Garden Challenge: Solar Shower
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Annie Thomas built her solar shower for less than $300.
Posted by ReadyMade
Project by Annie Thomas, Written by Katherine Sharpe; Photos by Jeffery Salter
In Gainesville, explains Annie Thomas, “it’s either monsoon or drought,” so gardeners need irrigation. She and her husband, Alexis, had been considering putting raised vegetable beds into a corner of their yard left bare by a swimming pool installation, and they’d always wanted an outdoor shower. A hose-fed shower whose graywater irrigates their garden patches accomplishes both missions. The couple poured a concrete pad, built a privacy screen from a metal roofing sheet, and coiled a black garden hose in the sun, which warms enough water for a quick rinse. The shower and garden beds are edged with 489 inverted wine bottles that Thomas collected from friends, restaurants, and wine stores, and half-buried for a neat look that helps prevent soil erosion in damp areas.
Who: Annie Thomas, 40
Where: Gainesville, Florida
Day job: Science teacher
Why: Take back a patch of lawn wrecked by construction
Skill Level
Hard
Active Time
More than a weekend
Cost
$$$
- Sand (roughly 60 pounds)
- 4 45-inch-long 2×4s
- 40 feet of ¾-inch PVC piping
- ¾-inch PVC elbow
- 5 60-pound bags of Quikrete concrete mix
- Coins, bottle caps, sea glass or other small mementos
- 3 pressure-treated 8-foot-long 4×4s
- 2 pieces of 4-ft x3-ft-3-inch salvaged corrugated roofing metal
- Shower arm 5 PVC “C” clamps
- ½-inch shower drain
- Black garden hose
- ¾-inch hose bib
- ¾-inch PVC adapter
- Showerhead
- ¼-inch roofing screws
- PVC cement
- Small metal hook
- Wine bottles
Materials
- Nails
- Hammer
- Wheelbarrow
- Shovel (for mixing concrete)
- Straw broom
- Post-hole digger
- Cordless drill
Tools
Use sand to grade and slightly raise the area where the shower will be. Construct a square frame by nailing the 2×4s together. Create a drain in the center of the frame with PVC piping; use a 90-degree elbow to lead piping away from the shower pad where it can connect to soaker hoses for a graywater irrigation system.
Prepare concrete in the wheelbarrow according to package directions, and pour into frame. After concrete begins to harden, gently press mementos (like coins, bottle caps or sea glass) into concrete around drain and gently drag a straw broom in a circular pattern over the concrete surface, starting at the drain. This will create a non-slip surface. When concrete has dried, saw the PVC drain pipe flush with the concrete surface, and apply shower drain.
Use a post hole digger to create a hole at three corners of the concrete shower pad and place one 4×4 standing upright, in each. Tamp soil firmly around 4×4s to secure.
Attach a piece of corrugated metal to two of the 4×4 posts using roofing screws. Attach the second piece of metal to two of the 4×4 posts, creating an L-shaped privacy screen. Attach shower arm to the PVC pipe using the PVC elbow, and mount PVC pipe to the 4×4 using the PVC “C” clamps.
Attach garden hose and hose bib to the PVC pipe using the PVC adapter, and loop hose on a hook on the back of a 4×4. (For added heating, spread the hose out so more surface area is in direct sun.) Attach other end of hose to outdoor spigot. Seal PVC joints with PVC cement for water-tightness.
When cement is dry, remove frame from the shower pad. Dig a shallow trench and place inverted wine bottles in a row two bottles wide around the pad; add dirt and tamp to secure the bottles. This border will prevent erosion around the concrete.
