How to build a toilet in the country with your own hands

Recommendation points

• Digging a cesspool
• We strengthen the walls and cover the pit
• What to build a cabin from
• How to cover and sheathe the toilet
• Simple seat design
• Interior finishing options

The development of a summer cottage begins with solving the problems of everyday life and sanitation, which is difficult to imagine in the absence of a toilet. You don’t need a lot of effort to build an outdoor toilet, a minimum of building materials will be left, while with due diligence, even the simplest closet can be made quite neat.

Digging a cesspool

In fact, the pit of a street toilet is nothing more than a single-chamber anaerobic septic tank. With a relatively small volume of incoming waste, it is possible to efficiently clarify and discharge it into the soil without the prospect of attracting a sewer truck. The drainage field of such a septic tank is located along the contour of the walls and at the same time it excludes the ingress of drains into the upper water. However, in addition to the correct device of the pit itself, two specific issues need to be resolved..

The first is determining sufficient capacity. The calculation of the volume should be carried out inland from the line of occurrence of the upper water-resistant layer, because above this mark, under normal conditions, the level of waste in the pit should not rise. It is believed that it is possible to exclude forced cleaning of the toilet pit if its capacity is 1–1.5 m³ for each person. This is a very rough approximation, because the intensity of using the toilet in the country can vary widely.

The second question is the placement of the toilet cubicle at least half above the pit. For this reason, it is much easier to first arrange a foundation – a thin tape with a section of about 20×20 cm. The foundation of the toilet is rectangular in plan, it can be square or slightly elongated along. Instead of reinforced concrete tape, you can use 3–4 rows of brickwork. The part of the masonry located directly above the pit is reinforced with steel corners.

The pit itself does not have to be the correct shape. It is allowed to make a narrow ledge under the seat in order to reduce the size of the cabin, and then dig out the extended outer part. The hole must be dug in such a way that at the corners of the tape there is a pillar of soil of at least 30–35 cm, these areas must be supported during the digging process from collapse with shield formwork. Keep in mind that the size of the pit will eventually shrink by about 40 cm on each side..

We strengthen the walls and cover the pit

The operation of the toilet pit according to the principle of a septic tank is possible only if its lower part, containing activated sludge, is tight. Therefore, it is required to overlay the pit with masonry in half a brick around the perimeter. Thus, a septic tank is formed, the bottom of which is sealed with a dense layer of soaked clay 20-30 cm thick.

When the masonry reaches a level 10-15 cm below the line of occurrence of the upper waterproof layer, 3-4 next rows of bricks are laid out with gaps for the outflow of clarified liquid. As the tank is filled, anaerobic microorganisms will be included in the work, which can also be artificially cultivated by introducing special preparations. When the level of waste in the pit reaches the overflow mark, from half to 2/3 of the upper part of the pit will be occupied by clarified wastewater.

The drainage field of such a simple septic tank is represented by a backfill of sand and gravel surrounding the pit on those sides where there are holes in the masonry for outflow. It makes no sense to place them inside the cabin, it would be much more correct to direct the outflow outward. Pouring a mixture of sand with crushed stone into the space between the soil and the brick well is a simple task, but the thickness of the backing should not be less than 25-30 cm.

When the pit well is erected and sprinkled, it needs to be covered to make the area behind the toilet usable, for example, for planting shrubs. In this case, it is necessary to leave the revision throat and mount the fan riser. This is done quite simply: a slate sheet is laid on the pit walls, in which two holes are drilled along the contour with a 5-10 mm drill: one with a diameter of about 40 cm for the revision manhole, the other 50 mm almost close to the back wall of the toilet. A strip of soaked cragis rolled into a sleeve is inserted into a large hole, a 50 mm section of a sewer pipe is inserted into a small hole with a bell up, all gaps are sealed with raw clay.

A concrete screed is poured onto the surface of the slate with a layer of about 40 mm in the thinnest part, after setting, a reinforcing mesh is laid and the pouring is completed with a layer of concrete of 70–80 mm. Under the back of the foundation, the gap between the tape and the resulting overlap must be blocked up with a brick in cement mortar, and the throat of the revision hatch is laid out with it. On the resulting overlap, you need to spread two layers of plastic wrap and fill the rest of the hole with fertile soil.

What to build a cabin from

It is easiest to base the body of an outdoor toilet on a wooden frame. To make it, you need to knock down two frames from a 50×50 mm bar. The height of the frames will correspond to the height of the booth in the lowest part, it is chosen in accordance with its own height, but preferably at least two meters.

The width of the frames determines the depth of the booth. It should be borne in mind that 50-60 cm from the back wall will take the seat, plus there should still be enough space to freely enter and turn around with the door closed. Thus, the optimal overall depth of the toilet cubicle is about 120-140 cm..

The frames are knocked down in the shape of a rectangle, with one of the long sides protruding an additional 35–40 cm to form a slope of the roof. The broken frames are raised vertically and placed parallel to each other at some distance. It, like the height of the toilet, is selected individually, but the door with the installation block must necessarily fit into this dimension. It also makes sense to determine the width of the booth according to the size of the existing roofing material, leaving 15-20 cm for the side overhangs.

First, the frames are connected to each other at the back of the booth with two horizontal beams made of 50×50 mm timber or a slightly wider board. In the front of the communication lines there are three: at the very bottom, exactly opposite the upper horizontal crossbars of the frames and at the very top, where the ends of the tails protruding from the frames are located. Two wooden posts should be inserted between the lower and middle crossbar, thus forming an almost finished door installation block.

If you need to form a vestibule, 15×30 mm strips are screwed along the inner perimeter of the opening. If the resulting structure seems too flimsy, its side and back walls need to be strengthened. It will be enough to have two long slats 50 mm wide, which are inserted diagonally into the frame of the frame. In the center at the intersection of the strips, you need to draw out their ends and trim the groove to the middle of the width of the strip.

How to cover and sheathe the toilet

Usually, the width of one sheet of any of the common materials – slate, profiled sheet or a couple of strips of standing seam roofing – is sufficient for the installation of a toilet roof; you can also use moisture-resistant plywood. It is much more important to arrange a crate with minimal material consumption..

Since the slope of the roof is directed backward, it will have to be laid on the crate connecting the side frame frames. They need to be screwed to them on the outer sides along a wide (150-200 mm) board that forms a slope. Next, an arbitrary number of bars is inserted between the boards, to which the roof will be fixed.

According to the available dimensions of the doorway, you need to rally several boards, fastening them with crossbars 30 cm from the top and bottom, and then adding a diagonal brace between them. It is recommended to make crossbars that do not reach the edge of the boardboard by 8–10 cm, so that later the door can be trimmed to the required height and the sides can be trimmed to the shape of the opening. The door is hung on overhead hinges from the outside, on both sides you need to screw the handles, and from the inside – a latch or hook.

Anything can go to the cab trim. An economical option is a wide board with a thickness of 10-15 mm, which is stuffed onto the frame with a herringbone pattern like wooden siding. The back wall is sewn up the easiest way and close to the roof. On the side walls, the upper edge is beveled, here it is necessary to pre-hem the frame with some sheet material or add several vertical bridges to fasten the cladding fragments.

From the front side, you need to hem the upper part so that a through transom with a height of 15–20 cm remains above the door. It is needed both for natural light and for maintaining the correct direction of ventilation. Air enters from under the roof and is drawn through the seat into the pit thanks to the fan riser. Thus, the toilet will always have a clean atmosphere free of microbes and foreign odors, but at the same time it is necessary to remove the riser pipe at least 50-70 cm above the roof and close the inspection hatch tightly.

Simple seat design

If you are not planning to concrete the floor in the toilet, place a few beams on the tape as logs and lay a wooden floor. In the part of the floor above the pit, you need to immediately make a hole of about 50×50 cm exactly along the longitudinal center of the booth. On a wooden floor, the seat is usually knocked down the full width of the cabin. You only need a wooden rectangular frame made of timber, which is screwed to the floor and is not fixed to the walls.

Until the frame is sheathed from the outside, two jumpers are added in its upper part and the neck is knocked out of the boards according to the size of the cutout in the floor. After that, the front wall is hemmed blindly, and an egg-shaped hole is made in the upper shelf and a toilet seat is attached. It is desirable to treat wood with antiseptics. The shelves formed on the sides are convenient to use for storing hygiene items, it also makes sense to arrange a hidden paper bin on one side.

On a concrete floor, the seat can be folded into a pedestal type. When installing a screed, you need to roll a sheet of galvanized iron about 50-60 cm high into an oval roll and install this sleeve over the pit. The internal dimensions of the resulting throat are 25 cm in width and 30–35 cm in length. After the floor is poured, a casing of plaster mesh is rolled up around the sleeve and about 4–5 cm of cement mortar is thrown in. While the mortar has not yet set, it is necessary to insert mortgages at the back of the pedestal for attaching the toilet seat. Outside, the pedestal can be tiled to form an aesthetic octahedral column.

Important advice: for both wooden and stone seats, it will be very useful to lay in advance at a depth of 60–70 cm from the toilet seat a wide cut-off corner with the edge up and along the hole, protecting against back splashes.

Interior finishing options

At this stage, the country toilet is almost ready, but it would be nice to finish the cabin from the inside. This will reduce airflow and make cleaning much easier. In the simplest version, you can sheathe the walls from the inside with thin-sheet MDF for painting. Another option is to nail the kitchen oilcloth of not too bright colors with staples..

Trimming materials for interior decoration are quite suitable for these purposes: drywall, gypsum plasterboard, magnesite plates and OSB. Subsequently, it is highly desirable for them to provide a hydrophobic coating, for which ordinary alkyd enamel will do..