Content
The design of a country toilet is chosen based on the frequency of stay of the owners on the site. And if in a small, rarely visited country house you can quickly build a simple toilet, then this option is not suitable for a residential and frequently visited country house. Here you will need a well-equipped outdoor toilet or a bathroom inside the house. Whichever of these options is chosen, you will have to dig a reservoir underneath to collect sewage. Today we will look at what parameters are used to determine the depth and width of a pit for a toilet in a country house, and we will also touch upon the process of its construction.
Rules for placing a cesspool
Certain rules apply to the placement of a country cesspool. This is especially true for leaking tanks where sewage comes into contact with the ground. Before building a toilet in the country with your own hands, determine the location of the cesspool, taking into account the following parameters:
- The location of the cesspool at the dacha is determined so that it is no closer than 25 m to any source of water.Here it is important to take into account the topography of the dacha plot. In hilly areas, the reservoir is located lower in relation to the area with a residential building and a water source. Even if the cesspool overflows, sewage will not be able to penetrate into the well or under the foundation of the house. The topography of the dacha area and the location of water sources must also be taken into account in relation to the neighboring plot.
- To residential country buildings, especially if they have a basement or cellar, the cesspool is placed no closer than 12 m. A distance of 8 m is maintained from the pit to the shower or bathhouse, but it is allowed to approach outbuildings up to 4 m.
- Neighboring summer cottages are separated by boundaries. So, a cesspool cannot be dug closer than 1 m to this demarcation line, as well as to the fence. Sanitary standards do not allow planting trees closer than 4 m to a sewage reservoir. For shrubs this figure is 1 m.
- The location of the cesspool at the dacha is calculated taking into account the direction of the wind. According to my observations, in which direction the wind most often blows, the tank is positioned so that the smell from it evaporates in the opposite direction from residential buildings.
- The groundwater level greatly influences the construction of a cesspool. If they are located at a depth of 2.5 m, construction of any type of tank is allowed. If the layer of water is high, it is necessary to install only a sealed container under the cesspool or build a country toilet of a powder-closet system.
These rules apply to all country toilets, except powder-closets and backlash-closets, since the waste in them does not come into contact with the soil.
Calculation of the volume of a country cesspool
After the location of the pit for the toilet in the country has been determined, you need to decide on its size.For an ordinary outdoor toilet, a cesspool is dug 1.5–2 m deep. The dimensions of the side walls of the tank are taken arbitrarily, for example, 1x1 m, 1x1.5 m or 1.5x1.5 m. There is no point in digging a very wide hole, since it is more difficult cover the top.
When a cesspool in a country house is built for a sewerage system coming from a residential building, bathhouse and other similar buildings, some calculations will need to be made here. First of all, they start from the number of people living at the dacha. The basis is the average daily water consumption of one person - 180 liters. After making calculations, you can find out that three people in a country house will fill a cesspool with sewage with a volume of approximately 12 m3 in a month.3. However, the cesspool is not made end-to-end, so with a reserve the volume will be 18 m3.
If there is a washing machine and other water-folding equipment in a country house, the amount of waste water is taken into account according to the passport data of the devices.
In any case, the cesspool is not dug deeper than three meters. If this volume of the reservoir at the dacha is not enough, it means that you will have to pump out more often or install a septic tank, where the treated wastewater will flow onto the filter field and be absorbed into the ground.
Construction of a cesspool at the dacha from different materials
When the question arises of how to dig a hole for a toilet in a country house, one answer arises - with a shovel or an excavator. Another thing is to figure out the arrangement of the tank.Different materials are used for its construction. The service life of the cesspool depends on how correctly the construction technology is followed.
It should be noted that country tanks are sealed and have a filter bottom. The first ones need to be pumped out more often, and the second ones pollute the soil and groundwater. In general, unsealed cesspools are prohibited by sanitary standards, but they continue to be built in summer cottages.
Brick pit with a sealed and filtering bottom
The first step is to dig a pit under the tank. It's best to do this with a shovel. The volume is small, but you get a flat hole. It is advisable to give the tank a square or rectangular shape. So, it is easier to lay brick walls. The size of the dug hole should be larger than the useful volume of the tank. Firstly, the thickness of the brick walls is taken into account. Secondly, the structure will need to be waterproofed from the outside, where a certain gap between the wall and the ground will be required.
After the pit is completely dug, they begin to arrange the bottom. For a sealed cesspool, the bottom of the pit is firmly compacted. A sand cushion 150 mm thick is poured on top and compacted again. Halves of red brick are loosely laid out along the entire bottom of the pit, and a reinforcing mesh is placed on top. You can make it yourself from reinforcement by tying the rods with wire. After this, a 150 mm layer of concrete with crushed stone is poured and allowed to harden.
If the bottom of the cesspool is filtering, a 150 mm sand cushion is poured into the pit, and a layer of coarse crushed stone or pebbles of the same thickness is added on top. To build the walls of a cesspool around the perimeter of the pit, a small foundation is poured from concrete using reinforcement.
When the concrete bottom or foundation has completely hardened after 10 days, begin laying out the walls of the cesspool. Typically, the construction of a tank is carried out using half a brick, and silicate blocks are not suitable for this work. They decompose in the ground. It is best to use red brick. Of course, a cinder block tank will last the longest. The finished walls of the cesspool are plastered with concrete mortar or I simply seal the seams, but the inside and outside are treated with bitumen mastic. Waterproofing will make the cesspool airtight and prevent the destruction of the brick.
The finished pit for the toilet must be covered. If there is no ready-made concrete slab, we will look at how to make it yourself:
- At the time of manufacturing the slab, the gap between the walls of the pit and the brick cesspool must be filled with soil and compacted tightly. Along the perimeter of the brick tank, a layer of soil is removed to a depth of 200 mm. A concrete thickening will be poured here to serve as a support for the slab.
- The cesspool itself is covered with sheets of tin. From below, temporary supports will have to be made from logs so that the concrete solution does not bend the thin formwork.
- A reinforcing mesh with 100 mm cells is knitted from reinforcement 12–15 mm thick. The metal structure is laid on top of the formwork. At this time, it is necessary to provide a hole above the pit. Additional reinforcement is laid around the future hatch and formwork sides are installed so that the concrete does not flow into the pit.
- The solution is prepared from M400 cement and sand in a ratio of 1:3. It is advisable to add crushed stone or other stone filler. The slab is poured in one go.
The crude solution is lightly sprinkled with water for two days.When the concrete has set, the slab is moistened again, covered with polyethylene, and left to gain strength for at least a month.
Cesspool for a country toilet made of a plastic tank
A cesspool made from a plastic tank plays the role of a storage tank. A slightly larger pit is dug under the PVC tank. It is enough to maintain a gap of 200 mm between the container and the walls of the pit. The bottom is cemented according to the same principle as for a brick cesspool. However, even at the stage of manufacturing the reinforcing mesh, metal loops are provided. They should protrude from the concrete in height. In the future, there will be a plastic reservoir attached to the hinges.
When the concrete has completely hardened, a plastic tank is lowered into the hole. It is tied with cables and secured to the loops protruding on the slab. This fixation will prevent the light barrel from being pushed out of the ground by groundwater. The next stage involves backfilling the gap between the walls of the pit and the PVC tank. It is better to do this with a dry mixture of five parts sand and one part cement.
A concrete platform can be poured on top of the plastic cesspool.
Using concrete rings to build a cesspool in a country house
You can make a cesspool from concrete rings according to the principle of a designer - quickly. However, here you will need the help of lifting equipment. The pit is dug in the same way as for a plastic container. The arrangement of the bottom is no different in the case of a brick cesspool. That is, it can be filtering or sealed.In the second case, you can resort to a little trick. There are concrete rings with a cast bottom. Installing one such specimen at the bottom of the pit will eliminate unnecessary work on concreting the bottom.
Reinforced concrete rings are lowered into the pit, stacked on top of each other. If there are connecting locks at the ends, the joining of the rings occurs dry. It is advisable to lay a layer of concrete mortar between the straight ends for sealing. Moreover, such rings are tightened together with metal staples to avoid their shifting.
Further work consists of the same waterproofing of the walls of the reinforced concrete tank and backfilling. It is better to cover the top of the ring with a finished reinforced concrete slab with a hatch. If it is not there, you will have to concrete it using the same method as for a brick cesspool.
The video shows a cesspool made of concrete rings:
Cesspool at the dacha made of monolithic concrete walls
In terms of labor intensity, a cesspool made of monolithic concrete is considered the most complex. Now we will look at how to make all this work easier at the dacha:
- The pit is dug exactly in the shape that needs to be given to the cesspool. In this case, the dimensions of the walls are increased by 150 mm for pouring concrete.
- The bottom of the pit is prepared for concreting in the same way as for a brick pit, only the reinforcing mesh is laid with the edges of the rods bent upward.
- Sheets of roofing material are fixed to the earthen walls of the pit. This will be the inside of the tank formwork. Vertical rods along the height of the pit are tied to the bent rods of the bottom reinforcing mesh with wire. They are connected to each other by transverse rods. As a result, a reinforcing frame with 100 mm cells is obtained throughout the entire pit.
- Concreting begins from the bottom of the pit.When the solution has set, the outer formwork for the walls of the tank is built. Concrete solution is poured inside the finished structure. Periodically it is pierced with a stick to seal it. The work must be completed in one day. After a week, you can remove the outer formwork, and the tank itself will gain strength for at least a month.
A concrete cover with a hatch over a monolithic cesspool is made using the method of constructing a tank with brick walls.
Cleaning a country cesspool
Any cesspool eventually fills up, silts up and requires cleaning. Several methods are used for this:
- Cleaning a cesspool in a country house on your own involves the use of fecal pumps, scoops and other devices. The disadvantage of this method is the spread of bad odor over a large area and the problem of waste disposal.
- The easiest way is to use a sewer truck. True, it will be necessary to provide free access to the cesspool. In addition, such services will have to be constantly paid for.
- The use of biological products allows waste to decompose in the tank. Cleaning the cesspool at the dacha is done less frequently, and the decomposition products themselves can be used in the garden instead of fertilizer.
- If the cesspool urgently needs to be cleaned in winter, then biological products will not cope. Bacteria do not reproduce at subzero temperatures. Chemicals will come to the rescue. But after using them, the issue of waste disposal remains.
In the video you can see the cleaning of the cesspool:
All the considered cesspools function equally well. Which one to choose for a country toilet depends on the preferences of the owner.
