Planning an outdoor shower or garden structure in Saratoga County

An outdoor shower in Saratoga County works if you plan two things before anything else: where the water drains, and how every drop of it gets out of the pipes before the first hard freeze. Where the water comes from is the easy part. Get the drainage and the winterizing right and the rest is carpentry, privacy and picking finishes. Pergolas, arbors and footbridges follow the same logic, since they have to stand up to frost, snow load and wet ground for a long time.

Why bother with one inland

People think of outdoor showers as a beach thing, but they're just as handy here. Come back from Saratoga Lake or a muddy trail, finish a day of yard work, or catch the dog after it's found the one wet spot in the yard, and you rinse off outside instead of tracking it all through the house. And plenty of people simply like showering outdoors on a summer evening. The season here is long enough to get real use out of it.

Where to put it

Look for a spot close to existing plumbing, with some natural privacy, decent drainage, and on a path you'll actually walk. Against an outside wall near the basement, mudroom or kitchen plumbing keeps the supply lines short. Next to a deck or patio, it can share the level surface and the walkway. Out by the pool or garden, it stands on its own.

Morning sun helps it dry between uses and keeps mildew down. Under heavy trees it stays damp and fills up with leaves. Check the sightlines from the neighbors' windows, the street and your own house.

Getting water in

The simplest version is cold water only, sometimes off a hose connection. Most people want it warm, which means running hot and cold lines from the house out to a mixing valve at the shower.

Every piece of that plumbing has to be laid out so it can be drained before winter. That's the most important detail in this climate. A valve or pipe still holding water in January will split.

Plumbing tied into the house supply is a job for a licensed plumber. Any light or outlet near the shower has to be done by a licensed electrician, with the protection the code requires for wet locations.

Getting water out

A small rinse shower may drain into a gravel bed or a dry well sized for your soil. A shower that gets used a lot, or where people use soap and shampoo, raises the question of where gray water is allowed to go. The rules differ by town and depend on whether the property is on municipal sewer or a septic system. Check with your town or city building department before you settle on a drainage plan. Keep the drainage well away from your foundation, your well and any septic field.

The floor should let water through or shed it fast. Spaced decking boards over gravel work, as do stone pavers or a sloped concrete pad.

Build it to be winterized

Capital Region winters find any water left in a line. The showers that last are the ones that are easy to shut down, so design for it from the start. This is the one list here you'll want to keep:

• A shutoff valve inside the heated part of the house, ahead of the outdoor lines.
• Supply lines that slope back to a drain point so they empty all the way.
• A shower valve and head you can open or take off to let the water out.
• A label, or a short written note, saying what to close and open each fall and spring.

For a cold-water-only shower, a frost-free hose bib does a similar job. The valve seals off inside the wall where it's warm, but it only works if the hose is disconnected before the freeze. Our fall home maintenance checklist includes shutting off and draining the outdoor water lines along with everything else to finish before the snow.

The enclosure

Cedar is the classic wood for shower walls. It resists rot on its own and goes silver-gray if you leave it unfinished. Pressure-treated lumber is fine for posts and framing. Composite or PVC boards can go on the walls and floor if you want something you never have to stain. In a spot that's wet all the time, use stainless steel or hot-dip galvanized fasteners. Plain steel screws will rust and streak the wood.

Make it big enough to turn around in, and if you can, add a dry corner with a bench and a couple of hooks so your clothes and towel stay dry. Spaced slats on the walls let air move through and still block the view. A turned entry, where you walk in around a short wall, gives you privacy without a door to hang and maintain. And set the posts on proper footings. Without them the enclosure heaves and racks out of square after a few winters.

Pergolas, arbors and bridges

A freestanding garden structure takes the same beating as a deck, on a smaller scale. Frost heaves posts that aren't on proper footings. Snow piles up on a pergola top and loads the rafters. Wood sitting in wet soil rots unless it's rated for ground contact.

Set pergola and arbor posts on footings or metal post bases, not straight in the dirt, and lay out the top so snow slides off instead of sitting there. A pergola fastened to the house has to be connected to it properly and may need a permit.

A footbridge over a stream, a ditch or a low spot needs solid supports on each bank and enough clearance for spring runoff. Add handrails. A bridge deck is slick when it's wet. There's a garden bridge among the work on our site.

Sheds and other outbuildings often have size limits and setback rules, so ask the building department before you pick a spot.

A lot of the same material questions come up as on a deck, so our post on composite vs wood decking is good background for any outdoor build. The scheduling advice in our guide to the best time to build a deck applies to garden structures too.

Frequently asked questions

Can an outdoor shower have hot water in upstate New York?

Yes. Hot and cold lines can run from the house to a mixing valve at the shower, put in by a licensed plumber. The system has to be laid out so every pipe and the valve drain completely before freezing weather.

Where can an outdoor shower drain?

Into a gravel bed or dry well, for a small rinse shower, in a lot of cases. For anything bigger, it comes down to how much it's used, your soil, and the local rules for gray water, which change with sewer versus septic. Check with your town building department before you choose, and keep drainage away from the foundation, the well and the septic field.

When should I winterize an outdoor shower?

Before the first hard freeze, which in Saratoga County means sometime in the fall. Close the inside shutoff, open the outdoor valve and drain points, and leave them open all winter.

We build outdoor showers, garden bridges and other garden structures, and we also replace bulkheads and rebuild cellar stairs. Our outdoor and bulkhead projects page has more. If the shower is going to tie into a deck or stair, the decks and stairs page covers that side.