How to make a septic tank for a summer residence with your own hands: from improvised means to modern technologies

If before summer residents could not even dream of something more comfortable than sewerage in the form of a cesspool, today more and more lovers of suburban life are thinking about more modern options.

Septic tanks for summer cottages are much more perfect and practical. However, purchasing and installing such equipment can be quite expensive. Therefore, it will be reasonable to consider the question of how to make a septic tank with your own hands in the country. The device will quickly pay off, and for many years you can forget about cleaning the containers, because the liquid part of the waste flowing here after cleaning is removed from the septic tank into the soil.

If the scheme of a septic tank for a summer residence provides for the presence of two or three chambers, and it is supposed to intensify the cleaning with the help of special biological additives, then the maintenance of the septic tank will be as simple as possible. Such a septic tank for a summer residence without pumping out can be operated for decades.

Read also the article: do-it-yourself drainage around the house!

Requirements for septic tanks for summer cottages

All country septic tanks must meet certain requirements:

• The design of the septic tank is calculated taking into account the principle of multi-stage cleaning in two or three chambers in series. The first tank of a septic tank for a summer residence serves to accumulate the separation of effluents into fractions. Solid waste sinks to the bottom, and liquid and light fractions - from above. This water enters the second chamber, where it is further purified from organic matter. In the filtering well, additional treatment of water takes place and its subsequent discharge into the soil.
• All chambers, except for the one where the drains are removed to the outside, are as tight as possible.

Location of septic tanks for summer cottages on the site

When planning how to make a septic tank with your own hands in the country, you need to calculate the location of the structure:

• When placing a septic tank, the distance from the house, according to the norms, should not be less than five meters.
• Roads and parking lots should be no closer than two meters.
• But at the same time, taking the septic tank too far from home is also wrong. It is easy to make mistakes in calculating the slope of the pipe system. As a rule, long pipelines are more likely to become clogged. Therefore, for every 15 meters, experts advise equipping inspection wells.

Septic tank installation depth

Septic tanks for summer cottages are dug in, taking into account the level of groundwater and the average depth of soil freezing.

For the cleaning process to be stable in all weather conditions, a positive temperature is required. If the design of a country septic tank cannot be buried below the freezing level, which often happens with high groundwater, then you cannot do without thorough insulation with the help of:

• foam crumbs;
• expanded polystyrene sheet;
• expanded clay and other modern materials suitable for these purposes.

With proper design of a septic tank for giving, the bottom of the last tank is located at the level of a sandy layer with a high absorption capacity.

Septic tank volume

The volume of storage and filtering chambers should be calculated based on the amount of existing daily wastewater. And here it is impossible not to take into account the mode of using the dacha, the number of regularly living people, the peculiarities of the system of plumbing fixtures and the available household appliances.

If the dacha is used year-round and is equipped no worse than urban housing, then each tenant has an average of about 200 liters of water, and a dacha septic tank can process these effluents in three days. In this case, the volume of the septic tank is calculated by the formula:

Tank volume = Number of residents * 200L * 3 days

Septic tank material

When planning to build a septic tank with your own hands in the country house, different materials are used:

• Reinforced concrete well rings;
• Concrete;
• Eurocubes;
• Brick;
• Car tires and other auxiliary materials.

Septic tank made of concrete rings

This option is one of the most common. Installation is carried out quickly enough, and the volume of the chambers is determined taking into account the diameter of the well rings used:

• Before installing the rings for the storage chambers, the bottom of the pits is concreted, and where the arrangement of the filtering well is supposed to be, they make a cushion of rubble.
• Concrete structures are placed one on top of the other. When building a septic tank with your own hands from rings, the scheme should take into account the supply of all the necessary pipes to the wells, taking into account their slope and diameter.
• The future chambers are carefully sealed from the inside and outside using cement mortar, modern coating and welded waterproofing materials.
• When the chambers are mounted, the pipeline is brought in and heat and waterproofing is made, the pits are filled up.

Concrete septic tank

When planning the construction of a septic tank for a summer residence, a lot of people choose the most durable and durable, in their opinion, option, which is a structure made of monolithic concrete:

• During the construction of such a septic tank, at the first stage, the bottom of future chambers is concreted, pre-laying a reinforcing mesh. To prevent the metal from undergoing the inevitable corrosion under conditions of constant moisture, the layer of concrete on top of the mesh should not be thinner than three centimeters.
• Then, after erecting the formwork and reinforcing it with reinforcement, the walls of the chambers are concreted and partitions are made between them.
• Construction is completed by pouring the floor.

The concrete structure requires careful and sufficiently long drying. This stage may take up to two weeks, and in order for it to dry evenly, the solution is covered with a film.

Country septic tanks from improvised means

If the dacha is used periodically and only in the summer, then considering the question of how to make a septic tank for a summer residence with your own hands, you can make a fairly simple septic tank from scrap materials. These can be car tires or plastic barrels. It will not be possible to achieve tightness and long-term strength here, so you should not use a structure for cleaning and storing toilet drains. But for a dacha shower, such a septic tank is perfect.

Installation of a septic tank with high groundwater

A serious obstacle to the arrangement of a summer cottage sewage system of any design is the high groundwater at the site. In such a situation, it becomes impossible to clean the wastewater that has passed through the chambers in the ground. And not all septic tanks can withstand being in such conditions. But there is a solution to the problem.

The easiest way is to use a sealed storage septic tank for a summer residence. A high level of ground moisture will not be able to affect the drainage and cleaning process. The only and significant disadvantage of such a septic tank is the need to regularly use the services of sewers.

A more sophisticated and complex design allows you to create a cleaning system without pumping.

Typical septic tank scheme

This design provides for the presence of a sealed container made of high-strength plastic or concrete. The tank is divided into several chambers, where wastewater is supplied and the already purified moisture is removed:

1. In the first chamber, where household waste is fed, they are roughly cleaned and separated into fractions.
2. In the second chamber of the septic tank for summer cottages, anaerobic decomposition of organic matter occurs, here the decomposition of fats and alcohols occurs.
3. In the last chamber, the decay products either precipitate or turn into a gaseous state.As a result of this process, two thirds of the pollution is neutralized.
4. At the last stage, soil wastewater treatment takes place.

When using a septic tank for a summer residence without pumping out, in conditions of high groundwater, it is recommended to carry out additional purification of moisture not using filtration fields, but to build special filter cassettes on the soil surface.

Rules for choosing septic tanks for summer cottages with high groundwater:

• The safest and most reliable will be a septic tank made of polymeric materials or, in extreme cases, of concrete;
• The volume of the septic tank is calculated taking into account the rate of wastewater treatment per day;
• Horizontal structures are preferable, which do not require much burial;
• Possible type of septic tank: storage or with the possibility of forced pumping of moisture that has already been purified.
• The more in the septic tank scheme for giving chambers, the better the sewage treatment;

If the groundwater at the site comes close to the surface, then some materials in the manufacture of septic tanks for summer cottages will have to be abandoned immediately, since they cannot provide the proper strength and degree of sealing:

• septic tank from tires;
• from brick when laying it with gaps;
• septic tank made of concrete rings;
• with perforated drainage pipes.

Septic tank device from eurocubes

You can make a reliable septic tank for a summer residence with your own hands from plastic containers - eurocubes. Under such chambers, a concrete base of sufficient thickness must be made, to which the septic tank is securely attached, in order to exclude its displacement when the soil moves or the ground moisture rises. The plastic container must be insulated with foam and placed in the pit. Then it is filled with water and concreted on the sides. Insulation of a septic tank for a summer residence is carried out from above. Ventilation pipes are brought to the surface.

Since wastewater in such a septic tank is not completely purified, additional soil treatment is required using filtration fields or filtering cassettes.

To clean the chambers of the septic tank as rarely as possible, and the cleaning process was more intensive, you can use biological additives that promote the decomposition of solid waste and significantly reduce the percentage of sludge formed.

Video: septic tank in the country with their own hands (diagrams)