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Thread: Latrines

  1. #1
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    Default Latrines

    I looked around a bit, but couldn't find a thread on Latrines....

    So, for a short term solution to a moderately long outing, what do you guys do for latrines?

    I expect to haul a port-a- potty onto the property once I get a road cut back into it (Eventually a septic system, but figure that's a couple yrs down the road), but in the mean time - I'm thinking a full spring-fall period - figured I'd start w/ a camper toilet until I can get something rigged up, ....

    Any ideas / experience as to what to use (or not use) in between the camper toilet and a port-a-potty? My girls are used to out-houses and such, but for that intermediate stage, I'd like to have something more than a hole in the ground surrounded by a tarp.

    Thanx


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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Built one of these "composting toilets"....actually the composting part is separate.......and used at our "Place" before the real plumbing was completed.
    Still operational.....JIC

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    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    A couple of questions...

    Are you towing a camper onto the site?

    How long are your "outings" and how many people are involved?

    Unsealed pit toilets are almost universally illegal in the US these days. EPA thing I believe. It's not like the old days where anyone could just dig a hole, do their business and shovel a little lime over the results.

    Fortunately you have a lot of options from chemical toilets to transport tanks and burn barrels.
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

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    Ed edr730's Avatar
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    Not much beats a trailer for an outhouse. I'm assuming you don't want to empty it so often. You could connect a pipe to it and take it a distance away and drop it into a hole. You can do the same inside the house. The most important part is don't contaminate the well.
    A five gallon bucket pretty much solves everything. The big secret is to put something inside the bucket like snow in the winter and sawdust or what you happen to have in the summer. It keeps the bucket clean and the smell down.
    Out houses smell in the summer. When my kids were young they would walk into an outhouse and leave and go into the woods to go to the bathroom. When I was a very small boy we had one. When my Dad was a boy they didn't.
    I have a grandfathered in outhouse here. Other than that they are illegal I think. I have been in some homes where their septic tank was that hole over there. Pretty much universally illegal.

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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    An outhouse is legal in Indiana but, as you might guess, it's heavily regulated.

    http://www.in.gov/isdh/22475.htm

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    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    Those plans and regulations are for the construction of "pit toilets" with sealed vaults for containment of the waste so that it can be pumped and disposed of at another place.

    Those are also used at many state parks and just like a prota-potty, a truck comes and pumps them empty. Difference is that the vault holds several thousand gallons.

    I did notice that anything big required plans by a professional engineer.

    Several of my neighbors used to have concrete holding tanks on their sewer systems which must be pumped out a couple of times each year. Those have all now been declared unusable by the health department and disconnected from the homes.

    TPTB are very serious about how sewage is handled and the presence of out houses in their jurisdictions. They have discovered that this is the single best method of handling rogue homesteaders.

    First you buy the land, then you get the perk test (or visa-versa), then you get the building permit, then you get a visit from the zoning commission.

    Getting a visit from the health department first, due to the presence of an outhouse can complicate the process. And do not kid yourself, all the departments work together on these things. I have seen the State Troopers flying their helicopter around looking for pot patches, turn in squatter shacks and illegal outhouse builders.

    When I moved into my present location it took the health department 2 days to come out and make sure I had proper sewer containment on the RV I was living in while I gutted and rebuilt my house. I found out that the electric department had turned me in when they installed the meter.

    And I live in a place where no one should care!
    Last edited by kyratshooter; 03-11-2015 at 12:40 PM.
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rick View Post
    An outhouse is legal in Indiana but, as you might guess, it's heavily regulated.

    http://www.in.gov/isdh/22475.htm
    Same in Wisconsin......basically a sealed septic tank, that need empting once in a while.

    Neighbor has one and cost the same as my septic "Tank"....he didn't connect his to a "system"....I did....but almost the same tank.

    Legal or no.......I know of many buried 55 gal drums with no bottom, around.......owners just don't talk it up......
    BUT go to sell the land...."Then" everything can come back a really "bit you in the butt"...big time......
    expensive to "clean up"

    Don't fool with the DNR, Mother Nature's Evil Stepmother.
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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ky
    I found out that the electric department had turned me in when they installed the meter.


    They didn't turn you in. The power company provides them a download of all new services. Just like we provided the police with a download of all new telephone services.

  9. #9
    Alaska, The Madness! 1stimestar's Avatar
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    I still live in a state where we have outhouses all over. I myself have a two story one lol.
    Why do I live in Alaska? Because I can.

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    Yes, I have wifi in my outhouse!

  10. #10
    Alaska, The Madness! 1stimestar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 1stimestar View Post
    I still live in a state where we have outhouses all over. I myself have a two story one lol.
    Outhouses don't have to be stinky. Sprinkle a little lyme, ashes from the wood stove, or woodshaving when ever needed... I have a little bathroom sized trash can with a scoop in it.

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    Why do I live in Alaska? Because I can.

    Alaska, the Madness! Bloggity Stories of the North Country

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    Yes, I have wifi in my outhouse!

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    Quote Originally Posted by kyratshooter View Post
    A couple of questions...

    Are you towing a camper onto the site? “
    Depends on the property we buy, eventually I expect to bring our little Pop-camper on site, but it doesn't have toilet.

    Quote Originally Posted by kyratshooter View Post
    How long are your "outings" and how many people are involved?
    Anywhere from a weekend to a week. Most times, just my wife and I, and/or one of our girls and their family, but at times more than 20.

    Thanx for all the comments and wisdom, guys.... its why I'm here.

    Quote Originally Posted by kyratshooter View Post
    Fortunately you have a lot of options from chemical toilets to transport tanks and burn barrels.
    I think this is the way I;m going to have to go. Start w/ a little portable camper's toilet and work up to a port-a-potty until we can get a septic in.
    Last edited by 3leggedcoyote; 03-12-2015 at 10:57 AM.

  12. #12
    Ed edr730's Avatar
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    Nobody bothers outhouses here. Legal?...don't really know. I used mine and had all the inspectors around here. I've used them in lots of places. On occasion, people put up a temporary one on state property. Public outhouses do have the tanks.

    Population density are part of what increases concerns, regulations and enforcements. If I drive for an hour and a half in any direction, the average population density of all areas I could pass would probably still be half of what the most desolate county in Indiana has.

    A few five gallon buckets with lids and sawdust should keep you safe from regulations. A few redworms and you may have a worm farm. Build whatever you want around them. You could always ask the courthouse.

  13. #13
    Senior Member randyt's Avatar
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    I live in north east michigan and outhouses are common not like they were at one time though.
    so the definition of a criminal is someone who breaks the law and you want me to believe that somehow more laws make less criminals?

  14. #14

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    i built a 2 holer a few years back put in a medicine chest and magazine rack. the mice got into the medicine chest and made nesting
    material out of the gauze so i don,t keep bandeges in there any more,lol

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