How to Build an Outhouse

[Lostinoz]

http://www.ihowd.com/how-to-build-an-outhouse

Many people in the world do not have the benefit of indoor plumbing. An outhouse keeps everyone healthy and safe from bacterial infection. Building an outhouse is relatively easy and will make a second home, cabin, or campsite more enjoyable.

Maintaining your outhouse:

http://www.greenhousesandgazebos.com/maintaining-your-outhouse.aspx

After having been forced to stop at my share of roadside outhouses, I've determined that outhouse maintenance is a lost tradition! However, this wasn't always the case. Although the employees of route 66 gas stations don't care about the cleanliness of their outhouse, a privately owned privy is another story. Homeowner's of the past went to great lengths to make their "thrones" as comfortable and as aromatic as possible.

If you take pride in your privy, here are a few maintenance tips for your crappy cleaning:

Don't put disinfectant cleaners such as Pinesol or Clorox bleach down your outhouse pit. Highly-concentrated disinfectants will kill the "good bugs" - those that help break down solid waste by eating it.

Throwing toilet paper in the outhouse pit slows decomposition. Instead, put used TP in a trash bag and burn it later.

Many advise tossing a few handfuls of ash down the outhouse pit to minimize odors. Ashes from a fire pit or wood stove are also said to help solids settle to the bottom of the pit faster.

Placing a bucket of lime with a scoop in the outhouse is an age-old practice. A few scoops of lime thrown down the outhouse hole will tame the nasty smells, keep bugs at bay and speed up the decomposition of waste.

Leave the outhouse door ajar when it's not in use to promote ventilation.

Place air freshener spray or pucks around the inside of the outhouse.

A store bought toilet seat with a lid can also be attached over the outhouse hole to ease the smell, bugs and backside discomfort.

Store bought septic tank aids are available in tablet form. Septic tablets can be thrown down the outhouse hole, once per week, in order to aid in odor removal and to help speed up the process of decomposition.

Run pieces of plastic piping (approximately 4 feet down) inside the outhouse hole and up through the roof. This will promote the ventilation of methane gas and keep the smell down.

When your outhouse pit gets full - there's nothing to do, but move house! Typically a new outhouse pit is dug in the summer when the ground is completely thawed. The outhouse is moved overtop the new hole and the dirt from the new hole is used to cover over the old hole. Then let Mother Nature take her course. Eventually your old outhouse pit will provide the perfect and most fertile spot for a garden.

[unswydd]

This is great. l lived out in CA in the mountains just outside of Yosemite and had an outhouse. We always kept a bag of lime and a big stick outside of the door. My boyfriend at the time bought a toliet seat and covered it in terrycloth for me. He also insulated it with newspaper and old carpet remnants. It was pretty neat actually. LOL
I didn't mind going in at all. LOL

[Lostinoz]

This is great. l lived out in CA in the mountains just outside of Yosemite and had an outhouse. We always kept a bag of lime and a big stick outside of the door. My boyfriend at the time bought a toliet seat and covered it in terrycloth for me. He also insulated it with newspaper and old carpet remnants. It was pretty neat actually. LOL
I didn't mind going in at all. LOL

Around my area, you learn to check for snakes very quickly. ;) My grandparents did not have indoor plumbing.

[Omegaman]

My grandparents had a double hole and our camp had a single, both aways from the houses. As a kid I hated having to walk out to them in the middle of the night with the kerosene lamp:( or use them in the northern Maine winter (-30):eek:. We used both wood ash and fast acting lime in them and they must have been dug deep or they worked real good because we never relocated them in my life time. But in rainy weather they could stink. Some things no matter how simple work great and stand the test of time.

[Lostinoz]

My grandparents had a double hole and our camp had a single, both aways from the houses. As a kid I hated having to walk out to them in the middle of the night with the kerosene lamp:( or use them in the northern Maine winter (-30):eek:. We used both wood ash and fast acting lime in them and they must have been dug deep or they worked real good because we never relocated them in my life time. But in rainy weather they could stink. Some things no matter how simple work great and stand the test of time.

Wow, and I thought getting a mosquito bite on the rearend was tough! Brrr.. I don't think I could ever get used to that kind of winter.

[pathfinder3081]

Every out house should have " SPIDER STICK".. it hangs on the wall. (lol) And you chatter around the seat with it and then give it two loud racks to the edge. How deep is the privey?.. it is like counting thunder and lighting...(smile)
(I thought everyone knew that)... PF

[Lostinoz]

Ok, that's it. Snakes, spiders, cold weather, mosquito bites... It is chamber pots all around for this household. ;)

[kenno]

The tradition in Australia was to locate even the plumbed toilet in the yard, over the septic tank, and in warm climates that is actualy a great idea, with proper venting.
My wife and I rented a single-wide mobilehome located at the far end of an OLD USAAF airbase near Darwin NT, it was a great camp except for the porceline green frogs that lived in the toilet located in a cinderblock 'Dunny' located off the shelterd parking spot attached to the mobilehome. Disturbed my wife to no end, I never could figgure-out why!
BTW that was the only Mobileome I ever noticed in OZ.

[davidm]

You can also build a permanent outhouse like this - self-sustained.com/building-an-outhouse-outdoor-toilet-part-1/ - You can use some anaerobic bacteria to decompose the contents of the pit and you can later drain it. I don't think it can be immediately used as a fertilizer, but after you dry it on the sun human waste should do a good job.

[TheMadPlumbarian]

Wow this is a old post, but i guess ill put my two cents in, since im a plumber. just because your off in no where land doesnt mean you cant have a toilet, in the house in that matter. if you have power they make a electric toilet, kinda neat, it roasts it! but if you dont have power, and dont want to go outside, they also have a composting toilet, my father has both, yet has yet to use them. we have a nice piece of land with a large building, slowly we've been working on it, and maybe we might get done.. JR

[Echo2]

I wrote this on another forum....this is what I built...


"All aluminum frame....6 ft x 4ft footprint.....shed type roof 7 ft in front and 6 ft in back.....foam backed one side and aluminum backed other side plywood (R 6) for the sides and door....the roof will be of the translucent type for light.

I plan on having a 22" x 72" shelf for the seat....and 26" x 72" for the floor, with a height of 15" (the seat will bring it up to 16.5"). This will be broke from one piece of 1/4" aluminum for easy clean up...braced from underneath....and drains in the floor. I figure one 40 mm can to one side or the other for the paper...and a shelf for a wash station....be it sanitizer in winter or rainwater and soap in summer.

On the back....there will be a shute and bucket bin for lime.....so you can do it from the outside and not spill lime all over the seat.

The seat will have a gasket on it....and the underneath will be vented with a 4" pipe to a foot beyond the roof.

The feet will be off a old scaffold system for leveling purposes (set on cap block).....and will have 4...1"x 24" spikes holding it in place (with micro chain dogs).

We are thinking some of the small solar path lights for night time visits.....found some at a yard sale... 2 cases of 6...12 lights.....but they were old....and the light output was low....at best....the new ones are much brighter....and have a switch.

The hole is where I may need some advice.....we have a 24" auger for the tractor.....and you can dig about a 48" deep hole. "