- Check this out, we're
just at the side our house, looks like a bomb's gone off. The rest of the yard,
that's all been done, and it's all looking pretty good. We just need to wait for
some of those plants to grow. But, the sideway, it
definitely needs some work. Now the first job I
want to have a crack at is to build an outdoor
shower because let's face it, what beach house doesn't have one? I already have the hot
and cold water installed and there's a tap down
there to wash your feet. So all I need to do is
to build a timber screen to attach our tapware
to, instal some plumbing to handle all that water waste, then lay a concrete slab to
give us something to stand on. And my objective is to do this as cheaply as I possibly can
by using recycled materials, apart from the concrete slab. And with a bit of luck, I
should be able to scrounge most of that material up
from around the house. Anyway, good day, folks,
my name's Uncle Knackers, and you are watching DIY for Knuckleheads. Let's do it. (light jazz music) Alright, all I've done
here, is I've marked out where the concrete slab's going to go, and now all we have to
do is just dig this out, just scrape the top off it,
get a nice firm surface. (light jazz continues) Now that's a good, solid surface
for us to be working off, and the next job we need to do is to form up for out little slab. And for the boxing, all I'm using is these old recycled floorboards that I had lying around the house. It is a bit of a shame,
though, because I had a really nice project lined
up for these little babies, and oh well, the sacrifices I make. They might be able to be washed
down, we'll wait and see. Anyway, form up for the
slab, instal the plumbing, and then we're good to go to lay the slab. Too easy. (light jazz continues) It's just started to drizzle outside so I had to abandon that slab, and I thought it might be a
great idea to come inside, make myself a cup of tea. Ah, it does not get much better than that. That's a good cuppa. Come inside and have a look
at the last of my stash. See what I have to build
that timbered screen. I've got here some 70 x 35,
or 3 x 1 1/2, top hardwood, and I think I'll use this to go around the outside of the timber screen. For the framework behind
the timber screen, I've got a couple of sticks
here of treated pine, that should work well, And for the face of the timber screen, I'm just going to use these
old hardwood fence pilings. Which, once sanded, should
come up an absolute treat. Alright, I'm going to finish
this beautiful cup of tea, get the saw set up, and then
bang this frame together. Let's do it. (light jazz continues) I'll tell you what, I have to give credit where credit is due. I've had my old DeWalt saw
here for around ten years, and in that time, all it's done is chop up knarly old wood, and it's still going like an absolute champion. Love it. And guess who forgot
to de-nail the timber, and ripped up the pad
on his brand new sander? (whistling) That's good, the frame's now
been cut to size, sanded, and now it's time to glue,
nail, and screw it together. Beautiful. (upbeat music) Whenever you drill a hole, and you want to get a nice finish, it's
always good to countersink it. And I'm using this
countersinking tool here. It's fantastic bit of kit,
just watch what it does. The yellow part spins, (drill whirring) and when it stops, we've
reached the right depth. Then all you need to do
is to grab your screw. There you go, and you finish
up with the head of the screw just beneath the surface,
just how you want it. Beautiful. (drill whirring) Excellent. Now before we start putting
on those slats for the screen, we want to get this
framework nice and square. So, get the frame, turn it upside down, so the back is facing up. Take out the tape measure,
and so a diagonal measurement from corner to corner. This reads 2165 mm, that's
from the outside edge, to the outside edge. Do the other side. And the measurement is 2165 mm. Both measurements are exactly the same. That's perfectly square,
now all you need to do, is to attach a brace on either end. (upbeat music) That's spot on. Now, these braces, or
blocks, will stay in place until all the slats are on, then I'll take those off,
and we're good to go. Too easy. With the frame now squared up
and secure with those braces, it's time to start attaching those slats. But the slats need to be
attached to something, which is where this treated pine comes in. Now let's simply nail this to
the inside edge of the frame. And I've cut this bit of treated pine 5mm shorter on either end. That way water won't suck
up through that end grain. And rot the timber out. And before I attach
this, I want to give it a couple of good coats with
these exterior grade paint. And it's colour is black, because I have gaps between my slats, and I wouldn't mind seeing some blackness between those gaps, if
you know what I mean. Alrighty, I've got my paintbrush. Let's start painting. And like all good paint jobs, make sure you apply at least two coats, paying particular
attention to the end grain. You don't want any water getting
soaked up into the timber. And then just attach that
frame to the exterior frame, first of all, with my nail gun, and then finished off by
driving in a few screws. Perfect. Now that's great, the frame's done, and now it's time to start
installing the slats. And for the record, that
"drizzle" we just had, turned out to be 250mm or
10 inches worth of rain. It's a bit wet outside. Now before you start
nailing your boards down in any which way you
like, it's a great idea to map the whole thing out first. The reason being, that
you want the breech, which has the taps and the
shower hose in a position where it's in the middle
of a board, not on a join, like that, just looks a bit weird. And not on a small board, like that, where drilling a hole will
actually cut that board virtually in half. So you want it in the middle of a board. That way it looks good
and the cover place also look nice and symmetrical. A bit of planning goes a long way. So what do you reckon? I think it's time to stop mucking around, cut these to size, and nail them on. Let's go. (smooth jazz music) Okay, these two slats appear
to be in the right spot. And what we need to do is fill
in the rest of the screen. Beautiful. And as per usual I'm using
my trusty old nail gun to nail down those slats. But if you don't have
a nail gun, no dramas. Just pull out the trusty
old hammer and nails, and you're good to go. And remember when you're
doing an outside project, make sure you're using galvanised and stainless steel fixings. And what I'm up to here
is that I'm putting in some extra framing to help
stiffen up those slats. And just remember when
putting in the framing, not to get it in the way
of where the (mumbling) is going to go. And then just finish off
by nailing those slats into the edge of the frame. With the screen now finished, it's time to position
our taps and shower rows. Mark that on the screen,
then grab out drill, and drill out the holes. (drill whirring) (light jazz music) Mmm, I think it's time
to take a quick break, because I need to eat a big
old piece of humble pie. I made a bit of a blue. This is what I did. I also had a tap to go on. I totally forgot all about it. And unfortunately the
tap doesn't finish up in the centre of that board. It finishes up about an
inch away from the top. Disappointing, I thought
I was being such a legend. And, by the way, the humble pie could do with a dollop of ice cream. It was a bit tart. To attach the screen to the house, I need to screw through
16 mm of fibre board and into the stud behind. Now these boards are secret nailed, so I can't locate any nails on the surface to find out where the studs are. So luckily, on hand I have my trusty old magnetic stud finders. Now very quickly, just before I show you how these things work, these
are the two types that I have. This first one here is called a studpop and it's commercially available. This thingamajiggy here is a homemade job that I made out of a rare earth magnet, a washer, and a length of string. The studpop, S-T-U-D-P-O-P,
is a very easy tool to use. All it is, is a loose red section there, and a magnet underneath. And all you need to do,
is to drag the studpop, and notice that's loose, along the board until bang,
the red part straightens, you've found the nail,
therefore, you've found the stud. Take it off that nail, the
red part becomes loose. Back on the nail, straightens out again. And that's where that stud is. Very simple, but also very effective. And my homemade model works
on the same principle. Drag the magnet along the wall until bang, there you go, it's found the nail. Therefore, it's found the stud. This magnet is a lot
stronger than the studpop, but they both work very, very well. Love it. Okay, let's stop mucking around and get this slab set up. First of all, we'll get it nice and level, square it up off the
house, just like that. Level it up, nail it, peg
it, do some more levelling, do some more nailing, bit
more pegging, and you're done. That wasn't that hard, was it? Too easy. I got my mate, Kurt,
from Sawtelle Plumbing to give me a hand to
connect the outdoor shower up to the sewer system. Kurt's good on a shovel, too. I'm absolutely useless. Connect the pipes, attach the gully trap, back fill the hole, and we're good to go. Magic. Oh yeah, and by the way, if
you've got a spurt, call Kurt. Good one, mate. I hope that bridge is straight. Good stuff. Looking good, Kurty boy, looking good. Alright, let's give these taps a whirl. We have water, well done Kurt. - No worries, mate. - Good boy, mate. Ah yes. - Centre of drain, look at that. - Magic. Beautiful. Okay let's find a wall
stud to screw our frame to. Watch the red bit, bang,
there it is, found a stud. Spot on. (light jazz continues) We can now screw the frame to the wall to make it nice and secure, and once that's done,
we can move the support that was holding it up. Now that's fantastic, the
frame's up, it looks great, the taps are on, and the
plumbing's installed. Now all we need to do is to lay that slab. Ah, happy days. If you ever find yourself in
a situation down the track where you're butting two
slabs up against one another, it's always a good idea to
place some expanding foam between the two, to cater for
any movement down the track. And all I'm doing here is
putting down some crusher dust, about 30mm worth, which will
give a nice, firm surface to lay our slab on. And check out my whacker packer. What a beauty. Now that's great, the
crusher dust is down, it's packed, and now it's
time to lay some plastic over the top of our crusher dust. And what the plastic
does, is that it prevents the moisture from coming
up through your slab, which is really important
inside your house because you have things
like floorboards, etc., and you don't want
moisture getting into them. But outside, with an outdoor
shower, or a pathway, it's neither here nor there. But, I have some, so I may as well use it. Lay the plastic, start pouring the slab, drop in your mesh, and
then finish the slab off, and you're done. Too easy. Okay, let's lay that plastic. First of all, cut it in
and around the drain, and into the shape of the shower base. Then make sure you tape up
any tears in the plastic, to prevent any moisture
coming out through it. Then, remove the grate,
and cover the hole up with some timber, to prevent any concrete going into that hole,
clogging up the gully trap. And then it's on to
making the concrete mix, for the shower base. And seriously, it's
just like, I don't know, making a cake, just not as tasty. And for this job, I've used a total of ten bags of premixed concrete mix. Look at that, beautiful, what a brew. Not too wet, and not too dry. Just perfect for putting
in your steel mesh, which I found underneath the house. Which was handy. Just tap that down with
your foot, or shovel, and away we go. Next thing you want to
do is get your hammer and tap the boxing. What that does is that it
vibrates the side of the box, and just ensures that the side of the slab is going to be nice and smooth. And then grab your level,
doesn't matter what it is, level or stick, anything straight, and then we'll start
levelling out that slab. And because we have a drain in the middle, it's actually 20mm lower
than your outside edges of the slab, which
enables drainage to occur. Now just grab your edging tool, and run it around the edge of the slab, and that gives a nice rounded finish. And then we'll just finish it off with a nice, light broom finish. Run our edger around
the side one more time, and we're done. Okay, it's just over 24
hours down the track. The slab's gone off, and it
looks absolutely fantastic. I am wrapped, especially for somebody who doesn't do any concreting. Say, anybody can do this stuff, and the last thing we need to do to finish the whole job off is just
to remove that boxing. And hopefully once that comes off, we'll finish up with a nice, smooth edge. Fingers crossed. Okay, let's cut those
nails, pull out the pegs, and remove that board. Alright, moment of truth. Just gently tap it off. And there you have it. That looks beautiful. Love it. (light jazz continues) Mission accomplished. So that's it folks, the
outdoor shower is done. Complete with screen, tapware, a concrete slab that includes drainage. I also put down some paving,
so your feet don't get dirty after having a shower. And I also added an old
recycled wooden ladder to hang your towel off. Great tip, knackers. So that's it, folks. I hope you enjoyed and found useful my how to build an outdoor shower video. And, as per usual, a big thumb's up is always greatly appreciated. And if this is your
first time to my channel, please hit that subscribe
button for more handy tips. And if you'd like to
see more detailed photos of the finished product
and the build process, head on over to my Facebook page, which I'll have the link to in the description box, down below. So make sure you check that one out. Alrighty, well I think
I need a cup of tea. And maybe even a shower. So until next time, I'm out of here. Cheers.
