I would think a decent pre hung fiberglass unit would be okay. You definetely wouldn't want wood and steel doors could rust.If you could find one w/ stainless steel hardware, that would be a bonus but probably a hard find.

pfennig-

Our downstairs bathroom is a "wet room" (tiled walls, floor, ceiling) and has a door to the den/guest room and to the outside. We used a 30" steel door that we bought at an auction for $25 and painted with latex semi-gloss. The room is 7' x 7' and has a toilet and the shower unit on one wall, a door the outside on 1 wall, door to the den on 1 wall and sink on the other wall. There is a drain in the middle of the floor and a shower unit that slides up and down on a pole for easil washing dogs, kids, etc. It works very well for us as we live on a lake and our stinky, doofus muttskis have been known to roll in dead fish, so it makes washing them in the winter much easier and is great for rinsing off muddy boots and sandy kids.

It's not for everyone, but it works for our lifestyle.

sandyponder

I think I would rather have an shower outside, than a door in the shower to the outside.

So you can step from outside directly into the shower? Where do you strip down and deposit your clothes? Do you strip down outside and then step into the shower? Step into the shower fully dressed, strip down and toss your clothes over the wall?

I don't think a direct-access door to the outside is very logical or pratical. A door into the shower *area* yes; a door into the shower? No.

I have an exterior door into a bathroom, but having the door directly into the shower isn't something I'd want to do. If you really want the exterior door, I'd suggest putting it somewhere else in the bathroom.

A door into the bathroom might make sense (we have one, but it is off a balcony and not first level), but I wouldn't want it IN the shower. There are the where do you get undressed issues. But also, I think it would be cold. Even an insulated door is not as insulated as an insulated wall. I also think I'd have "Pyscho"ish nightmares when in there.

Sandyponder, can you give more detail on "shower unit that slides up and down on a pole for easily washing dogs". Do you mean the whole unit slides up and down, or just the faucet/showerhead?

We have a dog shower going into our house and I'd love to not have to bend over to wash his underside and have been trying to figure out a way to raise him up in the shower, but so far all we've come up with is a showerhead on a hose that we can take down to floor level. Still gonna hurt my back doing that!

Hi folks-

Sorry if I was confusing, our door opens from the bathroom to the outside, but the entire bathroom is one room, with a toilet and sink and a shower area with showerhead next to the toilet. Once you step from the outside door into the room there is a sink on your right, a showerhead right across from the door and a toilet to the right of the shower area. To the left is a pocket door to the den. There is a shower curtain on a rod that basically bisects the room into 2 halves (it's 7' x 7' square), leaving the doors and sink outside of the shower spray area.

cork2win we have one of those sliding showerheads but have attached an extra long hose to it so we can reach the stinky dogs when they are standing on the floor. Unfortunately we could not find a good looking one anywhere, so we bought one from a medical supply store. It gives the bathroom a kind of hospital room feel, but it works and that's most important to us.

sandyponder

cork2win, Here's a link that might be of interest

Here is a link that might be useful: dog tub/shower

This looks like the product sierraeast linked to. There's a separate ramp shown on the bottom of the page.

Claire

Here is a link that might be useful: Booster bath

I'm with the others on nixing the exterior door inside the shower. I have 2 bathrooms with exterior doors (we have a pool in the backyard and wanted bathroom access without going through the house both in the guest bath and in the master)> Neither of these are *in* the shower. If it were my house, I'd move the shower.

I also cannot bend to wash the bigger dogs' bellies, feet- I want a room that Sandyponder writes of- but I want a 'bench'- about 2 foot wide by 4 foot long- about 2 foot high. It will have 2 steps on one end. It will be built against a wall. Withinreach of the shower hose. This will be where the dogs will get washed off. My dogs already know to jump on a wooden bench outside for rinsing off- (oh PLEASE don't ask me to jump up- I KNOW you're goona clean me... I'd rather smell like horse poop!) Basically, it looks like a shower bench, but with a step. It will have the same kind of tile as the rest of the room. This may not be liked by everybody, but it will be one more way to help my back.

ilmbg: The bench sounds good, but I think you need to be sure the tiles (or top surface) aren't at all slippery when soaped up.

If your big dogs slip once, you'll have a major battle getting them up there again.

Claire

It can be done and when I'm finish doing it I will tell you. This is the 21st century we can do it!

Yes. We have one at our shore house. The shower on the lower level opens to the outside and another door inside the house so you can shower from the beach without dragging sand into the house.

I think this is the oldest revived post I have seen; 13 years.

@susi_so_calif - I would love to see a pic of this. We are remodeling a bathroom that looks as though a bathtub was removed to add an exterior door to the pool. The shower ended up tiny, 29 x 32 roughly. We are thinking of expanding the shower "area" to include the door to outside.

The OP may have sold the house by this time.

Nice thread! We are also looking at cutting a door to the outside, and the only place available is the back wall of the shower stall. We are looking at the best door and hardware to avoid rusting.

We are in northern California and are literally about to attempt this - we are removing a small enclosed indoor shower, cutting a door into the wall that leads to the back deck, which will walk directly into an outdoor shower! We are working on what kind of door will work so that it won't rot or rust and we think it might have to be a thick glass door with tile around it. I'll share photos when it's done, but if any of you have any ideas/photos of yours that you've done, please share!

@Martha McClatchie if you are further along than us and have door ideas, share?

Has anyone found such doors for this situation? I am currently designing a bath solely for this purpose. Exterior doors to shower from outside and then no glass door to the rest of the bathroom. Open concept with a toilet room.

Hi Jeff, I’m a General Contractor, we are using a Plastpro composite door for the shower door to the exterior in our upcoming project (They have a composite jamb as well) plus Hager company hardware

@Allison Bart we are also based in Northern California and attempting to do something like this in our pool house. What door did you end up using and would love to see photos!

@aaron Jacobson we ended up holding on the project because we couldn't make up our minds on how to do it! I will send you info if we do it in the spring of 2022 and please do the same if you end up doing it? It's very hard to find photos of things like this.

We are almost certainly going to do this- but are also debating on door. Thinking a sliding glass door would work fine- any water that gets in would drain to the outside anyway. Probably a lot of additional cleaning required but it'd be beautiful. Alternatively thinking vinyl outswing french doors would also work. Potentially in-glass blinds for both in case somebody is worried about privacy. The idea would be that the back wall of the shower opens to a garden with a small waterfall and pond (completely private), maybe also with an outdoor shower for post hot-tub. Thoughts on the slider? The good thing is that it's a lot of glass and already tempered. Live in NorCal so minus 20 degrees isn't an issue.

Quick update- spoke with Milgard technical and they said no reason we couldn't use a sliding glass door- just keep the tracks clean. Niiiice.

We live in upper Midwest where it snows & can get -15F. We would like to do this so that when we come in from outside in the winter after a sauna or hot tub we can go literally 2 steps from the back door immediately into a warm shower. Instead of walking through the mudroom, kitchen, around the corner into the sunroom to enter the bathroom.


*We also like this idea for in future if have a larger dog that needs a quick rinse off. As our mudroom sink is too small.

Was anyone successful in finding a good shower door do outdoor access?

These looks like a good option:

https://www.milgard.com/doors/moving-glass-wall-systems/stacking-glass-walls-aluminum

Any updates? wonwondering if this is rea pospossible

"Any updates? wondering if this is really possible"

This is very common in Europe, particularly Nordic countries and Alpine areas. Many homes have a sauna and then between the sauna and outside door they'll have a room with a shower or two as well as places to hang clothes and maybe some seating. So not a small shower but open shower space as part of a larger room.

There's an example plan about 3/4 of the way down on this page: https://localmile.org/trumpkins-notes-on-building-a-sauna/