm. All this must be taken into account when drawing up a drawing or project.
Tips for site preparation...
Now you need to decide on the location of the summer shower. Naturally, it is better to build it in a well-lit, sunny place, away from other buildings. Then the water in the tank will heat up throughout the day from solar heat. But if you plan to build a heated summer shower, then it is not necessary to adhere to this condition.
The distance from home should also not be too great so that you can quickly go indoors after water procedures. It would be wise to take care of water drainage in advance. It is better to dispose of it in a septic tank or settling tank. It is worth paying attention to the convenience of water supply and, if possible, ensuring automatic filling of the container. After choosing a location, you need to prepare the site: remove the top layer, level the base for the shower and fill the site with sand.
We are building the frame...
An outdoor shower can be a permanent structure, or it can be light frame structure. Therefore, the main stages of constructing such showers differ.
The foundation is a reliable basis for a shower stall, but sometimes it is completely unnecessary
To ensure that the base for the shower is correct and for convenience, you need to make basic markings: for this, pegs are driven into the outer corners of the area. After this, be sure to check the diagonal and tighten the cord.
The dimensions of the foundation depend on the materials that will be used in the construction of the shower. For a building made of brick or cinder block, a foundation 30 cm deep is poured. If a metal or wooden frame for a summer shower is used as a base, the foundation will be slightly different. Before pouring, you need to prepare a place for the pipes - lay a log or branch of the required diameter, wrapped in roofing material.
If you use a summer shower family has been planning for more than one year, it is better to make formwork - raise the level of the foundation above the ground by 10-15 cm, increasing the height of the trench using boards reinforced with pegs and spacers.
When pouring concrete for a shower base, it is extremely important to ensure flat surface. This is done in the same way as when screeding a floor, using a level and two guides. The guides are leveled, poured with concrete, and the base floor is leveled along the guides. Only a horizontal surface can serve as a reliable basis for further construction. After the leveling is completed, they begin laying bricks.
Installing a shower using a frame
You can use a metal frame as a base for the shower (it is more durable). Construction of a summer shower will be much more economical if you use wood. But this material is not durable. Taking into account the peculiarities of our climate and the increased humidity due to the operation of the building, it is better to treat it with bio-impregnation to protect it from insects and fungus.
Having decided on the amount of building materials and the dimensions of the building, we proceed to the installation of the frame. The first stage is marking. A rectangle is marked on the ground, the sides of which will correspond to the parameters future design. In order for the design of the summer shower to be stable, it is necessary to make pile foundation. Therefore, holes of the required depth are drilled at the corners of the markings (130-170 cm, the depth depends on the length of the pipes). Then the pipe foundation is installed directly. For this, it is better to use metal pipes 1.5–2 m long (diameter 9-10 cm), but even railway sleepers can be used. The piles are deepened into the ground so that they protrude 20 cm beyond the ground. The pipes are then filled with concrete. After it hardens, wooden beams should be installed in the pipes. The width of the timber used for the frame should be no more than 10 cm.
This is how we will cover the frame with PVC film and get an excellent construction
The next installation step is bandaging: starting from the top, the entire structure is bolted together. If the calculation is made correctly and all dimensions are observed correctly, the design will be reliable. This will make it possible to install a large water tank. Its volume should be calculated according to the formula: 40 l × 1 person and no more than 200 l. The structure simply cannot withstand a heavy container. It is desirable that the tank be flat and correspond to the area of the roof, that is, rest against the supporting structures.
The bandage inside the frame will later serve as shower floor joists. Now we connect the beams-bases of the walls with each other using bevels. They should be installed in the thickness of the wall, but not in the overlay.
And here is a version covered with plastic slate
Slate sheets, OSB boards, boards, plastic panels and even PVC film can serve as walls for such a shower.
Summarizing communications...
You can build a summer shower with your own hands from building materials left on the site after the construction of the dacha, but with the installation of communications the situation is somewhat different. Here without financial investments can't get by.
- Laying pipes, installing a tank. After the structure is erected, a water pipe is installed. The outlet for the shower head hose must be made above head level. Otherwise the pressure will be too low. Now you need to install the tank. You can install a purchased plastic tank. Although, in order to save money, they usually use a barrel or any other container. Before the tank rises to the top, you need to make a threaded outlet and also install a tap with a nozzle. Now the tank or barrel should be securely fastened to the roof. As a rule, the water in a tub or tank is heated by the sun's rays. In order for the tank to heat up faster, it is pre-painted black. It is good to equip a greenhouse made of film around the tank: cover it with foil on the north side to reduce heat transfer.
A metal shower tank will never go out of style, but now plastic options are increasingly being used
- Lighting. When wiring for lighting, do not forget about the electrical installation rules. After all, the humidity in the shower is increased. Of course, you can do without electric lighting if you use the shower only when summer time. A stream of light coming from a small window (above head level) with frosted glass will be sufficient. In spring, the days are somewhat shorter, so there will not be enough daylight alone.
- Ventilation. To improve air circulation and protect against condensation, it is advisable to make a hole in the ceiling and cover it with a decorative grille.
- Shower drain. How to build an outdoor shower, install pipes, install lighting - we figured it out. Now let's deal with the drain problem. With an increase in the average daily temperature, the workload of summer residents increases significantly and the load on the shower increases. But the temperature of the soil does not affect its drainage properties. It’s good if it is possible to combine the shower drain and waste pipe at home.
For quick disposal and good drainage of wastewater, the summer shower must be installed on a hill. The walls of the pit should be further strengthened to prevent collapse. Please note that the volume of the drainage pit must certainly be at least 2 cubic meters. meters.
A common mistake made by novice builders is placing the septic tank next to the wall of the shower stall or under the shower itself. If the volumes of water are large, the septic tank may overflow. Over time, drainage works worse, and bad smell. With constant flooding, it is possible not only for the soil to shrink, but even to destroy the foundation, which is extremely dangerous. Therefore, the drain of a summer shower must be diverted several meters from the structure.
The water drainage is equipped with a waterproof layer using PVC film, roofing felt or hydroglass insulation. As an option, they make a concrete screed reinforced with a metal mesh.
Clay cannot be used as a waterproof layer. After some time, it will wash away and may contaminate the drainage ditch.
Installing the pallet
A tray will allow you to equip a summer shower with your own hands and ensure the drainage of wastewater for it. This can be a purchased pallet, a stainless steel sheet pallet, or the cheapest option - wooden pallet. Instead of a pallet, boards are laid, but not tightly, but leaving gaps for water. The lattice of boards is first sanded well with sandpaper and treated with an antiseptic. For convenience, you can put a rubber mat on top.
The simplest shower tray is made from ordinary boards
Waterproofing must be laid between the floor of the summer shower and the tray. For this purpose, roofing material is used. When installing the pan, you must ensure that the slope is formed towards the drain for unimpeded water flow. The pallet is screwed to the walls with self-tapping screws.
For more comfortable washing, so as not to have to stand on a metal tray, it is advisable to install plastic grilles.
Facing the structure...
The summer shower should fit harmoniously into overall design your yard. Any designer will tell you that for exterior upholstery it is better to use materials that complement the ensemble of nearby buildings.
The cladding of a summer shower is not only decorative; it is necessary to protect the walls from the effects of weather conditions. The surface of the walls can be plastered and painted or sheathed vinyl siding, it all depends on the owner’s imagination, his financial capabilities and the features of the structure. For example, a summer shower made of polycarbonate on a frame does not need cladding at all.
On the left is the polycarbonate version; on the right is a shower lined with wood
A good option is to cover the walls and ceiling with clapboard. If the family will visit the dacha only in the warm season, then it is better to choose PVC film, thick colored (opaque) polyethylene or tarpaulin. If the shower casing is removable, it can be easily stored in the pantry for the winter.
How to make a summer shower comfortable...
It is very convenient when the building is divided into two zones: a shower and a changing room. To prevent water from entering the locker room area, the floor of this area should be raised a few centimeters. A small decorative curtain made of polyethylene will also help protect clothes from splashes.
If you need to use the shower during colder periods, the walls will have to be insulated. For this purpose, polystyrene foam is used. This material must be used to fill the internal space of the frame. Next, the structure is covered with PVC film using a stapler and decorative slats. Already on top of the film, interior finishing is done.
If you are choosing materials to decorate an outdoor shower (there are plenty of photos on the Internet and in catalogues), try to pay attention not only to aesthetics, but also to practicality. Only moisture-resistant materials are suitable for finishing the inside of the shower stall.
A modern summer shower in the form of an extension to the house - why not an option?
For interior decoration You can use thin linoleum, plastic panels, oilcloth or wood. If you choose wood, don’t forget to cover each board separately with hot drying oil, and only then proceed to finishing works. When facing interior walls the material is run under the sides of the pallet.
To improve soil drainage, you can plant several moisture-loving plants near the shower. Green spaces absorb water. They will not only decorate, but also protect the space around the shower stall from waterlogging.
Thus, a do-it-yourself summer shower will become an indispensable outbuilding on a personal plot.
One of the most pleasant and useful inventions of mankind is the shower. For urban residents accustomed to the civilized acceptance of water procedures, not so long ago they had to experience discomfort while staying at a summer cottage or a country house with the possibility of only summer residence. A shower on a personal plot or in the courtyard of a private house, used in the warm season, is not only an opportunity to obtain pleasant and much-needed water treatments in the heat, but also an important element of landscape design. The appearance of a shower stall, panel or just a counter plays a role in shaping the image of the entire site and local area. Gone are the days when an outdoor shower was an unsightly structure constructed from materials left over from the main construction or found in the rubble of a barn or attic. Modern building materials, original plumbing solutions and many creative design ideas can make usual place for taking a shower is a highlight of landscape design, a key element of arranging the local area.
Classification of structures for summer showers
If we talk about the qualitative division of summer shower designs, then all models can be classified into open and closed. This division is very arbitrary, because there are many examples of the construction of a summer shower in spaces semi-enclosed by fences. For example, an outdoor shower can be arranged in an area enclosed by only two partitions, placing plumbing accessories on one, and hooks for placing clothes, towels, etc. on the other.
In addition to the design of the shower itself, summer structures can be divided according to the method of water supply: capacitive and tap. In the first case, above the level of the upper shower head there is a reservoir in which the water is heated by the sun's rays. In the second case, water obtained from the general water supply system of the household is used.
The choice of water supply system for the shower head is directly influenced by the location of the structure in relation to the house. If the summer shower is located near the building of a private house, then it is logical to use not only plumbing system, but also sewerage. If the capacitive summer shower is located on a summer cottage or in the courtyard of a private household away from the building, it will be necessary to take care of the drainage system. It is important to understand that you cannot simply direct the flow of used water into the beds of a summer cottage or under trees, because the adoption of water procedures may be accompanied by the use of products, the effect of which on plants can have a detrimental effect.
Shower stall - traditional style
One of traditional options Arranging a summer shower involves installing a shower stall. Such a structure can be made of wood (natural color or painted), polystyrene panels (most often using metal frame) or other available means. Moreover, you can purchase a ready-made cabin, order an individual production, or build a fence for a summer shower yourself (if you have basic skills).
A shower cabin made of wood in its natural form is not only a practical structure, but also a beautiful element of landscape design. The natural grain of wood goes well with almost any façade finishing material. Not to mention the fact that natural color fits perfectly into the surrounding landscape, echoing perennial plants and other buildings on the site and in the courtyard of a private house. But the wood of the shower stall will need to be protected from constant exposure to moisture. There is a wide selection of antiseptics and special varnishes on sale that can protect natural materials from rotting and not affect the color of the wood.
For everyone who does not want to rack their brains over coatings for a wooden cabin, there is a universal option - painting. Depending on the color schemes adopted for the design of the building’s facade, it is fashionable to choose a harmonious option for an enclosed structure for outdoor water treatments. The first option is compliance color palette architectural ensemble, combinatorics, both with the main building and with additional buildings on the site (terrace, gazebo or garage). The second option is for the shower stall to act as a color accent. This method of creating a color spot is rarely used, because an outdoor shower is a seasonal building, used in our country only in the summer.
We use the wall of the house to arrange a shower
Placing a summer shower near the wall of the house has its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, it is convenient that you can use a common water supply and sewerage system located in the household. On the other hand, the wall of the building will constantly be exposed to moisture. It is advisable to protect the surface with ceramic tiles or any other material that effectively resists high humidity. It is also necessary to ensure the organization of a good drainage system. Otherwise, the constant accumulation of water in the area of the building's foundation can gradually destroy it.
Another advantage of using the wall of a house to organize a place for taking water procedures is the possibility of using lighting for the facade of the main building. If you need to take a shower in dark time day, you will not need to worry about the presence of sources of artificial lighting - the facade of the building is in any case illuminated for safety and as an element of landscape design.
An excellent way to protect the walls of a house from constant exposure to moisture is cladding with ceramic or stone tiles. In this case, there is no limit to the fulfillment of your fantasies and the manifestation of stylistic preferences. Marbled ceramic tiles, plain or patterned, large or small – it all depends on your personal preferences. If there is a swimming pool on the site, then it would be logical to coordinate the decoration of the wall for placing the shower with the design of the space in and around the outdoor tank.
Stone tiles (or their spectacular imitation) will look luxurious as wall decoration to which plumbing accessories are attached - a shower head or faucet. In combination with greenery, the stone surface creates an image close to natural nature.
One of the options for finishing the space in which shower accessories are located is the use of metal sheets. Stainless steel or aluminum will look great in a composition made in high-tech style or any direction of modern style. In order to enhance the effect of the originality of the finishing material, you can use original accessories - large square or rectangular watering cans, imitation of tropical rain or a waterfall.
Using a metal sheet, you can build something like a small shower cabin in the summer on a summer cottage or in the courtyard of a private household. The unprepossessing appearance is more than compensated by the low cost of the structure and temporary placement in the local area.
You can equip a summer shower with devices that provide additional opportunities for taking water procedures. For example, building an additional faucet on the lower level of a counter or panel will give you the opportunity to wash only your feet after gardening or bathing your pets right on the site.
Shower panel on site
Any partition - made of stone, wood or other materials - can serve as a panel for placing a shower. The advantage of such structures is that their construction requires less materials and effort. At the same time, you get an area for taking water procedures, which, due to the abundance of moisture, does not harm the main structure. But such a summer shower also has its drawbacks. A shower area that is not protected from the wind can cause colds in household members who know nothing about hardening the body.
Using a beach theme for your shower panel can be the highlight of your landscaping. You don’t have to live by the ocean to be able to use a panel in the shape of a surfboard when arranging an area for taking water treatments.
Perfect for finishing the panel to which plumbing accessories will be attached. ceramic tiles or mosaic that reliably protects the surface from moisture. But more affordable options can also be an effective solution - plastic and polyurethane panels will serve as a reliable finish.
The use of non-standard, original models of plumbing accessories can increase the degree of uniqueness not only of the shower sector, but also of the entire landscape design of a summer cottage or personal plot. Large watering cans to simulate tropical rain, a small waterfall, or vice versa, miniature mixers, original forms and unusual coverings - your imagination is limited only by the budget for building a summer shower.
The panel for placing the shower sector can be the sector of the fence enclosing the area. It all depends on the location of buildings on your site, the passage of communication systems and the type of fence structure. For example, stone, concrete, and wooden structures (with impregnation and protective coating) can be an excellent base for placing plumbing accessories.
Summer shower on the terrace
A shower stand for water procedures in the warm season can be located on an open terrace, for example, by the pool and serve as a means of ablution before entering the water. Also, an outdoor shower can be installed on a covered terrace, which serves as a place to relax in the fresh air.
On the one hand, placing a shower on the terrace complicates the design and preparation process itself - after all, it is necessary to install a water supply and ensure reliable drainage of used water. But on the other hand, the sector for water procedures that is remote from the main building ensures minimal exposure to moisture (and in the summer season, owners often use showers) on the building of a private or country house.
Shower counter - an original element of landscape design
One of the simplest, yet most effective ways to build a shower in a summer cottage or garden plot is to use a stand with a watering can or any other device for supplying water. In fact, you only need to provide a water supply (as a rule, there are no problems with this, because water pipes pass through the area in any case) and drainage into the sewer. With this approach, it is possible to provide conditions for taking water procedures that are as close as possible to natural and even wild ones. Lush vegetation, a shower that imitates a tropical downpour, the smells and sounds of nature - what else do you need for a relaxing bath?
Some types of racks, which are a ready-made solution for arranging a summer shower in a country house or in a private yard, can be equipped with a tank for heating water from the sun's rays. The stand itself can serve as a reservoir. This is an excellent alternative for regions with intermittent water supply in the summer - you will always have a small supply of water, which will be enough for a quick shower even during a water outage in the water supply system.
Summer shower - choose a practical and original design
As Ostap Bender would say, a shower for a dacha is not a luxury, but a means of hygiene. Moreover, a remedy of paramount importance: according to medical statistics, people who put off washing after a weekend at the dacha until they arrive home consult doctors about skin and gastrointestinal diseases 12% more often than others; There are no similar data for other types of health disorders.
You can buy a simple country shower, designed only for summer weather, for 10,000 rubles. Having spent an amount 2-3 times less, or even from scrap materials, you can build a warm shower with your own hands, suitable for bath procedures from the beginning to the end of the summer season. In this case, a full range of amateur products is revealed - from a slimy kennel, the dream of a greedy dermatologist (there will be a lot of patients, they will start giving money) through buildings that are completely functional, hygienic and even almost do not spoil the appearance of the site, to structures made from, for example, construction waste, at the sight of which an experienced designer nods his head in understanding, see fig.
But, characteristically, there is a medical correlation with the type of shower - purchased, different price categories, or homemade, cannot be traced. A “super-duper company” for 70-100 rubles, with automation and touch-remote control, can turn out to be a breeding ground for infection, and a shower concocted from the dacha in the country will faithfully stand guard over the cleanliness and health of the owners for many years and decades.
Do-it-yourselfers and manufacturers are not to blame here; both of them do not lack effort, skill and consideration. It’s simple - no one really knows how to make it, a country shower. If there are any regulatory rules for its construction, then neither the builders, nor the plumbers, nor the orderlies know anything about them. It is clear that you need to do a country shower correctly in essence, i.e. so that it washes and does not contaminate, and so that the contents of wastewater do not kill the earth and spoil the harvest, but how? It’s dark here, like in a Khrushchev bathroom when the plugs were knocked out.
For example, the minimum volume of a cesspool is 2 cubic meters. m, but this is with the standard volume of runoff, and at the dacha it is several times less. The biochemistry of the cesspool is disgusting, but well balanced; the pit should neither overflow nor dry out. Modern (dry toilets) allow you to reduce the volume of the cesspool and the frequency of calls to the cesspool, but fundamentally the processes in the cesspool do not change. What volume and design do you need for an outdoor shower? I have no idea, as Barack Obama would say. The same applies to other components and structural elements. In fact, anyone who wants to make a country shower competently pulls according to the norm, first from here, then from there, and then maybe they will all come together. Or maybe they’ll separate and things will go wrong.
Well, let’s try to include what Mother Nature has so far deprived the American president of so far, in order to say at the end: “Well, at least I’ve found a good ideal!” We will design a summer shower for ourselves based on the principles:
- Hygiene - neither the shower itself nor the water for it should cause harm to those washing, only benefit.
- Environmental friendliness - shower drainage should not harm the environment either in the short term (in the form of compliance of the harvest from the site with sanitary standards) or in the long term (in the form of water quality from local water supply sources) perspective, in space and time.
- Practicality, which is also functionality - it should be not only possible, but pleasant and useful not only to freshen up in the heat, but also to wash in any weather from the first to the last trip to the dacha.
- Aesthetics - a shower cabin for a dacha should, at a minimum, not spoil the landscape design of the site, but, preferably, fit organically into it. An alternative is an invisible shower, dismountable or not conspicuous.
- Cost-effective – building a shower should require a minimum of labor, materials and financial costs, without compromising any of the previous qualities.
We will use existing norms and rules, but for verification purposes, so as not to invent nonsense. And we also use a good bit of knowledge about physical and chemical processes in nature and the soul. Data in regulatory documents- the tip of the iceberg and, since there is no single code for country showers, we will have to turn to the basics. To build a shower correctly, let's go from one critical node to another; what is in the middle will then be easier. Actually, in this order:
- Base.
- Drain and sump.
- Choice of design.
- Possibility of combining functions (shower combined with toilet, etc.)
- Floor, pallet and platform.
- Cabin - frame, walls, etc.
- Diffuser (watering can), pipelines, shut-off valves.
- Additional equipment – water heater, cabin heating, pumping.
What does all-weather mean?
Item 3 of the list above is especially important for medical reasons. When it is violated, it no longer smells of itchy ankles and shoulders, but of things like pneumonia. A heated shower means more than just hot or warm water.
Let’s say it’s +13 outside, but you need to wash. The cabin has cooled down to the same temperature: insulation will only be useful (and readers will forgive the involuntary pun) if there are heat sources inside the washroom. Without them, you will have to tremble and cower for 2-5 minutes until the warmth of the spray from the watering can warms up the booth. In the meantime, the hot water may run out; the tank is not a vat tank.
So, you need to heat not only the water in the tank, but also the air in the shower. It is highly desirable to create a warm island in a light cabin with large gaps at the bottom and top. We'll see how to achieve this when it comes to additional equipment; For now, as they say, let’s tie a knot.
Children's question
Why is there a separate shower? In the apartment he is together. Because the dacha plots are not equipped with sewerage. Here it is appropriate to remember the rule: the cesspool must be located at least 15 m away from residential buildings. The point is not only in the miasma, but also in the fact that the filtrate from the cesspool can wash away the foundation of the house with all that it entails. It is still possible to install a shower in a country house. Then, if the house is heated, then the shower will be all-season.
Note: a bioseptic tank that produces almost no harmful fumes can, under certain conditions, be moved 4-5 m closer to the house. But this topic already relates to the installation of country toilets.
Country shower device
Base
When zero is not needed
There is no need for a zero cycle of dacha-shower work in the following cases, see fig. below:
- When to use compact portable shower, left in Fig.
- If the shower with adjacent outbuildings is ready-made modular, in the center in Fig.
- If the cabin is on a frame made of plastic pipes (propylene or PVC) with soft lining, it’s on the right there.
A compact shower in a suitcase (there is a large selection on sale) is used in any random place, but is inconvenient in terms of heating water; It is difficult to adapt a water heater to it, and compactness and mobility are immediately lost. Container - rinse for one or two people. This does not require a shower or a cesspool - there is not enough water in the tank, and no matter who and how they wash, the local ecology will digest such a volley of emissions.
Modular showers are designed to be installed directly on the ground. They are equipped with adjustable legs, which, when installed permanently, allows them to compensate for current soil movements. Modular public places are more familiar to citizens from public dry toilets, but in addition to them and modular showers, they also produce kitchens, shelters, etc., so that you can assemble a full-fledged utility unit from the modules. This pleasure is by no means cheap; more modules are used to organize the convenience of professional field teams. A cesspool is not required, you only need to promptly change the filler of the built-in septic tank.
The frames of soft showers are placed on stakes made of reinforcing bars driven into the ground. If the frame is made of PP water pipes, then it is assembled using standard connectors, but one size larger, and not by soldering, but with self-tapping screws. The cabin turns out to be collapsible and quite reliable, because The frame is lightly loaded and absolutely repairable. The covering is most often made of colored tarpaulin: in hot weather the cabin is less parky, in cool weather it is warmer, and tarpaulin, unlike film, does not stick unpleasantly to a wet body. This design will withstand a 12-magnitude earthquake, as long as the earth itself does not disappear from under the shower. A cesspool is needed, so soft showers are not particularly popular: if you dig a hole, then it’s better to make a foundation, and put something more substantial and more attractive on it.
Under plastic
Build a shower cabin from light, elastic and chemically resistant materials with rigid sheathing (see below) is possible without a foundation, even on very heaving soil. To prevent it from tipping over, in this case, 30-40 cm of a non-fluffy pillow is enough. Specifically, sand and gravel backfill in layers of equal thickness. The thickness of the cushion is approximate; in fact, the upper humus layer of the soil is removed to the underlying rock: loam, sandy loam. Dacha plots do not stand out on meter-thick black soils, so you won’t have to dig very deep, but still - 30 cm, of which 15 sand and 15 gravel, this is the minimum. What if it becomes warped after winter, the booth can be moved back, the cushion can be leveled, and put back as it was.
Note: The plastic shower is attached to the ground with the lower ends of the pipes, placed on fittings driven into the ground, just like a soft shower. But there is a difference - since the structure is permanent, the stakes are driven into the ground at least 0.35 m below the bottom of the pillow, and better, if local conditions allow, to the freezing depth, then seasonal distortions are excluded.
Under the tree
In principle, a wooden shower can also be placed simply on a pillow, but double impregnation of wood with a water-polymer emulsion, biocides and then treatment with hot bitumen will protect the supporting frame and floor from rotting for 3-10 years, depending on local conditions. The strength of wood treated in this way can last 30-40 years, but mold fungi with bacteria they will get to where they put their feet and rub their bodies against, much faster. Therefore, a shower cabin made of natural lumber should be raised above the ground by at least 20-25 cm, and for a hygienic cesspool (see below) - by 35-40 cm.
An example of the implementation of a foundation for a country shower
The means to ensure these requirements have been known for a long time - a columnar or pile foundation. For such a light and freely “acting out” wooden structure, for reasons of economy, the second one is preferable. There is no need to buy expensive ones; it is better to make do with homemade ones. Simply - sections of pipes with a diameter of 60-150 mm (according to availability) with ends flattened into a spear. Next - a sledgehammer or a homemade woman (it’s much easier to work with it), and - to the calculated freezing depth for the given area.
The location of the piles is 1 per corner and every full or incomplete 1.5 m of the contour. After trimming the protruding ends with a grinder using a hose level, anchor bolts (M12 - M16) are welded to the piles; The lower support frame - grillage - is placed on them and tightened with nuts and washers 40-60 mm in diameter.
An alternative option, again, depending on the availability of materials, is drilled piles made from asbestos-cement pipes. The wells are drilled to the same freezing depth using a hand drill. It is very good if there is a camouflage attachment for it, with which you can drill wells under a strip-pile foundation on heaving soils. Reinforcing piles and filling them with concrete is also similar to the above case. Asbestos-cement piles are cut to height using a grinder with a circle on the stone before reinforcement and pouring. Anchor bolts are walled up to a depth of 120 mm.
Metal look
The foundation for a shower on a metal frame is the same as for a wooden one: If wood rots, then metal rusts. In this case, driven metal piles are preferable, and a 50-80 mm channel grillage is welded to them.
Under the brick
A brick shower in a country house is a rarity, labor-intensive and expensive. But it has a valuable advantage - it is easy to heat. It is enough to pass the return from the tank to the water heater through an old thin-walled heating radiator (see below), and in a closet with half-brick walls, insulation with 30 mm packaging foam, dimensions 1.2x1.2 m in plan and a ceiling height of 2.2 m at +8 outside in 4-5 hours it will be +22.
Brick buildings are not elastic, they are heavy, and therefore The foundation for a brick shower needs to be strong and stable. Since the building is in this case small, a slab monolithic foundation turns out to be optimal in terms of labor intensity and costs. Its design is simple: a solid (required!) pillow is placed on the non-puffy pillow described above. reinforced concrete slab 170-300 mm thick and with a projection of 0.3-0.5 m beyond the contour of the building, this will be a blind area.
The brand of concrete does not matter much, M150 is enough. Reinforcement - a cage with a mesh (150-200) x (300-400) mm made of 12 mm rod. If you plan to equip the compact cesspool described below, then it is better to cast the slab on site, surrounding the recess for the barrel with formwork.
cesspool
As already mentioned, in order to maintain the biochemistry in the sewer pit necessary for the disposal of wastewater to a naturally processed level of pollution, the moisture content in it must be kept within certain limits. For example, the instructions for branded fillers for septic tanks clearly indicate: do not fill, it will sour and stink. Don’t let it dry out, the microflora will die and stop working altogether.
It is obvious that the drain from the shower is too liquid for a general cesspool at the dacha. But its chemical composition also matters: there is practically no household organic matter, a breeding ground for beneficial bacteria in the pit. Unless someone will use the shower, like Poligraf Poligrafych Sharikov from “Heart of a Dog,” using the toilet. But there is an excess of alkalis that are harmful to them (from soap) and detergents (surfactants, surfactants), from shampoos, gels, etc.
Therefore, draining wastewater from the shower and toilet in the country into a common pit is a gross mistake from a biochemical point of view. The kitchen can also be used together with the toilet, but the shower needs to be placed separately in a special pit. In a city apartment, the situation is different: there, until the wastewater reaches the treatment facilities, everything will mix and react so much that only the percentage composition of simple compounds and elements will matter. In any case, it is impossible to build a separate sewer system for the bathroom and toilet in the city.
Note: What kind of abominations do researchers sometimes have to delve into, eh? But it’s something necessary and useful.
Here the question arises: should we take out the extra 2 cubic meters of soil? Since the septic tank does not recycle the shower drain? And one hundred square meters of land is lost: from the harvest from the vicinity of a simple pit, the consumer supervision department will shriek and shy away when the analysis is done.
This is not at all necessary, if you take into account the time of heating the water, the subsequent maximum frequency of using the country shower and the volume of water in the tank (there can be no more one-time flow). That is, we are faced with 2 tasks: the first is to release the runoff into the ground little by little, so that organic acids from the soil have time to neutralize alkalis and decompose detergents. The second is to bring them into the soil below the fertile layer so as not to kill soil micro-living creatures. And organic acids, a product of its vital activity, will leak from above.
Calculations, which, unfortunately, there is no space to describe here, show that a drain of 100 l/hour or 50 l in one gulp (for a country shower for normal users, this is, as they say, above the roof), must be discharged into the ground at a depth of no less than 2 thickness of the humus layer. Conclusion: a regular 200-liter barrel with a height of 850 mm will help us out. A fertile layer of 40 cm is not a dacha, it is Eldorado. A smaller plastic barrel will also work, as long as its volume is not less than a one-time discharge (let’s take the tank’s capacity for this), and its height is at least 2 times the thickness of humus.
Note: if you feel sorry for the barrel, the shell of the pit can be made from old tires. Only then will it be necessary to periodically add bleach to the pit; in the resulting side cavities, with frequent use, wastewater will stagnate.
From theory to practice
Arrange a compact and cheap cesspool for a shower from a barrel it is not difficult. First, we dig a pit according to the diagram in Fig. to a depth equal to the height of the barrel. The distance from the siphon spout to the neck of the barrel is not critical; a plastic corrugated hose will reach. Then we cut off the bottom and the lid with the neck from the barrel. The bottom will no longer be needed, and we cut off a segment from the lid to create an inspection hatch; it will need a tight lid.
We install the barrel in the pit and fill it back with soil. Next is the filter. Pour fine crushed stone into the cesspool in a layer of 15-20 cm. In a bucket of water, stir 1-1.5 kg of any clay until it becomes “milk”, and pour the backfill evenly in a thin stream until the clay milk covers it. After a day or two, when the water has gone and the clay has dried, we stir up the filter layer, often piercing it thickly with a pointed reinforcement. All that remains is to weld the lid, and after building the shower, insert the siphon spout into the neck and seal it with construction foam. You can insert a tee into the neck and supply drainage from the kitchen here; in terms of bio-chemistry and simple chemistry, it is more similar to a shower than to a toilet.
Note: If there is construction going on nearby and the concrete mixer is free, you can mix porous concrete, from which filters are made when building wells. Then backfill with clay impregnation is not needed - 2-3 buckets of the porous mixture are simply dumped into a cesspool and leveled.
Odor is excluded from such a cesspool by design. It is convenient to inspect and, if necessary, clean it, and the cost of labor and money is nothing at all; The useful area, except for that under the shower, is not withdrawn from economic use. At the author of the article’s dacha, a shower cesspool made from a barrel has been working properly for almost 20 years. There was no need to clean it even once (they go to the dacha on weekends and spend their holidays there). The inside of the barrel was overgrown with a dense layer of some chemical compounds, but was not rusted through. Fruits from plants in the immediate vicinity of the pit were repeatedly submitted for analysis to the sanitary station, which invariably showed their complete suitability for food. For testing, they drilled a water well 5 m from the pit - the water turned out to be good.
More about shower and toilet
A shower with a cesspool of this type can be placed in a block with a toilet. For the latter, by the way, if the dacha is summer, it is not at all necessary to make a rather complex and expensive septic tank, not to mention an antediluvian two-cube pit. You can do without a toilet cesspool altogether by installing a powder closet. More precisely, a powder toilet, because... This is a French idea. Sortie in French exit; toilet, respectively - latrine. A powder closet can only be used in the warm season, but it was the study of the processes in it that led to the invention of dry closets. However, this is again about country toilets, which require a separate analysis.
What will the shower be like?
Now that we know how much work is needed to arrange a shower area, and in what cases we can do without it, it’s time to decide - what kind of shower will we make? Or buy? In general, the choice is:
- Compact portable shower.
- Street extension to the house.
- Garden cabin.
- Capital shower.
- Household complex in shower.
- Shower room in the house.
Compact - not compact
You don’t have to take a portable shower with you anywhere and everywhere. Nobody bothers you to use it constantly in one place. In the same way, no one bothers you to fill the waterskin hot water, heated over a fire or in a stove, immediately before washing. The only additional thing required is fencing.
Shower enclosures for mobile showers are sold complete with the shower itself or as an option. But, frankly speaking, it’s not worth the candle - it’s easier to make a shower enclosure yourself. The simplest, but very convenient option– a semicircular guide attached to the wall of the house, see figure, and a curtain. It is not necessary to bend a stainless steel pipe; you can get by with a propylene water pipe, put on the same pins made of reinforcing bars. Then the fence will be completely collapsible. It is better to sew the curtain from colored tarpaulin (propylene is also preferable); why - stated above.
Cabin on the street
Users of “permanent” showers sooner or later come to the conclusion that the waterskin needs to be replaced with a tank: 6-12 liters is not enough for one, but definitely not enough for a family. Now we have an outdoor shower stall, and the problem of drainage has arisen. This is usually solved by draining water down a slope or gutter into a flower bed, on the assumption that the flowers are not eaten. But from the point of view careful attitude to nature this is, of course, wrong. And the soil, if the shower is used frequently, may turn sour, and then the entire flowerbed will disappear. It’s better to choose the time, at the lower edge of the sewer slope (usually the blind area of a house) to mold a catch socket out of cement, and bury a 40-mm PVC sewer pipe to the sewer pit in the ground. For the one described above, one 3-m pipe is enough; its slope needs to be 4-10 cm/m.
If you want to quickly and easily replace the curtain with something more impressive, then the same arched pipe on the wall will help out. How a simple rigid-sheathed booth is made from a booth with a curtain is shown schematically in Fig. Within the simplified blind area of the building, which is only 60 cm wide, a fairly comfortable (45 cm aisles, semicircular washing area 60x120 cm in plan) and completely invisible booth is obtained. Sheathing and fence material can be any material that is sufficiently rigid and allows some bending. Polycarbonate is best; we will talk about it later. In this case, the fence of the labyrinthine entrance can be curved, resulting in a quite elegant extension.
Shower in the garden
However, there is no need to rush to dig and build: there is another simple option - a garden shower. This is a cabin on a light frame with soft opaque lining, see fig. Its highlight is that the cabin is placed in a new place on each visit, or rearranged once a week. It is enough to move it 2-3 m away from the previous one, and the local ecology will fully tolerate the increased flow.
Capital
A capital shower differs from a simple cabin not only in that it stands on a foundation; as we will see below, it may not exist. A major shower room must have a changing room, although exhibitionism in certain circles is now, if not the norm, then certainly fashionable. However, when washing, there is no need to show swimsuit models with graceful forms or a sculpted torso, as shown in advertising photographs.
Washing completely without clothes is necessary primarily for sanitary and hygienic reasons. The reason is dust in the fabric and hems of clothing. Having become limp, and even in contact with a wet body, it can cause skin diseases exactly in those places where you least want them. According to the rules of field work in countries that widely use seasonal migrant agricultural workers, i.e. Unaccustomed to digging in the ground, after a shift, after washing, you must definitely put on clean underwear. Outerwear can be left to work, but underwear can only be fresh. In any case, it is uncivilized to be like the ancient nomads, for whom dirt up to a centimeter thick is not yet dirt, and then it falls off on its own.
How a shower with a changing room should be arranged is shown in Fig. dimensions - in cm. Clothes are protected from splashes by a curtain, and shoes are protected from getting wet by a grille, wooden or made of propylene pipes on self-tapping screws, see below. In this case, a curtain made of film is more suitable - a tarpaulin, not blown by the wind, will take a long time to dry, and if it is not propylene, but cotton, it can resist.
Note: for people of average height and build, so that when bending over dropped soap they don’t knock down the door or break the walls with their fifth point, the dimensions of the washing room in plan can be reduced to 80x100 cm. Then the entrance, where the curtain hangs, will be on the larger side.
All in one
The change house at the dacha does not play the same role as at construction sites and field work. In any case, the cesspool must be located as far from housing as the conditions on the site allow. And having a meal, once you’ve escaped the bustle of the city, is more pleasant and healthier in the open air. Therefore, a dacha cabin often includes a kitchen with a veranda along with a shower and toilet.
The ultimate, so to speak, design diagrams for country cabins are shown in Fig. The left one is the simplest, 1.8 x 1 m, on concrete blocks without a foundation. Toilet – powder closet or bio; the dressing room can be used as a shelter in case of bad weather. Purpose – temporary, for the period of construction of the house.
On the right is a permanent change house. The foundation is slab, see above. The walls are made of aerated concrete 75 mm + 12 mm on each side for finishing. The roof is a flat slate slate. If there are a lot of people, a large shower can also be used as a refuge; The size of the kitchen allows you to build or install a wood stove. It can be built, with the average skill of a craftsman and the presence of a helper, over a weekend, not counting the technological break for gaining concrete strength and time for finishing work.
Note, joke: Don’t rush to build something like this, otherwise who knows when you’ll get around to a real house.
In the house
A country shower in a house, since it is in a residential area, must meet all sanitation and hygiene requirements. This is a separate topic; we will discuss some features in relation to the dacha further along the course of the presentation.
Floor, tray, grate
Floor
The floor in the country shower is made of wood; capital, as in big house, is too labor-intensive and expensive. In a cabin measuring up to 1.5 x 1.5 m, if a tongue-and-groove board is used for the flooring, logs are not needed. If the cabin is not square, cut the decking boards to the size of the short side, this will be stronger.
To prevent the wood from rotting from moisture, it, of course, needs to be treated. Nowadays, this can be done without complex and time-consuming operations such as scalding with bitumen, two-layer painting with zinc oil or titanium white, etc. Preparation of boards for the cabin floor is reduced, after sawing to size, to double treatment with a water-polymer emulsion; The second treatment can be done an hour after the first.
Then - drying. At temperatures above 22 in the shade and drying in direct sunlight, the boards will be ready for further use in the evening if they were processed in the morning; at 15 degrees and drying in the shade - by the next morning.
After drying, the wood is impregnated with any wood biocide. You just need to read on the packaging to see if the product is intended for impregnation under pressure; this is not suitable. It is advisable to carry out the impregnation in the sun in warm weather, allowing the boards to warm up for an hour or two.
3-4 hours after impregnation you can apply acrylic varnish in 2 layers. The first one will dry out in the evening, then you can varnish it a second time. The next morning the floor can be laid. Thus, if you choose a nice day, a floor that will last at least 10 years can be done in a weekend, and there will still be time left.
Pallet
Shower trays, if you don't already know, come in low and high varieties. The first ones are placed in a cutout or recess in the floor, and the second ones are actually a standing bathtub: they are installed on legs and equipped with a screen. Both come in sizes from 800x800 to 1580x1580 mm, straight and angular, round or faceted, as well as round, oval and complex shapes. Made from acrylic or enameled sheet steel. The former are more expensive and more durable; the latter are cheaper.
For a cottage with a separate shower on the premises, a straight, low shower tray is needed, see figure on the right. The most popular size and material is steel 1000x1000 mm. Its advantages:
- Easy to install and seal: apply sausage along the contour of the cutout construction foam and immediately, before it hardens, they lay the pallet; the squeezed-out excess foam is removed.
- Saving wood and work: by making the cabin support frame (see below) the inside width of the outer size of the pallet bath, we get rid of most of the flooring. It is enough to cover the top of the frame with scraps of boards so that the pallet does not end up in the hole.
- Cheap: with a relatively low intensity of use of a country shower steel pallet with careful use it will last at least 15 years.
- Durability in dacha conditions: acrylic pallets in dachas do not withstand the design service life, because... They are afraid of abrasive wear by sand, which cannot be avoided outside the city.
Note: if there is a shower with a dressing room, you can take a tray 800x1000, see above. If there are people at the dacha with above average corpulence, then the best would be a 1200x1200 pallet
A country shower in a house requires a high tray. The reason is that the cutout will weaken the floor, unless it is formed according to the complete pattern. And even then, the slotting and concrete work will take a lot of time and effort, plus cutting a channel for the sewer pipe. If the house has not yet been built, there is also no need to include a low pallet in a project with a wooden floor: the installation step of the joists turns out to be too large for a flooring of this size.
It is more profitable to purchase a high tray complete with a cabin and screen. Then it’s better to take a corner shower: a shower corner of the same overall dimensions takes up much less in a small room usable area and it turns out to be even more convenient than a direct shower.
As for installation, it is advisable to do it yourself. Firstly, it will be too expensive for the master to travel out of town, he wastes a day, and in a day he can install up to 3 cabins, if not more. Secondly, the water supply and drainage at the dacha are almost always non-standard, which will be even more expensive. Therefore, how to install a shower cabin with a high tray yourself, see the video below.
Video: self-assembly and installation of a shower cabin
And the following is about the subtleties of the corners:
In addition, before purchasing, you will need to read the original instructions, because The installation methods for showers from different manufacturers are somewhat different.
Lattice
In the locker room, a grate under your feet is a must to prevent your shoes from getting wet. In a washing room with a low tray, a grate above it is highly desirable, because... due to the lack of a threshold, the danger of slipping and falling when entering the pallet is increased.
Usually the lattice is made of wood from slats from 30x30 to boards 100x40. The preparation of wood is the same as for the floor, but it is advisable to cover the grate instead of varnishing, if funds allow, with an acrylic compound for repairing bathtubs, then its resistance to wear by shoe soles will increase significantly. And for the floor, coating with a compound will not be superfluous; In this case, the pan may not be sealed with foam; the thick mixture will close the gap.
The best, and if you take into account the prices for varnish, even cheaper, grille is obtained from PP pipes assembled with self-tapping screws. Pipes need 1/2″; installation step – 1.5 outer diameter. The pitch of the crossbars from the same pipe is 300-400 mm. There is a little trick here: after assembling the grate, a little polyurethane foam is poured into all the gaping ends so that the grate inside does not become sour from dampness.
Tank
The shower tank for the dacha must be equipped with sanitary drainage with shut-off valve, indicated in brown in Fig. It is placed at the lowest point of the vessel, and the source is made flush with the bottom. Before a long break in use (at least a week), the tank is completely emptied through drainage. It is advisable to drain the sediment regularly, with the same frequency, even with constant use. Please note that in a dacha, the likelihood of spores and eggs of unwanted microorganisms getting into the tank is many times higher - orders of magnitude higher than in a city apartment. The author knows of a case where... crucian carp snouts were found in the shower tank. They obviously ate mosquito larvae that swarmed there.
The second condition is that the selection pipe must be placed higher so that clean water, and not sediment, splashes from the watering can. Finally, if the water is heated in the tank, its thermosiphon circulation must also occur, otherwise most of the heater’s power will go to waste. That is, the hot water supply pipe should be as high as possible.
If the tank is powered from a water supply system, then it requires a float valve and an overflow with a cross-sectional area of at least 2 times that of the supply pipe. There needs to be enough clearance above the float so that it does not rest against the tank lid, completely blocking the water supply. For such a case, a tank diagram with recommended dimensions is shown on the left in Fig.
For a manually filled tank, the pipe layout changes, because... The water level in it decreases during use. Its diagram is shown on the right in Fig. An indispensable condition is that the hot water supply should be located at least a little (5-7 mm at least) above the source of the extraction, and the mouth of the supply pipe should be located further away from the source of the outlet; Selective is located approximately in the middle between them. It is advisable to drain the sediment from such a tank immediately after each emptying so that the sediment does not clog the water heater.
What is it made of?
Ready-made tanks for showers different sizes, containers fully equipped with fittings are available in a wide range. But, since our task is to implement everything entirely with our own hands, then we will see how to make the tank ourselves.
The most common tanks for country showers are made from barrels laid on their sides; then it is convenient to place a drainage system, and the loss of water into sediment becomes minimal. In this case, a wide filling and inspection hatch is cut out in a 200-liter steel barrel and through it, after welding the pipes, the yacht container is painted from the inside acrylic enamel or the same compound for repairing bathtubs. The outdated long-term method is to prime with a rust primer and paint with red lead and oil.
Plastic barrels do not require preparation from the inside, but the problem of sealing the connections arises: almost nothing sticks to polyethylene and polypropylene, and they cannot be connected by soldering, like water pipes. Fortunately, plastic barrels are produced with wide necks, through which it is possible to install threaded fittings M12-M16 with a flange and rubber gasket, and on the outside - also with a gasket and washer; everything is tightened with a nut. To prevent the pipe from being torn out by thermal deformations, the diameter of the flange and washer must be from 3 outer diameters of the fitting, but not less than 40 mm.
Note: the alternative method - sealing with silicone - does not justify itself; after 2-3 seasons the joints begin to leak.
About a tank from an old washing machine
It's no secret that many country showers have tanks from unusable old washing machines. Their capacity is small, for 2-3 quick washes, but otherwise they are very good: they do not rust, drainage is automatically obtained from the previous drain pipe, and the input/output of the rest is easy to do through the opening for the activator; there is already a stamping for the gasket and holes for fasteners. By covering such a tank with glass on silicone (preferably acrylic), we will obtain effective solar heating of water (see below), because, repeatedly reflected from the internal shiny walls, the radiation of the Sun will be almost completely absorbed by the water.
Cabin
Grillage
The supporting frame of the cabin is most often made of wood; under dacha conditions, it loses strength more slowly than a thin-walled (1.5-2.5 mm) metal profile. The channel, of course, will last longer, but will cost more. It is more suitable for welded structures, see above.
As for wood, timber of 100x100 or even 60x60 is suitable for a light cabin, and 150x150 for heavy-duty showers. Wood processing is generally the same as for flooring, only instead of varnishing it is impregnated twice or thrice with heated bitumen mastic. In combination with a water-polymer emulsion, this will ensure durability of at least 12 years; EPE, penetrating deeply into the pores of wood, makes them unsuitable for the germination of mold spores.
How high?
The rise of the grillage above the ground, and the corresponding protrusion of the foundation piles, is calculated as the sum of 200-250 mm for ventilation, plus the depth of the tray, plus the technological height of the siphon and another 50-70 mm of reserve. So, for a low pallet this will be 320-450 mm, i.e. 2-3 more steps are needed at the entrance.
Frame
A wooden shower is assembled, just like - on load-bearing poles, only the problems of the roof disappear: there is either no roof at all, or it is simply sloping. The wall frames are reinforced with diagonal braces, one per side, from a 100x40 board or the same board, spread in half lengthwise, i.e. 50x40, and installed flat. The latter option saves material, but takes up space inside the cabin.
A metal frame usually uses a corrugated pipe from 25x25x1.5 to 40x40x2. Collect profile frame welding, primed and painted. Thin-walled galvanized profiles are cheaper and easier to assemble - using self-tapping screws - but they do not last long; this material is not intended for external use at all.
The best material for a shower frame is 1/2″ and 3/4″ propylene water pipes. The assembly diagram is the same as for wood: frame and diagonal. In this case, there is no need to solder the plastic; it is enough to select standard connectors so that the pipe fits into them more tightly, and assemble them with self-tapping screws. Phosphated (black) ones hold up better in the shower. The diameter of the screws is 4.2 mm; length - 1-1.5 mm shorter than the outer diameter of the connector, so that the tip does not stick out and get scratched.
Sheathing
In general, any sheet metal is suitable for covering a shower. finishing materials external use: corrugated sheets, plastic lining, siding, polycarbonate, top row on rice; they can be attached to any frame either with standard fasteners, or, if the frame is propylene, with brackets and clamps.
Of all the cladding materials, polycarbonate stands out. Its main advantage is that the polycarbonate shower is self-heating. The peculiarities of the interaction of cellular polycarbonate with sunlight are such that an increased energy density of infrared (thermal, IR) radiation is created inside the cabin. Simply put, a kind of warm cocoon appears, even if the shower is without a roof and with a wide ventilation gap below. Cellular polycarbonate was originally developed for covering greenhouses and greenhouses.
The shower cabin is lined on all sides, cramped, i.e. Its glazing area is large relative to its volume, and tomatoes are not grown in it in winter. Therefore, for shower cladding, the cheapest sheet of 2R structure, 4 mm thick, from the most alternative manufacturer is suitable. There is no need to be afraid of peeking: milky, non-transparent polycarbonate is produced specifically for showers.
Second important factor– a honeycomb sheet, if oriented vertically with internal channels and bent, acquires the properties of a prestressed structure (PSS): high strength and rigidity. That is, a very durable and lightweight round cabin can be made on a frame from just 2 hoops bent from PP pipe, upper and lower. The hoops will also be pre-stressed and will add a fair amount of overall strength.
Finally, by tightly wrapping the sheet to a curved template and heating it for 20-30 hours to 70-80 degrees, the bend of the sheet can be fixed. This technique is often used by designers; in particular for original showers without frame, see fig. right.
Good old wood is also widely used for showers, pre-treated as for flooring, or even raw, at least in the form of wattle, the bottom row in Fig. higher. Its advantages are accessibility, ease of processing, and for large showers under the roof - wood retains heat well. Heat loss through wood paneling from a forty-piece board is less than half a brick from a brick board.
Note: use layered and modified materials for shower cladding wood materials– plywood, fiberboard, chipboard, MDF – undesirable, they delaminate.
Armature
What distinguishes a garden garden shower from a regular shower is, first of all, the shower head (spout, diffuser): its design includes an adjusting valve, see fig. If the dacha has separate hot water, then this is not suitable - there are no diffusers with a standard two-way valve on sale. However, it is not difficult to make a watering can with a valve yourself; it does not have any fundamental features. Other shut-off valves are any ordinary ones, but it is easier and cheaper to make pipelines flexible, from a reinforced garden hose.
Heating and warming
Now let’s finally understand what a warm shower is. In capital showers, as mentioned above, heating the washing area will ensure that the return flow from the tank to the water heater passes through the heating register, see fig. For constant heating of residential premises, this scheme is a complete heresy, but in the shower it is quite workable without loss of overall efficiency.
The cheapest and fastest water heating is provided by a flow-through gas boiler low power or, if bottled gas, an electric boiler. Let's leave both of them, because... make them in accordance with safety requirements outside industrial conditions impossible: a heating element with grounding is only the basis, you also need automatic temperature control, emergency protection against boiling, emptying, overheating of the heating element due to scale fouling or sediment accumulation, and some other necessary little things.
Without heat exchanger
The easiest way, which summer residents have been using since time immemorial, is to heat the water with the Sun. But the well-known tank covered in bitumen is not the best solution; the fact is that bitumen or simple black (non-selective) paint is black only in visible light, but reflects IR quite well.
2 methods of primitive solar water heating are shown in Fig. right. The first (left position) uses the fact that water itself actively absorbs IR and ultraviolet (UV) radiation. The latter carries a lot of energy, but you need a well-transmitting UV tank, i.e. expensive acrylic. In the other, which is on the right pos. the hose’s own heat capacity is used: when the water flows, it gives off the accumulated heat to it, so it is possible to obtain more warm water than was originally in the volume of the pipe.
With register and potty
Direct heating of water is bad because it depends on the weather and time of year: clouds have rolled in - the water is cold, and you can only get hot water in the very heat, when a little warm is enough. To heat water well, not only in warm weather and not only in clear weather, a shower water heater must, firstly, be assembled somehow solar radiation, whose energy density is relatively low, and transfer it to water, whose heat capacity is relatively high. An indispensable condition in order to “sew together” these requirements is a thermosiphon or forced circulation water in the system, i.e. a heat exchanger is needed, but how to heat it is a second matter.
A simple heat exchange register is a coil (on the left in the figure) or a U-shaped elbow made of copper or aluminum thin-walled tube. It can be laid flat with a slope, in the middle there; then the hot side should be raised above the cold side by at least internal diameter tubes, otherwise the development of internal convection, boiling and rupture is possible even with a relatively small influx of energy.
In some cases, it is more convenient to use a heat exchanger in the form of a sealed vessel, on the right in Fig. The principle of “theromosyphon” is observed here in that the outlet (hot) pipe is located as high as possible from the cold one. In this case, complete sealing is needed, without the slightest leak!
From the stove
A water heating register can be built into a country heating and cooking stove, but this is already a question of the design of the stoves, and where the hot water goes afterwards, the stove, by and large, doesn’t care. A solar oven looks much more interesting in terms of heating water for showers. In our latitudes, it is not suitable for cooking, but a shower will provide hot water and the simplest (see figure) in spring and autumn in cloudy weather.
The pattern of such a stove is shown in the following. rice. Material – any foil, even cardboard. Please note that the reflector must be metal; it reflects the entire spectrum of radiation, while household mirrors reflect only the visible part. For IR clouds are much more transparent, while UV clouds carry a lot of energy even in small quantities.
The diagram of a stationary solar oven, more complicated, but much more efficient, is shown in the following. rice. The reflector is assembled from pieces (can be scraps) of galvanized silicone. The reflector fragments are installed one by one, adjusting (adjusting) so that the light spot lies on the bottom of the heated vessel; The already installed and adjusted mirrors are still covered with something. For this stove and the one described before it, a compact heat exchanger is needed; it is installed instead of cooking utensils.
Panels
Solar panels are not that complicated and do not require any adjustment. These are, strictly speaking, flat boxes or other containers blackened from the inside and glazed, in which a strong greenhouse effect is created; A coil is installed inside such a mini-greenhouse, the diagram on the left in Fig. Modern solar panels use truly space-age technologies, and some models in winter, on a cloudy day at -20 outside, release water into the system with a temperature of +70.
We don’t need such super-efficiency; we just need to heat 50-100 liters of water from +15 to +40 in 2-4 hours. Even the simplest design like those shown in the following can cope with this task. poses of the same fig. And in Fig. Below (at the top position - with an installation diagram and a use case for heating a house) are drawings of homemade solar panels, comparable in efficiency to individual industrial designs. The first panel is completely homemade; the heat exchanger is soldered from a copper tube. In the one below, it was used with a radiator from an old, unusable refrigerator; The dimensions of the box are adjusted to fit the cash.
And in the dark?
If the kitchen at the dacha is gasified, no matter from the main line or from a cylinder, then you can heat water for the shower for free at any time of the year in any weather, day or night. How? Due to waste heat (essentially its own heat loss) from the gas stove. To do this, a copper coil from a 6-10 mm tube is used to circle the burners, as shown in Fig. This method was invented back in Stalin’s times, when people heard that somewhere at the top, a wonder had appeared - hot water in the tap.
To tilt the heat exchanger, pieces of soft wire are wound around its hot tube, and their whiskers are used either as legs or as hooks. Remember: the heating is intense, without tilting the coil will boil and burst instantly! It is also necessary to maintain other sizes so as not to burn or overdry. flexible hoses connecting the coil to the tank. What else you need to remember is that the slope of the hot tube should be greater than that of the cold one, and the coil heats up well only if the burning burners are occupied by cooking utensils. That is, there is no point in burning gas idle; you need to heat the water during cooking. As a rule, within an hour of preparing dinner, a 50-liter tank heats up to 40-45 degrees.
In conclusion
Finally, let’s mention one curiosity – the supposedly hydromassage shower. In Fig. the simplest model is shown on the right (the price, by the way, is not simple - about 300 euros), but installations with 6 and even 10 diffusers are produced, loudly called nozzles in advertising brochures.
Such perfumes are just a tribute to fashion, if not the fabrications of marketers in a consumer society; simply - wiring. For real hydromassage, it is necessary to reduce muscle tone under conditions of hydro-weightlessness, which cannot happen without a bath with water.
Nothing relaxes you more after a hard day at work at the dacha than a summer shower. Water not only calms, but also refreshes, distracts from unpleasant thoughts and relieves stress. But what to do if there is no shower on site? If you don’t want to splash around in a trough or basin, you need to take care of comfort in the field and design a refreshing summer shower for your favorite dacha with your own hands, using finished photos and drawings.
How to build a summer shower with your own hands
The outdoor shower occupies one of the first places among all country houses. Sometimes this is not just a way to wash yourself after a day of cultivating the land has come to an end, but also the only way to cool down in the heat.
First you need to choose a location for installation shower facility. To do this, you should examine your site for secluded places.
On the other hand, this place should not be far from the main building, so that you do not have to freeze on the way to a warm house if you decide to take a shower on a cool day.
Advice! If a solar heated tank is provided, ensure that nothing obscures the water tank.
Once you have found a suitable location, select optimal sizes for your cabin. Please note that for ease of movement a person needs a room of at least 1 m 2. If a dressing room is planned for changing clothes and storing dry things while swimming, the building increases by another 60-70 cm. The height of the shower stall is approximately 2.5 m. So, the estimated dimensions of the shower for the dacha are 170x100x250 cm.
If the structure is supposed to be wooden, then the next stage of construction will be the construction of a frame from wooden beam or metal corner.
Next are the walls. Please note that for better ventilation, the walls should retreat from the ceiling and pallet by no less than 20-30 cm. The walls are constructed mainly from those materials that were left over during the construction of the main country house building.
Water supply in a country shower
When installing a shower for a summer house with your own hands, it is necessary to provide for the supply and drainage of water in advance. The drainage system is laid during the construction of the foundation, and the supply of clean water is organized during the installation of the tank.
