I need a garage toilet option...help

[ksks]

I will be building a detached garage on my country property.
I have access to a water line.
There are no code issues.

I will be putting in a shower and sink, and will just run the drain water onto the ground.

I'm looking for an inexpensive toilet option.  I will not be able to hook up to the septic.

I would prefer to send the water outdoors, so any indoor compost or storages ideas are not an option.

Any thoughts on what to do with the toilet water?   -preferably cheap

Thanks for your help.

ks

[gww]

Dig a hole and make a lagoon or dig an even bigger hole and fill it with big gravel and run your pipe to it.  Thinking of doing the same with a small low use club house.  Lots of old houses have lagoon systems.
Good luck
gww

[Magicman]

I made a small septic system using a 55 gallon drum.

[sawguy21]

What about an old fashioned outhouse? You could also run a line from the garage to a deep covered pit which will eventually need to be pumped out. Dumping the black water onto open ground is going to make a smelly, insect infested mess that in time could leach into your fresh water supply. MM's 55 gallon drum will work but will rust out.

[beenthere]

What part of WI allows discharge of wastewater as you plan to do?

I recall several years ago our cabin outhouse (central WI) was grandfathered in (I thought by the DNR) and we could not even drill a well without a septic system and could not improve the outhouse without violation. Sounds like that isn't in effect now. Or it was a county ordinance...

Groundwater in WI is a high priority it seems.

[Ljohnsaw]

What about an old fashioned outhouse? You could also run a line from the garage to a deep covered pit which will eventually need to be pumped out. Dumping the black water onto open ground is going to make a smelly, insect infested mess that in time could leach into your fresh water supply. MM's 55 gallon drum will work but will rust out.

How about a plastic drum?  Those are much easier to come by, out here at least.  I can get 5, 15, 20, 30 and 55 gallon plastic containers for free from car washes.  And they have standard 2" pipe threaded bungs (except the 5 gallon has a 3/4" or 1").

[Knocker of rocks]

How far away is the house?  The best way (are a close proximity)  would be to tie into the house sanitary sewer with a lift pump.

[ksks]

Thanks for the replies.

The house is in a southern State, not WI.
Its about 100' from the home septic, downhill, and would have to go thru some serious rock to get to it.  So, the house septic is out.

It will have minimal use, low volume.

I like the plastic drum idea.  Did you run little laterals off that?

Thanks guys,

ks

[North River Energy]

Depending on frequency of use, what you save on the front end you may lose many times over on pumping costs with the barrel scheme. 
I have a small ski camp with only the toilet tied to what might be a 500 gallon tank and primitive leach field.  Pumped every other year whether it needs it or not.  If you plumb the grey water elsewhere, a small tank works very well.

[Magicman]

I like the plastic drum idea.  Did you run little laterals off that?

Yes.  It was just a mini system for a camper trailer at a hunting camp.

[Sixacresand]

In the strip mining business, folks loved to blame their well problems on mining operations.  Sometimes those with with shallow wells were correct to blame us. But one guy's family keep getting sick and the owner demanded a new well.  Upon our observation, it was found that his pump house was fenced in for a dog pen and he had 5 or 6 dogs.  He could not be convinced this was a problem until we threatened to call in the health dept, which we did anyway. 

[sbishop]

What Magicman said.

When I was building my log cabin, we had an old travel trailer...first thing I did was put in a 55gallon plastic barrel. I drilled 1 inch holds every 6" around the barrel from the bottom up almost halfway. (got instructions off of another site). I also cut the top off the barrel and ran the pipe directly into the top of the barrel, installed the top with a few rocks around it and covered with dirt. that was 10 years ago. When cabin was built...I just ran the pipe the same way.....no issues.

almost forgot...I made the hole twice has large as the barrel and filled it with crush rock.

Sbishop

[RPowers]

5 gallon bucket and sawdust, then compost the contents in a dedicated compost pile when full. Wash bucket and repeat. Its called "humanure composting" and there is a website and info on it. My family of 8 has been doing it for 4 years with no troubles. After a 8-12 months turn the pile out, after another 8-12 months put on garden. Cheap, easy, and water-saving

RP

[Knocker of rocks]

There are no code issues.

That I doubt

[ksks]

Thanks guys.  Good ideas.

ks

[Dave Shepard]

A friend of mine saw a homemade system put in years ago. They buried a 50 something Plymouth and backfilled it with trap rock. :D

[snowstorm]

why do do it right the first time and be done with it. put in a septic tank and if your leach field is big enought pipe it into that. 100ft isnt all that far. if its uphill put in a lift station. i dont know how they do it where you are but here the leach field is sized according to the number of bedrooms in the house. and 1000gal concrete tanks are used

[Brad_bb]

 

 

...but seriously, can a home built septic system work?  I don't know how to design one or size the components, but maybe someone here does ro with some internet research you could.  I'd definitely rather have the waste water digested before returning it to your property.   Putting water on the surface in winter will not work of course in Wisconsin.  There are several type of systems I've recently learned.  The old style has the tank in the ground that disperses the water into the ground.  There is a mechanical system that digests it and the clean water ejects to a waterway.  The last kind is called a mound system that runs lines on the surface of the ground and dirt is mounded over them.  It needs to be in a spot that has undisturbed soil, drains well, and gets good sun.  This system uses evaporation.  That is the extent of my limited knowledge on septics.  I'd like to learn more though.

[Magicman]

The buried 55 gallon drum and leach field is a septic system and quite sufficient for one commode.  We used one with the trailer from 1979 until the Cabin was finished in 1996.  The sink and shower were not piped into it.

[r.man]

I vote for the sawdust toilet, if it does not get much use it will not need to be emptied very often. Really cheap, very easy, very green.

[Magicman]

As stated in the OP.

I would prefer to send the water outdoors, so any indoor compost or storages ideas are not an option.

[Ljohnsaw]

 

...but seriously, can a home built septic system work?  I don't know how to design one or size the components, but maybe someone here does ro with some internet research you could.  I'd definitely rather have the waste water digested before returning it to your property.   Putting water on the surface in winter will not work of course in Wisconsin.  There are several type of systems I've recently learned.  The old style has the tank in the ground that disperses the water into the ground.  There is a mechanical system that digests it and the clean water ejects to a waterway.  The last kind is called a mound system that runs lines on the surface of the ground and dirt is mounded over them.  It needs to be in a spot that has undisturbed soil, drains well, and gets good sun.  This system uses evaporation.  That is the extent of my limited knowledge on septics.  I'd like to learn more though.

Since I paid to have a septic put in (the backhoe operator - I back-filled the trenches with my ATV & snowplow and the engineers), I am SURE I could do it myself. 

In my county, the requirement is for a certain amount of leach field for each bedroom with my soils.  That is, if the ground perks well. 

The first thing was to dig as far down as they could (8') looking for ground water - none found. Next, they used a guide to compare the soil at different levels to classify the layers.  Not really sure what that had to do with anything though.  I suppose if I had clay it would be an issue. (write a bill for $800 for mantle test)  The county had to witness this work.

Then, with a hand post hole digger, dig several deep holes where the actual leach field will be located.  I think it was 3 feet deep.  Fill with water (twice IIRC) and let drain down.  That will saturate the local soil.  Now fill again and measure the drop every 10 minutes, top off the water after each reading, apply some correction factors and determine the water drop rate.  From that average value, they came up with the 80' required for my 2 bedrooms. (write another bill for $800 for perk test) 

Draw up a limited topographic map showing where the field will be and what larger trees are in the area. (write another bill for $200) 

Have a backhoe dig the leach fields, a trench for the effluent line and a hole for the septic tank (write another bill for $2,000 - it was a long pipeline)

On top of that, pay for a septic tank, leach field line (EZ-Flow is great stuff) and effluent line (4" SDR) - $3,000

So, long story short - in a good location, doing it yourself the right way, you could get away with about $2-2,500 instead of $7-8,000 with the county's involvement.

There are other things to consider, however.  Property line setbacks, well locations, water features, ground traffic (very bad for leach fields), etc.