This was to be my third outdoor bath that I have built. The first one was built for my wife Janice as a 40th birthday present. The second bath was built down by what is now the hunters hut and this third bath was the first bath but was removed when we moved out of the house. So the bath had been sitting around for about two years until I was in a position to install it again.
With any outdoor bath there are a couple of things that need to be done properly. When positioning the bath make sure that it is slightly higher at one end otherwise when the water is full it will run over and put your fire out. Also you will need to put something in the bath so that you are not sitting on the bottom as this will burn your ass.
And the other thing is not to empty the water out when the bath is hot as the quick change in temperature can crack the bath, so always empty the bath the next day.
For this new bath I positioned it on one terrace down below our house so it is not too far to walk to at night.
To prepare this area I dug the ground out and framed it up so that I could pour a concrete pad. Before I poured the concrete I also dug a drain line in so that when I pull the plug in the bath it waters the top terrace where the bath is as well as the next terrace down. So this bath has not only one function of having a nice hot relaxing bath but it also waters a big part of our gardens.
The concrete pad that I poured is big enough to have a seat that my son Bryce made at school sitting beside the bath. Once I had positioned the bath on top of the concrete pad I built rocks up around and concreted them into place. My reason for putting the rocks around was to keep the smoke from being able to come up around the bath but also they will hold the heat and keep the bath hot for longer.
At the front end of the bath is an opening where I can start the fire to heat the bath and at the back is a chimney. When setting the rocks up around the chimney I could only do so many rocks each time then I would have to wait for that cement to dry before doing another round.
On the back of the chimney are a set of deer antler for hanging your towel on and at the front of the chimney is a tap that can add water to the bath. The last couple of nights the moon has been out and it has been awesome soaking in the bath with my wife looking at the magnificent views.
Another big advantage of soaking in a nice hot bath for a couple of hours is that when you go to bed you tend to get a real good night’s sleep as you are very relaxed.
Looks awesome, I’m still waiting on proto type 1 at my place. Will show this to Rog might get things moving. In fairness he is very bizy.