Outdoor Shower Floor Ideas (7 Beautiful Options)
There’s a certain luxury and beauty just thinking about that perfect outdoor shower. Is it those perfectly cobbled paths that led you to a lush forest-like area? Are you imagining some opulent bathing area over those polished wood decking? We are fairly certain you have an idea in mind. If you’re struggling to get the idea together, don’t worry I’ll help you find an outdoor shower floor you’ll love.
The perfect outdoor floor will complement your design. It’s an attractive addition to a landscape or building exterior. That said, you can always find something that is equal to practical and opulent. It needs careful attention so that you get to settle on the kind of flooring you really want.
Types of Outdoor Shower Floors
Let’s go through each of the best types and a few of their benefits.
Pebble Floor
Many are in love with pebble flooring designs simply because they blend the exterior. They are also easy to install. Don’t be overwhelmed with the process. All you really need are a few basic tools. Plus, patience, of course.
Another advantage of this flooring design is how they feel on your feet. To be honest, you completely agree with this, too.
Pebbles as flooring are actually nice on your feet and not bumpy or even painful. For starters, the pebbles intended for the floor are sanded down. Moreover, this flooring design is very resistant to slipping, despite the pebbles being smooth to touch.
This is particularly favorable for the elderly. A perfectly installed pebble shower floor gives a very natural look. It gives that vibe of bathing under a waterfall in the great outdoors.
Concrete Floor
Another type we have is the concrete floor. This type of flooring is great because there are no grout lines to keep clean, and concrete is very durable. Concrete floors can have different textures to prevent slipping or stains to provide color matching, and create visual interest.
To install this type of flooring, you will have to dig out in the earth the shape of your floor plan and frame that with a wood border to hold the concrete while it sets.
Basically, the idea here is the same as when you are dealing with concrete pouring. First, you will pour and lay out a bed of gravel.
Once the gravel is leveled, pour concrete over it until the top of your wood border. Now, to avoid standing water, make sure to tilt the border wood frame towards the direction where you want the water to run off.
Tile
Outdoor tiles offer many design choices; it would be hard not to get creative. Tiles can seriously give you that chic design statement. This flooring involves some form of porcelain or ceramic tile, and laying tiles can be a good choice if you need to spruce up an existing concrete slab.
Furthermore, you can improve the look of your design by making use of an additional tile pathway leading to that grand bathing area outside your house.
The designs are limitless if you use these materials. The flooring industry actually offers a bewildering array of tile products for outdoor applications.
For more careful consideration when choosing your tile floor, evaluate its strength, your budget, and the weather conditions without compromising style.
Wood Base
These fixtures with a wood base are beautiful and environmentally friendly. The best type of wood to use is teak, cedar, ironwood or cypress.
Considering a wood base can be a good choice if you want to do it yourself. There are ready-to-be-installed wood bases you can consider. You just need to find the design that suits your taste.
You have the option to build a small deck-type floor made of weather-resistant wood. Mahogany and cedar are good options to consider. On the other hand, fir and pressure-treated decking will splinter easily. Additionally, consider leaving a space below the wood deck.
This allows air to circulate, thereby preventing the formation of mildew and mold. Installing the deck over a frame is the best solution for this. Like most decking materials, the wood will require an occasional treatment to prevent mildew and fading.
Single Piece Floor Pan
A floor pan is a single-piece unit you can use for flooring. It makes for an easier installation. Plus, it offers a range of customization for both safety and aesthetics.
Moreover, it falls under a medium-priced solution. Hence, you can afford a design that does not limit your customization for the look and feel of your floor.
Although it comes in different shower sizes and colors, the most common options chosen by designers for floor pans are white, grey, and black.
Some advantages of using a floor pan include easy cleaning and low maintenance. The material is waterproof. The durability of the solid surface bases having no seams makes it a waterproof solution. Lastly, they are also not likely to crack compared to tiles being that they come in one piece.
DIY Floor
Installing your own DIY floor can get overwhelming, even for the most experienced designer or DIY remodeler.
Finding out that you’ll need to redirect plumbing before installing the flooring can be a great ordeal.
However, there are easier alternatives. And with a few considerations taken into account, your job will get uncomplicated. Clearly, we all want that. Consider the notes we have taken for you for a hassle-free DIY floor installation.
Location — If you are starting from scratch, choose a location with easy access to the water source. With planning, plumbing won’t be a problem in the long run. The general rule of thumb is that the closer the shower is to the house, the easier it is to set up for proper plumbing.
At each location where outdoor showers are provided, at least one outdoor shower must be accessible. If only one rinsing shower is provided, it should be an accessible high rinsing shower. – Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards, Leonard J. Hopper
Drainage — Lastly, another important matter is that this fixture needs a drain. When constructing the flooring, you also need to consider how much drainage you will need. Otherwise, a flooding problem might be an issue later on.
In addition to this, you might want to consider placing a plastic cap directly over the drain. Considering that this is outdoor, you might want to keep the larger debris and not let that clog up your water lines.
Best Floor for a Shower Outdoors
The considerations mentioned above are only a few that will determine the type of floor for you. Frankly, installing flooring is no easy feat. But only if not carefully thought of.
The best for an organic feel is teak or cedar. Both of these materials stand up well outside and provide a natural resistance to water and decay while looking stylish and offering a natural feel.
for the most low-maintenance solution, you can’t go wrong with concrete. These coatings can be textured with a non-slip finish and stained or colored to improve its aesthetics.
Most of the outdoor flooring designs we have mentioned above are adequate and unique in their important ways. Therefore, with the external and environmental factors carefully taken into consideration, you can never go far from choosing the best, efficient floor.
Choose wisely with the material, and the style will deliberately follow and give you that opulent, lush bathing area you dream of.
If you are designing your own shower, you can use one of the popular 3d landscape design software programs to plan your layout. With these programs, you can design your space based on your area’s square footage and then visualize the results in 3D view.