Cesspool for a toilet in the country with their own hands

Contents

Rules for placing a cesspool
Calculation of the volume of a country cesspool
Construction of a cesspool in the country from different materials
Cleaning a country cesspool

The design of the country toilet is chosen, guided by the frequency of the owners’ stay on the site. And if in a small, rarely visited, dacha, you can quickly build a simple toilet, then this option will not work for a residential and frequently visited country house. This will require a well-equipped outdoor toilet or bathroom inside the house. Whichever of these options is chosen, they will have to dig a reservoir for collecting sewage. Today we will consider by what parameters the depth and width of the pit for the toilet in the country is determined, and we will also touch on 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 leaky tanks, where sewage comes into contact with the soil. Before you build 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 in the country is determined so that it is no closer than 25 m to any source of water. It is important to take into account the relief of the suburban area. On hilly terrain, the reservoir is located lower in relation to the site 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 relief of the suburban area and the location of water sources must also be taken into account in relation to the neighboring site.
To residential summer cottages, especially if they have a basement or cellar, a cesspool is placed no closer than 12 m. A distance of 8 m is kept from the pit to a shower or bath, but it is allowed to approach household buildings 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 the sewage tank. For shrubs, this figure is 1 m.
The location of the cesspool in the country is calculated taking into account the direction of the wind. According to their observations, in which direction the wind blows most often, the reservoir is positioned so that the smell from it disappears in the opposite direction from the residential buildings.
The groundwater level greatly affects the construction of a cesspool. If they are at a depth of 2,5 m, it is allowed to build a tank of any type. With a high location of the water layer under the cesspool, it is only necessary to install a hermetic container or build a country toilet of the powder-closet system.

These rules apply to all country toilets, except for 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 is determined, it is necessary to determine 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, 1×1 m, 1×1,5 m or 1,5×1,5 m. It makes no sense to dig a very wide hole, since it is more difficult cover on top.

When a cesspool in a country house is built for a sewerage system coming from a residential building, a bathhouse and other similar buildings, some calculations will need to be made here. First of all, they are repelled by the number of people living in the country. The average daily water consumption by one person is taken as a basis – 180 liters. After making calculations, you can find out that three people in the country in a month will fill the cesspool with drains of about 12 m³. However, a cesspool is not made end-to-end, therefore, with a margin, the volume will be 18 m³.

If there is a washing machine and other water-folding equipment in the country house, the number of drains is taken into account according to the passport data of the devices.

Attention! If the cesspool in the country is made leaky without a bottom, the properties of the soil are taken into account. Loose and sandy soils can absorb up to 40% of liquid waste per month. This makes it possible to reduce the volume of the reservoir. Clay soil does not absorb water well. In such a summer cottage, a hole will have to be dug with some margin.

In any case, the cesspool does not dig deeper than three meters. If this volume of the reservoir in the country house is not enough, it means that you will have to pump out more often or install a septic tank, where the treated effluents will drain into the filter field and soak into the ground.

Construction of a cesspool in the country from different materials

When the question arises of how to dig a hole for a toilet in the country, one answer suggests itself – with a shovel or an excavator. Another thing is to deal with the arrangement of the reservoir. Various materials are used for its construction. The service life of the cesspool depends on how correctly the construction technology is observed.

It should be noted that country tanks are sealed and with a filtering bottom. The first ones need to be pumped out more often, and the second ones pollute the soil and groundwater. In general, leaky cesspools are prohibited by sanitary standards, but they continue to be built in summer cottages.

Brick pit with sealed and filtering bottom

The first step is to dig a pit under the tank. This is best done with a shovel. The volume is small, but you get a flat pit. The shape of the tank is desirable to give a square or rectangular. So, it is easier to lay brick walls. The size of the dug hole should be larger than the usable volume of the tank. First, 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 out, proceed to the arrangement of the bottom. For a hermetic cesspool, the bottom of the pit is firmly rammed. A sand cushion 150 mm thick is poured on top, and rammed again. Halves of red brick are loosely laid out along the entire bottom of the pit, and a reinforcing mesh is laid on top. It can be made independently from reinforcement by tying the rods with wire. After that, 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 gravel or pebbles of the same thickness is added on top. To build the walls of the cesspool along the perimeter of the pit, a small foundation is poured from concrete using reinforcement.

When the concreted bottom or foundation completely hardens after 10 days, they begin to lay out the walls of the cesspool. Usually the construction of the tank is carried out in half a brick, and silicate blocks are not suitable for this work. They decompose in the ground. It is best to use red brick. The longest, of course, will last a cinder block tank. The finished walls of the cesspool are plastered with concrete mortar or I simply close the seams, but they are treated with bituminous mastic on the inside and outside. 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 manufacture of the slab, the gap between the walls of the pit and the brick cesspool must be covered with soil and tightly packed. Along the perimeter of the brick tank, a layer of soil is cleaned to a depth of 200 mm. Here, a concrete thickening will be poured, which serves as the stop of the slab.
The cesspool itself is covered with sheets of tin. From below, temporary supports will have to be made from the logs so that the concrete solution does not bend the thin formwork.
A reinforcing mesh with 12 mm cells is knitted from reinforcement with a thickness of 15–100 mm. The metal structure is laid on top of the formwork. At this time, a hole must be provided 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 cement grade M400 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 sets, the slab is moistened again, covered with polyethylene, and left to gain strength for at least a month.

Cesspool for a country toilet from a plastic tank

A cesspool made of a plastic tank plays the role of a storage tank. Under the PVC tank, they dig a pit a little larger. It is enough to maintain a gap of 200 mm between the tank 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. In height, they should protrude from concrete. In the future, a plastic tank will be attached to the hinges.

When the concrete has completely hardened, a plastic tank is lowered into the pit. It is tied with cables and fixed to the loops protruding on the plate. Such fixation will prevent the light barrel from being pushed out of the ground by groundwater. The next step 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 of sand and one part of cement.

Attention! To prevent soil pressure from crushing the plastic tank, it is filled with water before backfilling. When the sand-cement backfill is compacted, the liquid is pumped out of the tank.

Above the plastic cesspool, you can pour a concrete pad.

The use of concrete rings for the construction of a cesspool in the country

It is possible to 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 instance on the bottom of the pit will save you from unnecessary work on concreting the bottom.

Reinforced concrete rings are lowered into the pit, installing on top of each other. If there are connecting locks at the ends, the rings are joined dry. Between the even ends, it is desirable to lay a layer of concrete mortar for sealing. Moreover, such rings are pulled together with metal brackets to avoid their shift.

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 using the same method as for a brick cesspool.

The video shows a cesspool made of concrete rings:

Cesspool in the country from monolithic concrete walls

In terms of labor intensity, a cesspool made of monolithic concrete is considered the most difficult. Now we will consider how to make all these works easier in the country:

The pit is dug out in exactly the shape that you want to give the cesspool. At the same time, 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 up.
Sheets of roofing material are fixed on the earthen walls of the pit. This will be the inner side of the tank formwork. Vertical rods are tied to the bent rods of the bottom reinforcing mesh with wire along the height of the pit. They are connected to each other with transverse rods. As a result, a reinforcing frame with 100 mm cells is obtained throughout the pit.
Concreting starts from the bottom of the pit. When the mortar sets, build the outer formwork for the walls of the tank. Concrete mortar is poured inside the finished structure. Periodically it is pierced with a stick for compaction. 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 according to the method of building a tank with brick walls.

Cleaning a country cesspool

Any cesspool eventually fills up, silts up and requires cleaning. For this, several methods are used:

Cleaning a cesspool in the country on your own involves the use of fecal pumps, scoops and other devices. The disadvantage of this method is the spread of a bad smell over a large area and the problem with waste disposal.
The easiest way is to use a sewer machine. True, it will be necessary to provide for a free entrance to the cesspool. In addition, such services will have to be constantly paid.
The use of biological products allows the waste to decompose in the tank. Cleaning the cesspool in the country is less common, 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 here. Bacteria do not multiply at negative temperatures. Chemicals will come to the rescue. But after their use, the question of waste disposal remains.