Out House on the go........

Highbeam · Sep 5, 2006

I spent 3 days of my 4 day labor day weekend building my first outhouse. It measures 4x4 on the floor and 7 feet high in front 6 feet in the rear. The roof is 6x6. I built it following the VIP latrine design with a tall black vent to suck air in through the hole and hopefully minimize odors. That chimney sure was sucking when the sun warmed it.

I had a large excavator out to my property to redig a deep ditch and while he was there I had him dig a 6 foot deep hole with his 3 foot wide bucket for the pit. The problem is that excavators don't dig holes, they dig trenches so I had a 3 sided hole plus a ramp. I built a wooden box cribbing and backfilled the box with the spoils. Drilled lots of holes in the cribbing. The seat is nearly 2 feet above the top of the cribbing so it is an 8 foot drop to the bottom. The thing about a deep outhouse pit is that if you somehow fall in, you ain't getting out which may not be a concern at your home but at a remote property I worry about liability.

We will have about 50 people out this coming weekend to get a good start on filling it up. Most will have RVs to poo in but might prefer the ASHAUS rather than stinking up their campers.

rox · Sep 5, 2006

One of our farmer friends has an outhouse on his farm, he has a house in town with all the normal plumbing, and I was surprised that there was no odor. Whne going to the outhouse they asked me to use the tin cup that was in the pail holding wood ashes, and to spread the ashes over before leaving. now that I think about it was is sawdust? No, I think it was wood ashes. Funny it really didn't smell at all in there. Do you all use a similar methd in your out houses?

Highbeam · Sep 5, 2006

Excellent question. I have heard of wood ashes, sawdust, lime, or lye for the purpose of covering and sweetening the outhouse. I have none of the above yet but need to choose something. Perhaps powdered lime is the easiest to come by.

monkeymonk · Sep 6, 2006

Highbeam said:
Excellent question. I have heard of wood ashes, sawdust, lime, or lye for the purpose of covering and sweetening the outhouse. I have none of the above yet but need to choose something. Perhaps powdered lime is the easiest to come by.

During wood stove season we use ashes,some lime. The rest of the time we use sawdust from our mill, leaf mulch and lime (in no paticular order) Yes I supose powdered lime may be the easiest for some. Most folks don't use it out here but a lil bit to speed things up,we use it frequiently. Air stacks help speed things up as well.
another proven trick...if you can.... is not to PEE in your outhouse urine has amonia,acids and such that will smell it up!! We don't use ours as a urinal....except when ya know...

Thats a good size hole highbeam,if your really woried you could put a ladder down there nailed to the side...would be a good conversation piece

They found this nut job in a forest service camp ground sh*tter few years back he was peeping on folks.... talk about sick. Then there was this kid out here few years back as well, he was in our friends outhouse (shallow holer) rubbing the Sh*t on his arms saying " gold ah gold" in his mind he was rubbing gold on himself...He wasn't ok in the head and eventually went for treatement.... that incident was his last straw
then there was a big party at my buddies and the next morning an elder lady neighbor came by, and went to the outhouse she had gotten sick the night before and had to fish her dentures out.

I guess you never know what your gonna get with an outhouse.

California · Sep 6, 2006

I think it was up in your neighborhood, or maybe over by Shasta, where apparently some idiot emptied his Coleman stove into the FS campground outhouse. Next customer lit a cigarette ... and got badly burned. The lawsuit went on for years.

monkeymonk · Sep 6, 2006

P.S The old lady at the party.Well she just swirled her dentures around in a glass and put them back in!! No Joke No Lie!!

Highbeam · Sep 6, 2006

Ack, the swirling knocked off the big chunks.

I was a little worried about dropping tools down the pit after I had framed and had begun sheeting the house. I actually built it over the hole. It wasn't "soiled" yet but I would have a hard time picking anything up.

Early on when it was just a cribbed hole I did manage to catch a rogue mouse in there. I thought maybe a opossum or something bigger would fall into the trap but just the mouse.

Since my ashaus will only be used occasionaly I thought about adding an RV dump to it. Maybe toss 50 gallons of waste in there every month or so. There's a fine line between an outhouse pit and a cesspool. Has anyone used their pit this way? I figure more than 350 gallons of pit volume from new to the top of hole even though I wouldn't want to fill it up.

ejtaylor822 · Sep 6, 2006

Nice outhouse. A whole lot nicer than the ones I am use to seeing (and have used) back home (mountains of NC). Usually made of rough lumber left over from the sawmill and nothing but a hole in a board for a seat.

That's an upscale outhouse for sure.

Eddie

3RRL · Sep 6, 2006

LOL!!! I guess I could've done without the last couple posts...yuk!

monkeymonk · Sep 6, 2006

Highbeam said:
Ack, the swirling knocked off the big chunks.

I was a little worried about dropping tools down the pit after I had framed and had begun sheeting the house. I actually built it over the hole. It wasn't "soiled" yet but I would have a hard time picking anything

Since my ashaus will only be used occasionaly I thought about adding an RV dump to it. Maybe toss 50 gallons of waste in there every month or so. There's a fine line between an outhouse pit and a cesspool. Has anyone used their pit this way? I figure more than 350 gallons of pit volume from new to the top of hole even though I wouldn't want to fill it up.

Ive dropped a few tools down there when building easy enough to get down when clean.

I don't think you want to use your ashaus as an RV dump The amount of waste will be unbearably nasty/melly and won't break down very fast, if at all soon. normally you "go" put on the ash/lime/sawdust and repeat esentially composting it without turning. you may even contaminate you ground?well?seepage somewhere? plus your ashaus would fill up quickly.

For RV you could bury a plastic/metal drum or two and create a small leach line...inturn you would have a mountain septic as we call it.

Its good to talk about your sh*t 3RRL..or else it doesn't get dealt with..............................hehe