Summer rolls onward, swiftly and sweatily. Recently, I had the chance to rebuild a spring-fed cedar outdoor shower at friends’ property just down the road. It was nice to work so close to home after a spring full of back and forth to do the big plaster project in western Kentucky. The former shower was a nailed-together hodgepodge of scraps and splinters, and this was a chance to start afresh with some decent materials.

Simple Cedar Outdoor Shower

The site for this shower is basically on the edge of a ravine. I mean, it’s literally overlooking a giant slope down into the buttcrack of the mountains. It’s kind of a dramatic setting, and also a bit of a pain to actually build something on… but the end result is pretty slick. See above for the dramatic view from the stall itself.

I used red cedar for all the framing, since the couple opted for local wood over treated wood. Cedar is pretty good for rot resistance, but of course nothing lasts forever, especially a structure that will be getting wet throughout its lifetime. The privacy walls are metal, and each stall has a simple cedar bench.

The shower itself is gravity-fed from the property’s spring, which means the water coming out of the shower head is a brisk 55 degrees — nice for a sweltering summer day, a little rough for other times of year. A super simple camp-style propane shower rig provides hot water on demand for those times you want a warmer showering experience.

All in all, this was an enjoyable little carpentry project, something much smaller and more manageable than other projects in the pipelines. It’s always a pleasure to work with cedar, too… the aroma is intoxicating. Now I want to build one for ourselves!