Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Outhouse hole question

We manage to get the outhouse hole dug last weekend and I'm looking for suggestions on what to do for a liner. I was going to use a 36" culvert but $1600 is a bit much. Thinking about either building a box out of treated plywood with holes drilled in it it make a frame out of pressure treated 2x4's, adding cross members. Then tacking on some permeable landscaping material. Thoughts?

Why does an outhouse pit need a liner? Is the 'soil' prone to collapse, or what?

I was told I should line it but i don't think it would collapse. The hole is about 8-9 feet deep and the upper 2-3 feet is a clay like dirt.

When I did this I got lucky and found a 48" x 5 ft. Culvert band that had been damaged at a road construction company. I think I gave them $100 for it. I cut some slots in it to drain well and called it good.

What you got planned will probably last long enough you want have to worry about it again.

Built for posterity, sounds like...

I've never seen or built an outhouse that was very fancy when it comes to the pit. I have seen and used 55 gallon drums, both ends removed, when digging a hole in sand, but that's about it. Water sources, wells, drainage are the main things to consider beyond having a hole that won't fill itself in independently. Human waste won't fill a pit very fast, especially with intermittent use.

Lol......yeah, that's about right Klik. The actual outhouse itself will 8x6 and split into 2 different rooms. One will by the outhouse and the other side will be the generator shed. Still considering a couple of 55 gal drums but I'm not sure they will be wide enough to prevent side splash.

one of our cabin neighbors did a cool lil gig, he built his outhouse on hinges so he can tip it back pull the 55 gal drum out when it gets full and insert another one.


me I don't line em with with squat. maybe should but I haven't

That's a good idea with the hinges but I have no way of lifting out a 55 gallon turd bucket out of an 8 foot hole. I'm leaning more and more towards the unlined method.

This reminds me of a fellow I shared housing with years ago. It was his turn to 'haul the honeybucket' and, to save a return trip to the house on his way out somewhere, he grabbed the bag lining the bucket and walked through the house carrying a 3-4 gallons of human waste - in an ordinary 13 gallon kitchen trash bag. (No way would I want anything to do with 30 gallons or more of human slop in a thin, steel 'can'. )



Our most recent version was simply located over an appropriate 'slot' on the edge of an ancient volvanic boulder field a couple hundred yards from the ocean. The occasional 'creek' disappears into the same boulder field some yards beyond, but runs only in the spring and during lengthy periods of wet weather. I don't think we benefit from any 'flushing' action, but the solids haven't built up over the past 10 years all that significantly either.

This probably no chance due to logistics...... but right size sono tube, drop in, drive a few pieces of rebar in place, mix up a form of concrete, via cement and on site stuff, and pour a thin form..

that of the road construction stuff.. stop and ask one of the flaggers... at least down here they toss rusted corrugated all the time..

You gotta be [bleep] me...

Sounds like a chitter designed by a German.

Correction, of descent, 75% German, 25% Czech... LOL. I think that adds up to Polish... LOL

lol reminds me of a story about one of the outfitters I worked for

at his main lodge and hunting camp, guides had to take turns tamping down the outhouse(s) with a long 2x4 with a small piece of plywood on one end to avoid having to dig a new one so often


never had to do so myself as I was usually doing remote camps or float hunting, plus, I seldom stayed for late season bear hunting (sitting extremely quiet in a blind over a spawning bed, just never seemed like that much fun to me)

always teased the guys that told me they pulled that duty if they ever asked a client if they knew they were "going to pack their chit for them on this trip"

Course you guys do know that you are suppose to keep a bag of lime in the outhouse, and flush it with about a tuna can full sprinkled down the hole ocassionally. Just be sure to have the seat up, your wife won't like the lime on her bottomside.

Not much lime to be found off-road (which is most of Alaska). But wood ashes seem to suffice somewhat.

They say the first outhouses were nothing more than a small building with a seat with a hole in it, built over a hole dug into the ground.

Heard rumors the guys in your camps used to say "Sleep on your back... or Randy will!"

I would line it with doo-doo.

Beware the stalagmites in the winter.

Use a 35 gal drum. Maintains the wall in unstable soils and are free! Cut both ends out with a torch

It is not the fact that 35 gallon drums are not common that should be concerning about this comment.

Most of the things in Walt's life are free.
That's how he rolls.

Guys...Unlike most of you I have an outhouse right out in my yard and at my cabin in Noatak National Park. I have dug a number of them and in Alaska the walls often times are unstable and will slide. Soo.....35 gal oil/grease drums are easy to find in the Bush. When you live in the Bush you use what you have cause heading to Home Depot is just not an option...

When I was in AK in the early 90s, I built an outhouse using an old plastic fish bin to line the $hite hole/pit. I knocked holes in the sides and bottom. As far as I can recall, I believe the fish bin was ~ 4'x4'x~3.5'. You should be able to find an old one for cheap.

55 gallon drums are common; smaller ones not so much, but you already knew that. (Fuel: gas/diesel, glycol, motor oil...things that get used in high volume are often shipped that way.)

Keep those angels employed, keep using that torch to open them and one day you'll get yourself a real Crackerjack surprise.

I remain hopeful.

In fact Walt, a little added gasoline helps the barrel end come off.

Around here they were usually lined with concrete blocks. Things are so different for you folks, I dont even know if they would be available or practical.

Yes but in perm frost? Thats about what 44 inches. Not going to happen. 35 gal drums are out there and a lot shorter. I built a little barrel stove for my wall tent out of a 35gal and it was perfect! Pony Keg would've been even better!

29" vs 35" (or less); as usual, you're so full of shiiiit that you really need to be using a 55 gallon hole. Seriously, it won't be much difference for those buff wrestling pipes you've got.

I agree and that is why a 35 works well..We have beeb using that 35 gal hole for 13 years now and guess what??? Not full yet! Digging through Perma Frost sucks. If you have never done it well lets just say...Bring your "Took"

yep Walt you're the only one with any outdoor experience, give or take


what's so hard about digging in permafrost?


you dig a hole, hit frozen dirt, build a fire in it, roast a few marshmallows

scrape that dirt out and repeat as needed.


don't even need to bring your "Took" WTF?


you never make a bit of sense with anything you post

Using a "took" (presumably the gussuk spelling of the Eskimo word 'tuuq') to chip away at ever-frozen clay for the digging of modern-day graves is quite common (though an electric jack hammer and Honda generator are even more common nowadays). But, while the deposition of a body in a closed hole does seem to work over time, permafrost is a big reason why people tend not to use outhouses in many parts of the state (and it's not laziness that accounts for that.) The permafrost in many parts of the state is nothing but frozen clay and muck which, when exposed, becomes a water-filled sinkhole capable of swallowing the structure build over it, or at least toppling it. Anybody who tries to tell you that they've had their 35 gallon (30 gallon most probably since 35 gallon drums are about as common as braces for hen's teeth) in use for 13 years, is either pulling your leg or has retained so much of their waste over the years that they are truly full of it. Nothing really breaks down in permafrost, nor does permafrost drain. As usual, Walt wins himself four Pinnoccios.

I literally thought this thread was going to be about RobJordan.

Try this link on for size....


https://www.robertharding.com/previ...ls-leaking-waste-oil-tundra-nome-alaska/

See the short ones? Those are 35's in Nome....

Not sure what village you come from but in Kotz there are not hard to find...Try the dump!

Pretty hard to know what those barrels are from that picture. They're undoubtedly leftover/left-behinds from the WW II when planes were ferried to Russia through Nome. Galena was another place which 'benefited' from plentiful old drums. In fact, any place which had a military presence of one sort or another had old oil drums. The vast majority of those were 55 gallons. (That was virtually the only size 'tundra daisy' I saw when they were still around 20-30 years ago. We are now what- 70 years removed from WW II and it's remnants. Not many of those left anymore. The vast majority of steel drums are 55 gallons these days. A 30 gallon is very uncommon unless someone has need for that much grease. Obviously the market is pretty slight in any village. AVEC, schools, etc get motor oils and glycol in 55 gallon drums. Even gasoline is rarely transported this way anymore. A used oil drum is a good snag even in 55 gallons as they get used for hauling heating fuel (since villages rarely [never] have fuel delivery). They are also pretty commonly used for day tanks. Out on the coast where permafrost is common, a person might sink an outhouse pit if they live on the beach line where the sand is deep. As I pointed out before, holes in permafrost fill with water, melt, cave in, and everything above sinks in. But if a hole 3 feet deep is so much of a challenge that you need to stick with a 30 inch deep hole, God help you in your 'rural' existence. You're going to need it.

Like I said before in Kotz we can get them...But Kotz is a major hub for barge activity...I built a barrel stove for my wall tent back in 05? out of a 35 and shrunk it down by cutting it in 1/2 and slipping one end into the other making it short and fat-little pig...When I built mu cabin up the Noatak the first stove was a 1955 navy oil drum with the rolled edges. it was a find when I saw it floating along the edge of Kobuk Lake with who knows what in it. I flamed it off and then made a killer stove out of her, very heavy when compared to modern drums. The dang thing would blast that little cabin out and the kids upstairs cooked but when it cooled down it was cold fast...Replaced her with a Blaze Queen Princess that was taken out of one of the many HUD/BIA homes in the area...Now it is easy heating!

Ya build with what you have on hand in the bush! But you know that.