Solar Shower

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Issue 43

The Small Spaces Issue

Buy Your First Home
Southern BBQ, City Style
A-Frame House
Bikes of Portland

Solar Shower

A year ago, ReadyMade challenged readers to reimagine their outdoor spaces on a razor-thin budget. Three teams submitted plans that won them $300 to fund a garden makeover. Frankly, we’re impressed by what they’ve grown.

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.

Solar Shower

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

Wine-Bottle Border

1. Prepare the wine bottles by removing the labels with soap, water, steel wool, and elbow grease.

2. Don your gloves and dig a trench approximately 12–18 inches wide and 6–8 inches deep around the perimeter of the area where you’d like the border. Invert two wine bottles and place them side by side in the trench, tamping soil around them until they remain upright. Continue until finished.

According to Annie Thomas, different brands of wine use different types of adhesive on their labels. You may find that some are tougher to remove than others. Annie suggests that French wines may be stuck on with ‘easier’ glue.