In a city apartment, sewerage and plumbing are the norm. As for the summer cottage, there are no such conditions there, but the person still wants comfort. Outside the city it is not always possible to use centralized treatment systems, which is why many property owners outside the city equip a septic tank on their own.
The solution of the problem
To do this, you can use one of the many technologies, but most often the sewage system is arranged using barrels that are convenient to install and easy to get. A septic tank for a private house is best purchased in the factory assembly. But if we are talking about the cottage, then there will be enough barrel sewage, which involves soil or mechanical treatment.
Choosing a place for a septic tank
If you decide to install a septic tank from a barrel with your own hands, it is important to choose the right place. The system should be removed from wells, drinking wells and water bodies by at least 30 m. The distance from the beds should be 10 m, from underground pipelines by 5 m. Begin work on the arrangement of such sewers should be 5 meters away from the foundation.
As for green spaces by the type of trees and shrubs, the distance to them should be 3 m. It is important to observe the minimum step to the sources of drinking water, this will eliminate their pollution and reduce the likelihood of spread of infection.
Before starting work, it is important to remember that wastewater will be supplied to the system in a small volume, because usually the owners of suburban real estate do not permanently live in such houses, they can visit the site on weekends or attend arrivals. However, it is important to comply with construction and sanitary standards.
When arranging a septic tank from a barrel with your own hands, you should not place it close to the foundation, because in this case the water will begin to destroy the base. Sanitary standards are prescribed for a reason, if neglected, this can lead to health problems and legal liability. When choosing a place for a septic tank, you should consider:
- soil composition and properties;
- site relief;
- groundwater depth ;
- climatic conditions;
- the need to equip a driveway for a cesspool truck.
What is important to consider?
Before starting work, it is important to study the composition of the soil. As for sand, it passes moisture quite easily, while clay soil should be supplemented with a sand cushion. It is important to pay attention to the features of the relief of the site. The pipe should be laid under a certain slope from the house to the receiving barrels, then the drains will move by gravity.
If you will equip a septic tank from a barrel with your own hands, then it is important to take into account climatic conditions. Experts recommend studying how much the air temperature drops in the winter, because this allows you to find out what is the level of freezing of the soil. If the septic tank is planned to be pumped out, it is important to ensure that there are paths for the access of the sewer machine.
The simplest system for a summer cottage consists of two iron barrels and an external pipeline. The pipes can be made of plastic, and their diameter can be 110 mm. If the diameter is smaller, then the system will not be able to cope with the peak volume of sewage. A septic tank from barrels can only be installed when underground water is at a level of 4 m.
The slope of the sewer pipeline should be 0.03, this will ensure gravity. The vertical value should be equal to 3 cm per linear meter. If the pipes are supposed to be laid above the level of freezing of the soil, then they should be insulated with moisture-proof thermal insulation.
Sewage device
Quite often, recently, consumers have been arranging a septic tank from barrels with their own hands. You too can follow their experience. At the first stage, it is important to choose the material of the containers, it can be plastic or iron. The first option will be easier to install, in addition, it is resistant to corrosion, but soil expansion can lead to structural deformation.
In Russian summer residents are more common iron barrels, whose capacity is 200 liters. This container, after firing, becomes ideal for a sewer sump. The capacity is cheap and durable, and also has a low weight, which allows you to carry out work yourself. One of the main disadvantages of iron is its predisposition to corrosion. But the walls of the product can always be treated with an anticorrosive composition as a bituminous mastic.
How to avoid mistakes?
In order for the tank to last longer, it should be covered with bitumen and paintwork material. If you decide to install a septic tank with your own hands from a barrel for a country toilet, then it is important to consider the issue of choosing the material from the point of view of the need to fill the foundation. Plastic is light enough, so you need to fix it on a pillow made of concrete, otherwise the product may float during floods.
With iron, such problems will not arise. According to sanitary norms and rules, the volume of a septic tank must contain drains in the amount of 3 daily norms. This is true for water consumption in the amount of 5 m 3 per day, which is important for country sewerage. However, it is important to remember that these data are indicated for the sumps being cleaned.
Arrangement technology
If you thought about the question of how to make a septic tank from barrels with your own hands, then at the first stage it is necessary to carry out earthwork. They involve the preparation of trenches for laying pipes that will go from home. For reinforced concrete barrels, it is also necessary to dig a pit. Top containers sprinkled with soil. The pit should be deep enough, at the sides should leave a gap, the width of which is 0.25 m.
Equipping a septic tank from barrels in the country with your own hands, you must decide whether you will use the system in the winter. If so, then thermal insulation work should be carried out. In this case, the containers must be located below the freezing line of the soil, otherwise the water will freeze. This approach requires an additional deepening of the pit, you may need an excavator.
Methodology
The next step is to make holes in the barrels. In the first tank, one of them should be located on top, it is designed for a pipe coming from the house. The second hole should be on the side, it is the outlet and is used to overflow into the next tank.
In the second container, the hole is made on the side, and the second on the bottom. To be precise, the second barrel must be deprived of the bottom to allow drainage into the ground. This will make the septic tank out of the barrel with your own hands without pumping. The inlet should be located 20 cm above the outlet, otherwise the water may go back. In order to exclude welding work, it is necessary to cut a hole and install rubber seals, plastic pipes are introduced into them, and the joints are treated with sealant.
Recommendations for work
At the bottom of the prepared foundation pit, it is necessary to pour a pillow of sand and gravel, its thickness can vary from 10 to 30 cm. The preparation is well compacted, barrels are placed on it and connected with a jumper. They can be overlaid with a heater, which is sometimes expanded clay or foam.
Before connecting the sewer pipes, the barrels should be covered with soil on the sides. Soil is poured in layers of 20 cm and compacted. At the next stage, a pipe is connected that goes from the country house. It is inserted into the first container with a tee, its free end will be used for ventilation. At the final stage, everything should be covered with soil.
Features of the device of a septic tank made of metal barrels
If you will arrange a septic tank from iron barrels with your own hands, it is important to concreting the bottom. The second tank should be slightly lower than the first. For work it is better to use barrels of 200 l or more. It is recommended to insulate the septic tank from all sides, this process should not be neglected, laying the material only on the bottom of the pit. After filling with soil, the system should be covered with roofing material, lids made of iron or wood, the latter of which are needed to provide access to containers if it is necessary to pump effluents.
Volume increase
If you want to increase the volume of the structure, you can install several barrels on top of each other and weld them together. Additional iron jumpers can be mounted for reliable fastening of products among themselves. The formed joints must be well waterproofed; for this, hot bitumen is usually used. No matter how high-quality a septic tank was made with its own hands from a fuel barrel, after 4 years the tanks will have to be changed, because they will begin to rust and rot under the influence of aggressive drains.
Features of the preparation of the pit for the installation of plastic barrels
Quite often, owners of suburban real estate arrange a septic tank of plastic barrels with their own hands. You can view photos of such systems in the article. When preparing a pit for installing containers, you should be guided by parameters that will be larger than the geometric dimensions of the compartments used. Along the perimeter of the pit, the step between the sides and barrels should be 0.25 m. The bottom must be well packed, covered with sand and filled with concrete solution, if necessary, formwork should be used.
In the resulting base, you can mount embedded metal elements that will help fix the barrels. Make them necessary with loops. When making a septic tank from plastic barrels with your own hands, you must additionally fix the tanks to the base with the help of special belts, which are also called bandage. They make it possible to achieve a 100% guarantee that during floods the barrels will not come up.
Making holes in plastic containers, you should step back 0.2 m from the cover of the first tank. A pipe from a residential building will be installed here. On the opposite side of the camera, you should make another hole that moves down 0.1 m. In the first tank, you will need another hole for the ventilation riser.
If you decide to make a septic tank out of plastic barrels with your own hands, it is recommended to supplement the first compartment with a removable lid, because a huge amount of solid waste will accumulate in it, which will have to be cleaned from time to time. If it is not planned to construct filtration fields, then holes are made in the second barrel, which are located relative to each other at an angle of 45 °. These holes will be needed for drainage pipes.
Conclusion
A septic tank, made from plastic barrels (200 liters) with your own hands, may suggest the presence of filtration fields instead of a filtration well. To install drainage pipes, it is necessary to prepare trenches that have a slope of 2 cm per meter. Geotextiles are laid at the bottom of the trench, its sections are thrown onto the sides of the ditch. Next, filling is carried out with crushed stone, on the layer of which drainage pipes are placed. The trench is covered with rubble, and geotextiles are again laid on top. At the final stage, the ditch is covered with earth, at this we can assume that the filtering fields are ready.
During operation, the first compartment will be filled with sludge and solid waste. For cleaning, use the services of a cesspool machine. The volume of sludge will increase by 80 liters over the summer, however, with a regular visit to the cottage, the system can overflow long before the season ends. These features of operation, of course, must be taken into account even before the design of the system.