# outhouses?



## bourbonred (Feb 27, 2008)

Has/Does anyone here manage a functional outhouse? I am reaching back to my g-parents farm era for their "technology" and tools of the day. Yes, they are smelly and foul, but is there anything one needs to know to maintain them? Is it just as simple as dig a hole and build a building? I'm 47, but I remember the few times in my childhood that I visited someone with "outdoor plumbing". I refuse to stock a room full of toilet paper andI have acquired a bin full of heavy flannel sheets to make "family cloths" out of if necessary, but I'd like to know more about outhouses.


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## chamoisee (May 15, 2005)

Uh. I would use a squirt bottle of water before I'd wash adult baby wipes. But outhouses, I am familiar with. IMHO it really helps if people pee elsewhere (not right by the house or where it can be smelled!) and if you keep a bucket of ashes and put a can of ashes in, each time it's used. 

One thing I've been wondering is whether the beneficial bacteria used for septic tanks would help break things down in the outhouse and keep the odor down?


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

ashes, lime or the stuff they sell for RV toilets are good for neutralizing things....

We have an outhouse at our cabin....but running water/shower in the cabin...much cheaper this way....as septic field would be pricey and freeze during the zone 3 winters.


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## Mutti (Sep 7, 2002)

An outhouse does not have to stink. I can think of three offhand that I've visited on numerous occasions and no smell. Important is a vent to the hole. Good fitting seat that is kept down when not in use. Tight windows/doors for good bug/animal control. Use o sawdust and/or lime. Our neighbor has a composting toliet in her home and the only time there is an odor is when too many people have been peeing in it and it gets the whole pile too wet. Pee in a ratio of 10 parts water to l part pee is an excellent fertilizer. Plus a deterrant to wild animals if you pee around your garden. Urine is sterile until hits the air and natural bacteria around.

Our local river access has outhouses that have septic tank underneath which can be pumped out as needed. One blueberry farm we used to go to had a water hydrant nearby their facility so you could wash hands...those were Taj Mahal houses painted blue with curtains even!!!


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## logbuilder (Jan 31, 2006)

If I find myself without a working bathroom, here is what I plan on using. I have room in my bathroom for it. Compost the stuff for 2 years and it is supposed to be OK for the garden. Forerunner could probably comment on that.

How to make and use a sawdust toilet - Appropedia: The sustainability wiki


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## spud (Feb 3, 2007)

Outhouses shouldn't smell and a simple design would be to use a 20 gallon plastic garbage can and keep enough dry matter like straw or newspaper shreddings to keep from getting too wet and add manure worms to it. Very simple and when full enough change out for another and let worms brake it down. Six months with manure worms and fresh newspaper to it should take care of the problem. Low tech, low cost and very effective. 

Human Waste Vermicomposting


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## bassmaster17327 (Apr 6, 2011)

A sawdust toilet works great. You can hot compost it and then it can be used as soon as it cools, You have to get the right mix and the temp will go over 150 degree and that kills any pathogens. Google the Humanure Handbook


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

the saw dust toilet is really a much cleaner , more sanitary method 

but if you must do an outhouse , your best to dig it deep , and make a 2 holer , use one till it gets to stinky , then toss some dirt in just to cover and keep flies off then switch tot eh other when it gets to stinky do the same and switch back 


this is where the saw dust or humanure toilet works so well the carbon , be it saw dust , shredded leaves shredded paper , chopped straw , you name it , locks in that nitrogen and keeps it from leaching while it breaks down , also compost over 104 degrees for 24 hours kills known human pathogens but it will go much hotter.

besides many states have laws against un-contianed pit outhouses , but not against the compost method , and it solves the problem of the pit always filling up , and the smell


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

A good deep hole under the out house ,toss some sawdust lime dry leaves in every now n then .watch out for building inspectors in our area it seems they can be grandfatherd but it is imposable to get a permit for a new dwelling without a septic system 'i keep a nice clean one for when visitors or farm help that I don't want in my cabin unsupervised need to go I'm far from anywhere so this is often 'starting with a high n dry location so the hole stayes dry is one of the main things .though it seems like mines hole will never get full , it would'nt be to big of a deal to make another one .


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## secretcreek (Jan 24, 2010)

We have an outhouse but other than the occasional kid running to use it, it has become a shed for electric pasture fence stuff.

We used to stay at some remote cabins in MI's UP. They had an outhouse for each cabin and they were deluxe-carpet, etc. They kept a pail of lime inside and instructions to use a scoop over the BM's. They did not smell bad at all. 

*(If you drink an occasional slurp of kefir (good bacteria probiotics) your BMs will not have near as much odor...).

scrt crk


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## bourbonred (Feb 27, 2008)

Lots of ideas here, thanks. Where do ya'll get so much sawdust? I can't imagine buying it for a toilet. If the shtf, how would you get enough? I don't know where lime occurs naturally, but ashes I have, in abundance.


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## lathermaker (May 7, 2010)

We had an outhouse growing up. I think Dad used to throw lime in it every once in a while to keep down the stink.


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## logbuilder (Jan 31, 2006)

bourbonred said:


> Lots of ideas here, thanks. Where do ya'll get so much sawdust? I can't imagine buying it for a toilet. If the shtf, how would you get enough? I don't know where lime occurs naturally, but ashes I have, in abundance.


In normal situations, there are two fellows that cut cedar shingles and shakes near me. I can get all the cedar sawdust I would ever want for free.

If I couldn't get the sawdust, I would use dried ferns or douglas fir needles. We have a lot of them on our property.


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## Common Tator (Feb 19, 2008)

Great plans and pictures here: http://cottagelife.com/files/2011/05/Privy-Plan.pdf

I hope Cabin Fever or WIHH will post a picture of theirs. I love that the roof keeps the rain and snow and bugs out but lets natural light in.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

Common Tator said:


> Great plans and pictures here: http://cottagelife.com/files/2011/05/Privy-Plan.pdf
> 
> I hope Cabin Fever or WIHH will post a picture of theirs. I love that the roof keeps the rain and snow and bugs out but lets natural light in.


Yes, ours has a corrugated, translucent roof. Our outhouse was built over a 300 gallon plastic tank. The tank was not required, but since our soil is loose sugar sand, an outhouse hole needs support so the pit walls don't cave in. I could have used concrete blocks or pressure-treated lumber to support the hole, but I opted for the plastic tank. The benefits of the tank is that it can be pumped out if ever needed.

IMHO, our outhouse does not stink. The vent pipe coming up from the tank exhausts any odor.


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

There is an outhouse at the cabin up north. We keep lime inthere,but ashes work. Also keep TP in a mouse proof container. We also have a regular toilet seat. Porcipines will eat the wood if just a hole is made,they need the salt. A seat can also be hung behind the door inside the cabin an be taken outside when it's needed,it will be warmer that way in winter.


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## Common Tator (Feb 19, 2008)

Cabin Fever said:


> Yes, ours has a corrugated, translucent roof. Our outhouse was built over a 300 gallon plastic tank. The tank was not required, but since our soil is loose sugar sand, an outhouse hole needs support so the pit walls don't cave in. I could have used concrete blocks or pressure-treated lumber to support the hole, but I opted for the plastic tank. The benefits of the tank is that it can be pumped out if ever needed.
> 
> IMHO, our outhouse does not stink. The vent pipe coming up from the tank exhausts any odor.


Thanks for the picture CF! and thanks for the additional information.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

where do you get enough saw dust?

when you cut fire wood you get a lot of chip off the saw , you can use that , you can empty the , planer out , one person doing a little wood working with a dust collection system makes a lot of saw dust if you know anyone who does wood working ask if you can have some of the dust , it is generally a waste product to them.

chopped straw would also work well , i have thought about asking if i could take a lawn mower with a bag and mow the stubble in a wheat field , for mulch before 

grass clippings can work 

leaves , collect up all the leaves in the fall when it is dry , you can use the mower to chop them then bag them up 

pine needles the trees drop lots of them every year 

shredded paper works , composting your shredded documents 

or even purchase them , my daughter gets the bales of pine horse bedding for her Guinea pigs you might use a 5 dollar bale a person a month but probably not more it is really compacted in the bale.

if a major shtf happens , an you just can't get any carbon at all then do your best to empty it often and bury it far enough away form your water source 

but it is so much more convenient to not have to have your out house 150 feet away when it is snowing with saw dust toilets you can actually have it right in the house

you do make sure to keep the lid closed


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

some friends have a inn they have a composting toilet a big plastic thing with a vent outside and a crank, the kind they sell in stores , it works , but not so well when 50 people are over at once 

the saw dust toilet would need extra buckets or a larger tub but could work just fine with that many people , but , they have to deal with state regulators who want to see a commercially available product with a rating for number of people and hours so that it looks good on their paper , the regulators already don't know what to do with an Inn on a farm , they usually inspect restaurant and hotels in cities


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

7thswan said:


> ....A seat can also be hung behind the door inside the cabin an be taken outside when it's needed,it will be warmer that way in winter.


If you "carve" yourself a toliet seat from that dense, 2" thick, blue styrofoam, you can leave it in the outhouse. It never feels cold to the derriÃ¨re even at -20ÂºF.


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## Rick (May 10, 2002)

Very good info.

Whenever possible we don't pee in our pit. We sprinkle barn lime conservatively each use. Love the ashes suggestion - I just spent 8 bucks on a 5 year supply of "hydrated" lime at Southern States.

Truthfully our guests use the pit 100 times more than we do.. We only use it in emergencies, and when we can't dump our sawdust buckets in 10 degree weather. Even then a couple of days in black plastic bags warms them up nicely. 

As mentioned, leaves and pine needles would sub for sawdust. I buy a truckload 30 miles away at a lumber mill. We keep lots of peat moss on hand which would "cover" the need nicely also.

This year the big sawdust (not humanure) pile has been teaming with five-lined skink mommas and eggs, and hatchlings. Quite a thrill when 7 yo DGS happened to see them all.


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## cast iron (Oct 4, 2004)

So what all would it entail to set up a composting type outhouse? As in the physical structure would look like your traditional outhouse but the waste handling mechanism would be different.

This would be on property where said outhouse would get infrequent use, and never large groups of people. Say 2-3 people a few weeks or weekends out of the year, and there may be months at a time where it wouldn't get used at all. The outhouse needs to be ready to use at any time over the year, or with Very minimum start up requirements. There is no infrastructure on the site per say, no buildings, no gardens, no composting, just a campsite basically.

In this scenario, what is required of the user of said outhouse? What is the process? Say my MIL goes in there to do her business. She is capable of throwing a scoop of lime on top of the waste like she used to do in the old school outhouses, but what does the composting style require? Is there more to it for the user than throwing some lime in the hole like in the old days?

And what is required of the maintainer of said outhouse? What is the process to keep it functioning correctly and keep it available for use at all times of the year? What type of infrastructure and processes need to be in place for this? Maybe starting a compost pile near the outhouse? What else?

One thing about the hole in the ground style outhouse is the waste handling process is mostly transparent to the user, other than possibly putting a scoop of lime down the hole, and even if not everyone did that, the system will still function. By transparent, I mean it takes little work on the part of the user.

I'm curious how a composting type outhouse (home built, not commercial) would stack up in this regard?

Thanks


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## Rick (May 10, 2002)

Wayne02 said:


> So what all would it entail to set up a composting type outhouse? As in the physical structure would look like your traditional outhouse but the waste handling mechanism would be different.
> 
> This would be on property where said outhouse would get infrequent use, and never large groups of people. Say 2-3 people a few weeks or weekends out of the year, and there may be months at a time where it wouldn't get used at all. The outhouse needs to be ready to use at any time over the year, or with Very minimum start up requirements. There is no infrastructure on the site per say, no buildings, no gardens, no composting, just a campsite basically.
> 
> ...


Wayne02

For very infrequent use you would want to empty the bucket twice a week - once might do. One year I had the unfortunate, bur equally hilarious experience of literally having a bug up my neck of the woods.

Seems my emergency bucket with hunters loo lid had sat for several weeks having only been used once. It was too inviting for some maggots that took up residence, and you can figure the rest out.

Mind you an unused bucket, with a scoop of cover material on the bottom should not attract anything like that. You could build a cabinet with a hinged lid to be very much like an outhouse.

Lime wouldn't be the cover of choice, but compost material as mentioned in previous posts.


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