Outdoor Shower Drainage

[RS220]

So we're getting ready to try to install the outdoor shower. Our master bath is upstairs and I really want a place to just rinse off after swimming because I am lazy and upstairs is very very far away. I'd also like us to be able to rinse off before jumping in the spa. We had water run over to the side yard in anticipation of this, just a cold water line because we were eyeing one of those solar showers. Also planning to run some drip irrigation from that line, as well as a hose bib for gardening and future misting system. We have plenty of sunshine here even in the winter so it should maybe stay decently warm. I'm aware it's just the sun on the black pipe, no solar panels.

We also have drainage issues, so needed to dig a dry well where the deck drain empties into the garden. Our idea was to dig a big dry well, put a platform on top of it, and let the deck drain there as well as the runoff from the shower. No soap, just for rinsing. Just with the hole there it's already been much better with the few rainstorms we got.

Here's where the hubby and I are having problems. We had the teenager start digging a hole, but we're not sure what to fill the hole in with. If we just put rocks in I'm assuming the dirt will eventually work its way back in there and clog everything up. I believe we need some structure. Any ideas? The hubby is thinking of building a wooden frame, lowering it in then filling it in with rocks, but I'm kind of thinking anything that lets the water out will also let the dirt in. Should we line it with landscape fabric or something?

Are there cheap storage tanks we could poke holes in? I wondered if we could get an old washing machine basin if that would work. Anyone got any suggestions? Googling isn't really getting me anywhere.

 

[Brett S]

I made a dry well for my water softener a number of years ago. I used four 5 gallon buckets that I drilled a number of holes in. I lined the hole in the ground with landscape fabric, then put the buckets in with the drain from the water softener going into one of the buckets, then I filled in the space between the fabric and the buckets with some rock, then covered the top with more landscape fabric and about 8 or 10 inches of dirt and let the grass grow back over it.

I’m not sure filling the whole space with rocks would be ideal because I feel like that would take up a lot of the space that could be used for water. I think some sort of an empty container of some sort would be better. You might be able to build a wooden box, but I worry about the wood sitting in water so much. Although I believe that they do have water contact rated pressure treated wood.

 

[Oly]

Hello neighbor.
If you 1/2 fill the hole with water now how long until the water soaks in?
Did you hit any hardpan when digging? If so or you have a compacted clay layer you will need to break through in order to for the drain to work. Not uncommon to have to rent a jackhammer before properly planting a tree in many parts of the Valley.

 

[Killer95Stang]

Plastic 55 gallon drum with holes drilled in it and rocks inside would probably do it.

 

[RS220]

I’m not sure filling the whole space with rocks would be ideal because I feel like that would take up a lot of the space that could be used for water. I think some sort of an empty container of some sort would be better. You might be able to build a wooden box, but I worry about the wood sitting in water so much. Although I believe that they do have water contact rated pressure treated wood.

I worry about the wet wood as well. We're also trying to make this as economically as possible, and that wood sounds expensive. As for the rocks, agreed, our only solution was to make the teenager dig a bigger hold than we needed to take that into account. He couldn't go to football practice until a few weeks ago so we substituted with yard work as conditioning.

Hello neighbor.
If you 1/2 fill the hole with water now how long until the water soaks in?
Did you hit any hardpan when digging? If so or you have a compacted clay layer you will need to break through in order to for the drain to work.

Hey there! I was just talking to my husband yesterday about your shade sail setup. We're in swampy water already in this heat, and I remember your post about it last year when we were still building. I thought I would have until the end of July before it became a problem, but I was very wrong. As for the water, we filled it up nearly halfway a few weeks ago and it was fully drained by the evening. One of the tests I wanted to do before finalizing was hook up a hand sprayer or something for us to use to see how much water was generated from a few showers and how full that hole got.

Amazingly, we have no hardpan. Even digging down at least ten feet for the deep end of the pool they never hit it, which surprised everyone. I thought everyone around here hit it at some point, and I have no explanation for that. Right behind our fence is a pumping station, so sometimes I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

Plastic 55 gallon drum with holes drilled in it and rocks inside would probably do it.

That is one of the thoughts we had. The cons to that was the cost (I can only find them for like $80) and I'm concerned about fitting the round shape to adequately catch the runoff from the deck drain. Seems like the runoff from the drain would end up going around the barrel. I am also slightly concerned about just how deep that would have to be, we've got a pretty narrow space here to work with. Better picture of the drain below. I guess we could rig something like a hose to funnel the water into the container?