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Rarely does anyone in the country build a capital shower from a brick or cinder block. Usually its use is limited to three summer months and then during planting a vegetable garden, as well as harvesting. For such a short period, it is enough to build a light booth from any sheet material. A good option is a polycarbonate shower with a changing room, which is easy to design and make yourself.
Why choose polycarbonate for shower upholstery
Polycarbonate is not the only casing material for a country shower. For this case, corrugated board or lining is successfully suitable. It's just that today we decided to focus on this beautiful and durable material.
Let's take a look at the advantages of using polycarbonate for shower enclosure over other similar materials:
- From large sheets of polycarbonate, you can cut out whole fragments of the shower stall. This allows you to quickly sheathe the frame. If you omit the time for making the foundation, then the shower stall can be easily installed in the country in one day.
- The flexibility of the sheets allows you to create shower stalls of different shapes from polycarbonate. A round or oval design will look aesthetically pleasing in a summer cottage.
- For covering the shower stall, opaque polycarbonate with a thickness of 6-10 mm is used. The material is characterized by increased strength. Such a shower will withstand even strong hurricanes. According to GOST, the strength of polycarbonate is five times greater than that of ordinary glass.
- Polycarbonate can withstand large temperature differences from -40 to +120about C. The weight of the sheet is several times less than that of other cladding materials.
- The aesthetic side is also important. Polycarbonate is available in different colors. If desired, in the country, you can build a beautiful shower from a combination of multi-colored sheets.
If the arguments of the advantages of polycarbonate have convinced you, proceed to the next stage of building a shower for a summer residence.
A few important tips regarding the development of a garden shower with a changing room project
Even such a simple construction as a polycarbonate shower for a summer residence requires a project. There is no need to build complex drawings, but a simple diagram can be sketched. Here you immediately need to decide for yourself what kind of shower you want to build. Very quickly, you can make a lightweight booth and just put it on the ground. It is more difficult to make showers on a foundation with heated water, but this design will last longer. In addition, it will be possible to bathe in the cold in the dacha shower.
So, we begin to develop the project on our own:
- The construction of a country shower begins with determining its location. It is important to take into account that you constantly need to add water to the tank. Carrying it in buckets from afar is inconvenient and difficult. It is better to place the shower stall near the water intake.
- If a lot of people will swim in the dacha shower, it should be placed as close as possible to a cesspool or septic tank. A close installation of a country shower near the cesspool will save on the laying of sewer pipes, but it is advisable not to bring the booth closer to the sewage accumulator closer than 3 m.On hot days, bad smells from the sewage system will penetrate into the shower, creating an unpleasant atmosphere during bathing.
- The water in the summer shower tank is heated by the sun. The booth should be placed in the sunniest place, where there is no shade from trees and tall structures.
- It is necessary to provide lighting inside the shower stall and changing room made of polycarbonate so that you can swim at night. Just keep in mind that the lanterns must have a high degree of protection against water ingress. It is optimal to place shower stalls in the country from the back of the house. Here, the closest is the sewerage, water supply and not far to pull the electric cable for lighting.
- Having decided on the location of the country shower, they begin to draw up a diagram of the polycarbonate booth itself. Initially, it was decided that the dacha shower would be with a changing room. If the dimensions of the shower stall are taken as a standard 1x1x2.2 m, then a length of about 0.6 m will have to be added to the changing room.In this case, the width of the structure will turn out to be 1 m, and the length will be 1.6 m.If the owners are obese people, then the width of the shower stall with a changing room, it is better to increase it to 1.2 m.
- Inside the shower stall, delimitation is provided. The dressing room is separated by a threshold, as well as a canvas curtain. They will keep your clothes and shoes from getting wet.
- If desired, the changing room can be organized in the dressing room. Then, additional racks are installed separately near the shower stall, on which polycarbonate sheets are attached. The size of the dressing room depends on the preferences of the owner. Sometimes summer residents build large dressing rooms where, in addition to changing rooms, they equip a resting place. Benches and a table are installed inside.
- The total height of the shower stall from the ground to the roof is at least 2.2 m. Together with the tank, it can reach 2.5 m and even higher. The height inside the shower stall will be less. Part of the space from below will be taken up by a wooden pallet, and a watering can with a tap will hang from above by at least 15 cm.
Considering all these nuances, they sketch out a diagram of a shower with a polycarbonate dressing room on a sheet of paper, after which they begin to build it.
Arrangement of the foundation and drain
A country shower with a changing room is considered a more complex structure than a traditional 1x1 m booth. For such a building, it is advisable to make a foundation. Polycarbonate is a very light material, but the weight of the tank must be taken into account. A capacity of 100-200 liters of water will create strong pressure on the foundation, and it must withstand it.
There are many types of foundation, but if Summer shower for a summer residence it is made of polycarbonate, then it is enough to drive piles in the corners where the booth will stand. To do this, drill four holes with a depth of 1–1.5 m. Pieces of metal or asbestos pipe with a diameter of 100 mm are lowered into the holes. The space around the pipes and inside is poured with concrete, and before pouring, an anchor rod is installed inside each pipe. In the future, the frame of the shower stall will be fixed to this hairpin.
Now is the time to equip the drain. If the soil is loose in the country, and few people will swim in the shower, then it is easier to make a drainage pit. Right in the shower, a layer of soil 50 cm deep is selected. The pit is covered with any stone, and on top with fine gravel. A wooden pallet with large slots is placed under the feet. Waste water from the sump will pass through the layers of stone and be absorbed into the soil.
A full drain from the shower will be more effective. To make it into the floor, you will have to concrete a sewer pipe with bends. Moreover, the entire plane of the floor is made with a slight slope towards the drain funnel. The sewer pipe is connected to a general suburban sewage system or taken out into a drainage well.
It will be easier and aesthetically pleasing to organize the drain from the country shower using an acrylic tray. The finished product is simply installed on the floor inside the shower stall, and the drain is connected to the sewer.
We make a country shower stall with a changing room
So, if we build a shower for giving with our own hands without a dressing room, but with an internal dressing room, then we make the frame in one piece. It should be noted right away that a wooden polycarbonate shower bar will not work. In addition to the fact that wood rots quickly, it tends to “play” from changes in humidity and temperature.Similarly, polycarbonate “plays” from temperature surges. As a result, you get a country shower with wrinkled casing.
For the manufacture of the shower frame, it is optimal to take a profile with a section of 40x60 mm. A metal corner will also work, but with a minimum shelf width of 25 mm. The shower frame is welded separately from the foundation. In the corners, they put the main pillars, and two additional ones in front for hanging doors. The sash frame is also welded from the profile. It is attached to the door pillar with hinges.
On top of the frame, additional two jumpers are welded to install the tank. There is a little trick here. If you buy a square-shaped shower tank from a store, it can be fixed to the frame instead of the roof. Thus, it will turn out to save a little on arranging the roof of a summer shower made of polycarbonate. In the photo you can see an example of a finished shower stall.
The welded shower frame is installed on a pile foundation. Here it is time to remember the anchor pins left behind. Holes are drilled in the profile of the lower frame strapping, the metal structure is installed on the studs and tightened with nuts. Now the frame of the summer shower is securely in place, and you can start covering it with polycarbonate.
A large sheet of polycarbonate is cut into pieces to fit the shower walls. It is better to cut with a jigsaw. In polycarbonate and metal profiles, holes are drilled for hardware, and the diameter of the hole on the cladding material should be 1 mm more than the thickness of the self-tapping screw. Fasten polycarbonate to the frame using special hardware with an O-ring.
If there are joints of two polycarbonate sheets, a profile is used for the connection. The tightness of the joint inside the profile is ensured by the embedded silicone.
When the cladding is finished, the protective film is removed from the polycarbonate. By the way, we must not forget to put plugs on all ends. They will not allow dirt to accumulate in the polycarbonate cells.
The end of the construction of a country shower with a changing room is the installation of a tank. Better to use a factory-made heated plastic container. A 100 liter tank is enough for a family of five.
The video tells about a polycarbonate summer shower:
A self-made outdoor shower with a polycarbonate changing room will serve the owners for at least 20 years. You just need to remember to drain the water from the tank for the winter.
