Leta Boylan

Yeah, I'd like to put a composting toilet elsewhere as well, but my goal is to just not have or need septic at all. So realistically, I'll need something in the bathroom, whether it's dry or a microflush.

Yeah, microflush is always an option, but my preference is a dry toilet if possible. I'm not sure if there's available space directly under the bathroom- I need to get down there and take a good set of measurements.

I don't want something self contained in the bathroom because I think we are just too many people. I think the poop would not have a chance to compost much, if at all, before the bucket/chamber would need emptying.

Carol, I have read the Composting Toilet System Book. It's been a couple of years, however. I remember liking it a lot, but not quite being there yet- only now do I have a house in mind that I'm trying to figure out how to retrofit. I have not read Reusing the Resource or Liquid Gold yet. I guess I haven't read all the composting toilet books after all.

I am a little hesitant to build ourselves a composting toilet as our first rodeo. The only ones I've ever encountered have been commercially manufactured or huge public installations.

If we put Bilco doors and possibly a ramp from the exterior of the house into the basement, and if the basement extends to under the bathroom (not sure, need to measure) then I can sort of see us building one. As it is, the house has strange basement access. It's just a tiny closet, the entire floor of which is a trap door, and right now, that's the ONLY WAY to get in the basement. A big person would barely fit down there, much less a 55 gallon drum.

Even if we used a Separett seat, I really don't want to empty a bucket of poop and sawdust daily. With 5 people plus guests I know I'd end up doing it everyday. I'd much rather have a remote system versus a self contained system, so everything had longer to compost and it all had to be maintained once a month or less rather than daily or weekly.

Now THERE'S an idea! Thank you!

I've been pondering going with a SunMar Centrex. We have some friends who are a family of four and constantly host events, and that's what they use and while it does take some maintenance, they don't have any problems with theirs. She even pulled out the bottom drawer for me and it was totally inoffensive dirt that they are removing.

I'm thinking if I can locate the composting chamber appropriately in the basement- that is, right under where the toilet is presently located- I'd like to build some sort of remote system, ideally similar to a Clivus Multrum.

I saw one remote-style homebuild in Finland that used 55 gallon drums on a giant lazy susan. They had a tube that led from the toilet to the drum, and once a year, they'd go down and move the tube from one drum to another, spinning the lazy susan. There were four drums, and by the time it was time to empty the first, it was like 10 gallons of peat moss, what was left in there.

Well, the thing is, I'm really NOT willing to do the bucket/outhouse method. I can wrap my head around it in a worst case scenario, huge party/extended visit sort of situation, but I certainly don't want to do it regularly for a family of five. NO.

Why would a bladder infection be problematic?

So I've read all the composting toilet books. ALL of them. And the greywater books. And reviews of commercial composting toilets, both self contained and chambered. Many, many reviews.

And the thing I keep coming back to is pee. (I know Joe Jenkins suggests just mixing them, but I've already ruled that out. Just based on potty training two kiddos, I know the smell is too gross when mixed.)

From what I've been able to gather from reading, most composting toilet systems do fine with poop. The problem is that they get overloaded with pee, especially if there are parties or visitors. Many composting toilets even have an emergency valve or tube to deal with this.

Now, I have some time to figure this out. We are in underwriting right now to buy a house (on 24 acres! plus garage and derelict barn! woodlot and orchard and hayfield! can you tell I'm excited?!) that has a septic system in place, but the septic is going to need to be replaced in 3-5 years. Needless to say, that ain't gonna happen.

What I'm thinking is that I'm going to have the husband install a waterless urinal in the bathroom right away. They are between $200 and $300. I'm going to buy GoGirls for myself and my daughter, and a stack of PMates for female guests. In my experience, men will use a urinal if one is at all available, and I think the occasional terrified female guest will not be too much pee for a composting toilet to cope with.

Then, also in short order, we are going to build an outhouse that has a sort of cold frame type thing on the south facing side, to accelerate composting. And plant a willow nearby. An amalgam of several good ideas I've seen kicking around.

Then, I'm thinking I'm just gonna drop the cash (I know, I know) and get a self contained SunMar. Worst case scenario, if I need to empty it, I'll have a good place to do so: in the outhouse.

Down the road awhile, I want to build a separate bath house (with wood fired Japanese soaking tub, and a shower, and a sauna, that's connected to the main house via a radiant heated greenhouse) and in that, experiment with a homebuilt composting toilet, that includes either a separating toilet seat or another waterless urinal.

My questions are as follows:

-once we have achieved septic independence, can/should we route the pee from the urinal into the greywater/dry well system? This will be irrigating plants, so I'd like to be able to use that diluted nitrogen. I can find no resource that says this is either a good or bad idea.

-is there any reason I should just use a separating toilet seat? I'm leaning hard toward the waterless urinal because I don't want to haul containers of pee out of my house, and because either way (separating toilet seat or waterless urinal) I'm going to have to teach one sex to do things differently, and more women (at least , those that I know) are eager to learn to pee standing up than men are to learn to sit down and aim.

-is there any reason that I should get the electric SunMar if it's primarily for poop and just some incidental, pre-pooping pee + occasional, terrified female guest pee?

-has anyone done anything like this?

What we have going for us:

-we have installed and tweaked a greywater system at our current house
-my husband is good lay-plumber
-we both are not at all freaked out by potty issuesS
-I've build an outhouse and my husband has built two

In closing, please advise!