Our outdoor shower is an old recycled wine vat with a gallows like affair to hang a solar shower bag from. We set the vat on legs and cut out a section to get in and out. This was then attached to a deck we built about 16 years ago. Strangely enough, the framework of the deck is now rotten and requires replacing.

We were struggling to work out how to remove the shower assembly, replace the deck and then put the shower back. Until that is, Breezy came up with the idea of just replacing half the deck and sliding the shower across from the old to the new deck. Brilliant, no heavy lifting or wine vat disintegrating into the 50 (or so) component parts.

We set to dismantling half the deck and soon realised that the only thing holding anything together was the decking boards themselves. The framework was completely unattached and floppier than a very floppy thing. In order to maintain the half of the old deck with the shower we employed an old car jack under one of the joists.

The half we wanted to replace was surprisingly easy to take apart. A frame was built with treated new wood and the site cleared. We dug a soak away under the shower site and built up a stone wall for one end of the terrace to sit on. The next hurdle was to get the frame into place. Fortunately we saw some friends from the village walking on the piste past the barn and press-ganged them in to lend us some muscle. Two minute later the frame was in place and beers and coffees were enjoyed in the sunshine. That same afternoon we set to laying the decking boards salvaged from previous terraces.

We thought that it would take 4 people to shift the shower over to the new deck but we managed it ourselves by sliding it a few inches at a time. Once in situ we straightened it all up, fixed it down and tied it back to an anchor in the wall. Hey presto and Boom, it all worked and is ready for action again. With luck this version should last another 15 years or so.

Next step is to remove the last bits of old decking and decide what to do with the space?

Then replace the legs of the barrel and the gallows.