If a person lives in a house, there should be a sewage system in it, since waste products still need to be removed somehow. And it's hard to disagree with that, right? Modern industry offers many solutions: from multi-section septic tanks to neat dry closets. But the usual cesspool in a private house is still relevant and in demand.
But, before proceeding with the construction of a cesspool on the site, you will have to weigh the pros and cons. After all, the wrong place, and the very design of the cesspool, subsequently, threatens to turn into many problems. The most common of them is the appearance of an unpleasant odor. We will tell you how to avoid this problem.
In the article, we collected and summarized information about the types and design features of cesspools. In addition, here you can find useful tips and tricks on how to choose and build sewers on the site. The material is accompanied by thematic photos and videos.
Device and design types
A cesspool is perhaps the oldest and simplest type of sewage system. It is a depression in the ground in which sewage is accumulated and partially processed.
Any effluent contains a certain number of bacteria that absorb and transform these accumulations. Part of the filtered effluent passes into the underlying soil.
Anything that has not been processed or left for the underlying layers should be periodically removed from the cesspool so that the tank does not overflow.
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The most common type of cesspools for private homes is constructed from concrete or reinforced concrete rings with a sealed or filter bottom
For the organization of sewerage with a cesspool, now they began to buy factory-made plastic tanks more often. They are simply installed in the pit and connected to the sewer
As a cesspool, i.e. sewer, often single-chamber septic tanks are used, in which the fermentation process is simply not activated and the clarified water is not organized
A simple but not too cheap option for a cesspool device is the installation of a reinforced concrete structure, fully prepared for connecting the sewer
If you have the time and desire to make your own efforts in the construction of a sewer storage tank, you can do it yourself by pouring concrete mortar into the formwork
To receive, process, and discharge into the ground clarified water of gray effluents coming from baths, showers, and kitchens, pits with filtering walls and a bottom are arranged
Perfect for servicing a summer house and a small country house
For collecting and recycling clarified gray effluents into the ground at the dacha, a virtually free filter well from tire covers is ideally suited
A popular cesspool of reinforced concrete rings
Plastic containers for sewage
Single chamber septic tank in the construction of a cesspool on the site
Ready-to-install reinforced concrete structure
Monolithic version of the sewer system
Absorption sewer well
The budget type of drive is built from Eurocubes
Almost free option
In summer cottages, they often arrange a separate cesspool for the toilet. It looks like a relatively small depression in the ground, over which a light wooden structure is installed.
When the hole is filled, the toilet is cleaned, the recess is covered with earth. Waste decay in the soil and turn into compost - a useful fertilizer.
In the future, a fruit tree is planted at this place, which will give an excellent harvest in such a well-fertilized place. And for the toilet they dig a new hole, which is then disposed of in this way.
But for the needs of a large house, especially with year-round living, such a solution, of course, is not enough.
The diagram shows the device of one of the options for the pits - a filtering sewer well. The structure with hermetic walls, at the bottom there is a multilayer filter made of sand, gravel or gravel
Modern cesspools have a fairly large volume, and their walls are constructed from a wide variety of materials.
It could be:
- brick;
- aerated concrete blocks;
- wood;
- concrete rings;
- old tires, etc.
For the device of the simplest cesspool, now you can buy a ready-made plastic container with a hatch and strong walls.
With its help, the process of constructing a mini-sewage system in a suburban area is significantly facilitated and accelerated significantly.
The classic version of a cesspool for a country house is a pit about 1.5 m deep with sealed walls and a bottom. A hinged lid is arranged for pumping and removal of drains, a ventilation pipe is installed to remove odor
When choosing material for a cesspool, it should be borne in mind that prolonged contact with an aggressive environment will gradually destroy its walls. To extend the life of the structure, you need to choose materials resistant to such an impact.
There are two types of cesspools: sealed and filtering. In the first, effluents are accumulated and stored until pumping. Secondly, there is no bottom in the traditional sense of the term, and there may be holes in the walls so that part of the waste enters the ground.
If it is supposed to filter effluents through the walls of the structure, then a gravel-sand filter with a thickness of at least 15 cm is arranged around them.
The walls of the filtering structure are made either monolithic or perforated, depending on the filtration qualities of the surrounding soils and the tasks of wastewater treatment.
Structures with the possibility of infiltration into the surrounding soil are suitable mainly for drains collected by drainage and storm sewers. Between the conditional bottom of such a structure and the underground water mirror there should be a thickness of soil with a thickness of at least 1 m.
Finished reinforced concrete structures of various types are relatively inexpensive and make it possible to make a cesspool in the shortest possible time.
A cesspool with a sealed bottom and monolithic walls is arranged for the collection and subsequent removal of domestic and household wastewater.
It is also needed when there is a high occurrence of groundwater, because in such situations it is necessary to exclude direct communication of effluents with the environment.
Leak-proof pits of a large volume, in which it is supposed to accumulate a large number of drains in a short time, must be sealed. A significant amount of waste will be processed too long, the risk of soil pollution increases.
The comfortable backlash with a cesspool located inside the house differs from the street version by a special type of ventilation. The backlash channels available in the design create stable ventilation flows that ventilate both the cesspool and the lavatory
Design and Training Principles
Even such a simple structure as a cesspool, requires competent preparation and planning. It is necessary to determine a suitable place for its arrangement, to choose the type of structure, its dimensions, technology of work, materials, etc.
The location of the cesspool is a crucial point. According to building codes, it should be located at a distance from fences, residential buildings, etc.
For example, from a well with drinking water, this sewer should be at least 25 meters away, and from a residential building - at least five meters.
When choosing a suitable place to place a cesspool in a private house, it should be possible to get through for a cesspool machine
If the relief on the site is uneven, you should not arrange a cesspool in the lowland. During the spring flood, it can with high probability be flooded, and this will lead to contamination of groundwater in the area.
The volume of construction depends on the number of residents in the house and the time of residence. For one person, usually take from 0.5 to 2.0 cubic meters. m
It is better if the volume of the structure is a multiple of the capacity of the machine of the scavengers, since the fee for the use of equipment usually does not depend on the number of drains, the cost of each exit is paid.
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Prerequisites for the construction of a cesspool
The distance from the foundation of the house to the object
Convenient and economical layout of sewage on the site
Arrangement of a cesspool overlap
Thinking over the place for placing the cesspool, you should immediately take care of the problem of cleaning it. The easiest and quickest way to perform this unpleasant procedure is with the help of a scavenger. Therefore, for the passage of such equipment should provide sufficient space.
It also happens that the standard site for the cesspool does not allow the use of a cesspool machine. Accumulated drains in this case are removed using a special pump or an ordinary bucket.
The pit is sealed or with holes for filtering. The choice is affected by the level of groundwater in the area. If it is less than a meter, the pit must be completely tight.
Otherwise, runoff may penetrate the aquifer and adversely affect the quality of the water. To restore its normal composition in such a situation will not be easy.
For a sealed cesspool, you can take a special plastic container. It is necessary to install such an element carefully so that the walls do not bend or burst under the pressure of the soil from the outside.
To equip the sealed cesspool, the bottom is concreted, the walls of the structure are made without gaps. An alternative is a plastic container installed inside the pit.
It will also provide the necessary tightness, but it should be remembered that the strength of plastic is significantly inferior to concrete or brick.
If the first aquifer from the surface lies 1 or more meters below the bottom of the pit being constructed, then it can be arranged on the principle of a filter or absorption well.
The bottom of the pit is formed from a material with high filtration properties: sand, gravel or gravel with sand aggregate. The power of the filter backfill is at least 1 m.
It makes no sense to arrange a filtering structure on rock and semi-rock formations, loams and clays, as Recycled wastewater simply cannot migrate further into the ground.
It is also not done if there is a possibility of unloading into open water bodies near swimming places or water intake points for technical purposes.
Absorption cesspools are constructed in soils capable of passing treated sewage. It is allowed to arrange them only in cases when the thickness of the soil will be from one full meter between the conditional bottom of the filtering well and the highest level of occurrence of groundwater
For a small family of three people there are national standards for the construction of cesspools. Arrange them at the rate of 0.5 m3 per person, on average 1.0 - 1.5 m deep, 0.8 - 1.0 m wide.
If a small-sized closet rises above the cesspool for summer residents who do not live permanently on a suburban area, the standard sizes and the estimated volume can be slightly reduced.
To make the pit of the absorption type using masonry, a small gap is left between the bricks. Clearances can not be made throughout the masonry, but only in certain places.
Features of the installation of cesspools
So, the place has been chosen, it's time to start the construction of the pit. Usually, special equipment is used for this, since it is too long and difficult to take out large volumes of soil manually. Pit configuration may be square, rectangular, round - it all depends on the selected material.
Under old tires, concrete rings, etc. need a round pit.
It is more convenient to fill with concrete or the erection of wooden walls in a square or rectangular pit. But the brickwork can be done both in a circle and in a straight line.
A brick cesspool can be made in a rectangular or round configuration. The masonry can be airtight or with gaps depending on the type of structure
After the pit is ready, you need to start arranging the bottom filter from a compacted mixture of crushed stone with sand. Over time, crushed stone is poured into the pit if a part of the filter material is squeezed out under the weight of the effluents into the underlying layer.
If you need a sealed pit, the bottom is made in the form of a concrete screed as for the foundation. Then the walls are erected. You can continue to work with concrete, make formwork and fill the walls.
It’s easier and faster to make a sewer from concrete rings. They are installed in the pit, and then they are sealed and sealed.
A plastic container is placed on a compacted sand cushion. In this case, filling the pit should be done very carefully so as not to damage the plastic. It is recommended that water be poured into the container at the same time to balance the pressure inside and out.
The quality of the masonry in the sewer construction is not particularly stringent, the result will be hidden underground. This work can be completely entrusted to a novice mason.
But still, it should be remembered that even in the sewers, too curved walls are not needed. This increases the likelihood of their destruction under the influence of external factors.
Normal brickwork will provide sufficient tightness to the structure. If it is planned to create a cesspool with natural filtration, a gap of about half a brick is left in the joints.
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The construction of a sewer facility with a filter bottom is carried out only in soils with high filtration properties: sand, gravel and pebble deposits
When installing an absorbing well in soils with insufficient filtering ability to absorb, for example, in sandy loam, the filter area is increased by laying walls with filter holes
A sewer transporting only gray drains is brought to an absorbing pit with a filter bottom: contaminated water from the kitchen, shower, pool, bath, bath
Holes that increase the capacity of the absorbing well are arranged to the height of the soil filter - i.e. 1 m from the conditional bottom of the object
If there is any doubt about the cleaning of gray effluents with a soil filter, it is better to make a pit with an overflow. This option significantly increases the degree of wastewater treatment.
The drain section of the pit with overflow is made with a sealed bottom. Settled in it, clarified water enters the second chamber, from there it is utilized in the ground
Above the absorbing option, as well as over all types of cesspools, it is necessary to build a ceiling, for example, from a corner as beams and plywood sheets
It is advisable to equip the area around the absorbing sewer object: fill in a large-sized slab that excludes the collapse of the soil in the well, put up a fence
Geological conditions for the construction of an absorbing pit
The specifics of the construction of the pit in sandy loam
Sewer pipe
Location of filter holes
Complicated overflow design
Two-chamber sewage treatment plant
Overlap device over a cesspool or septic tank
Arrangement of a site around a cesspool
By agreement with local inspection bodies, in rare cases it is permissible to build a cesspool of wood. It is recommended that wood be pretreated with special materials to increase its life.
As practice shows, wooden cesspools do not last long and in a few years may need repair.
For water resistance, the gaps between the logs are caulked and oiled, and a clay waterproofing layer of 45 cm thick is applied to the bottom and walls. The top of the cesspool is covered with densely laid logs, and for the possibility of pumping out drains, a hatch of about 80 × 70 cm is arranged.
And another option for decorating the walls of the cesspool is old tires. They are stacked in a pit in a pile to protect the walls of the pit from destruction. Of course, we are not talking about some kind of special tightness.
This is a temporary option that does not provide a large volume for the accumulation of effluents. But making a pit out of tires is relatively easy, and it performs its functions quite satisfactorily.
A tire cesspool is a relatively small absorption structure. Its main advantages are the availability of materials and ease of execution.
The nuances of operating cesspools
If the cesspool is arranged correctly, there will be no big problems with its operation. The main problem is the regular cleaning of the tank from accumulated effluents. Do not wait until the tank is full, the removal of effluents should be started earlier.
However, a simple pumping of sewage does not make the building clean automatically. Over time, phenomena such as siltation of the bottom and contamination of the walls with fatty deposits are observed in cesspools.
All this leads to a reduction in the volume of the structure, it is filled faster, and it is necessary to call the scavengers more often.
Over time, silty deposits may accumulate at the bottom of the cesspool, which impede the natural removal of liquid from the sewer
In addition, pollution enhances the already appetizing odors characteristic of the sewage system. One way to solve the problem is to use special bacteria for cesspools. These microorganisms are simply poured or poured into a container in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.
The presence of bacteria helps to speed up the processing of effluents and prevents the likelihood of pollution of the surrounding soil. In addition, microorganisms can significantly weaken and even completely eliminate unpleasant odors of sewage.
Before using bacteria, you should carefully study the instructions. Such drugs are not always compatible with some types of household chemicals. You need to choose a different composition or change the means for cleaning, washing and other needs to more suitable.
Sometimes bacteria do not help, the walls and bottom of the tank are covered with deposits. In this case, mechanical cleaning of the tank will help. After pumping wastewater, a worker descends into the pit, who cleans the dirt from the walls.
Then, a layer of sludge is removed from the bottom. The cleaned bottom should be covered with a fresh layer of gravel or gravel.
Work on cleaning cesspools is not only time-consuming, but also dangerous. They should be carried out in special protective clothing and a respirator. Safety glasses and, of course, gloves do not interfere. It is not recommended to perform such work alone.
Deposits can emit gas that is hazardous to human health. A worker inside the pit may suddenly lose consciousness under the influence of such fumes. Even if two or three people work below, they must be insured by someone on the surface in case of such a nuisance.
Concrete ring cesspool
The use of prefabricated reinforced concrete structures, in this case, concrete rings, significantly speeds up construction, so they are used quite often. Such elements can be used to equip both a sealed and an absorbing cesspool.
In the first case, monolithic rings are taken, and in the second, special rings with holes are used.
For the construction of a permeable cesspool, designed for additional cleaning of drains discharged from the septic tank, concrete rings with perforation can be purchased
Of course, whole elements should be used without cracks, so that the structure does not collapse during operation.
To make a cesspool of concrete rings, you must follow these steps:
- Choose a place for construction.
- Make markup.
- Dig a pit.
- Flatten the bottom.
- Pour the bottom of the pit with a concrete screed.
- Install concrete rings.
- Lay the necessary sewer pipes.
- Close up the seams.
- Carry out waterproofing and sealing work.
- Backfill the pit.
- Install concrete slab with hole and cover.
- Install ventilation structures.
Of course, there is no need to concrete the bottom for an absorbing cesspool. Instead of screed, a layer of gravel or gravel should be placed at the bottom to improve the drainage of the structure. And for a sealed structure, you can find a ready-made concrete ring in which there is already a bottom. But such options are not common.
The bottom is concreted with a screed about 10 cm thick. To add extra strength to the layer, crushed stone is added to the composition. the solution should be as homogeneous as possible in order to achieve uniform drying.
Until the screed is dry, it is impossible to continue work on arranging the cesspool. Have to wait at least a week. After drying, flaws may appear on the screed - cracks, bumps, etc. They must be eliminated using a special repair solution.
Concrete rings should be installed very carefully. This can be done using a crane or manually. The joints are sealed with rubber gaskets, old car cameras can be used. At the joints, the rings are isolated with a solution.
From the inside, waterproofing the cesspool is recommended using liquid glass.
To install concrete rings in a cesspool, it is recommended to use special construction equipment. This work can also be done manually, but several people will have to be involved.
For laying sewer pipes, they dig a trench with a slight slope - about 3 degrees. The recommended depth of such a trench is at least one meter so that the pipes do not freeze in winter. For the same purpose, pipes are covered with a layer of heat-insulating materials.
The hole in the concrete ring for connecting the sewer pipe can be made using a punch.
Sewer pipes are recommended to be laid to a depth of more than one meter, i.e. below the freezing depth of the soil so that the drains do not freeze and break the structure
After the pipes are laid, the quality of work is checked by lowering a little water into the sewer. After making sure that there is no leak, you can start backfilling the trench. As a top floor, a reinforced concrete slab is usually used.
It is best to choose a design that already has a round or square hole for maintenance. This hole is closed with a standard cover.
Good ventilation of the cesspool helps improve waste management and remove unpleasant odors. For ventilation in the upper ceiling, it is imperative to make a special hole and bring up the pipe.
A plastic pipe with a diameter of at least 100 mm is suitable. On top of it, it is necessary to cover it with a special deflector to prevent the penetration of sediment into the wastewater.
Here is a detailed overview of the arrangement of cesspools made of various materials:
In this video, you can see a clear example of installing a cesspool of concrete rings:
The cesspool is an ancient, but useful construction. This is the easiest and relatively cheapest way to provide a reliable autonomous sewage system..
It is only necessary to choose the right place, determine the volume and precisely observe the technology of work.
Do you know the secrets of arranging an autonomous sewer with a cesspool? Perhaps you recently built a drive for sewage from improvised materials with your own hands? Tell us about it - your experience may be useful to other owners of suburban housing.