Cottage Q&A
QUESTION
What are the Ontario regulations for outhouses located on waterfront lots?
ANSWER
Here’s the poop: Outhouses are covered by article 8.3.3.1. of the Ontario Building Code as a Class 1 sewage system, referred to as “earth pit” privies. (Now isn’t that fancy for yer basic backhouse?) As long as you follow building regulations, you can be visiting your personal privy in the woods in the time it takes to slap one up (i.e., no building permit required), according to Sandy Bos, sewage system inspector for the Township of Muskoka Lakes, who sits on the board of the Ontario Onsite Wastewater Association. “There’s nothing wrong with having an outhouse as long as the only thing going into it is human waste.” Better to send your beer-drinking buddies to the outhouse than have them overload your septic.
You need to find a good location away from the water according to your local municipality’s setback rules, usually 15 to 30 metres. Dig the pit (give those buddies some shovels) so that the bottom is 90 cm above the high groundwater table with 60 cm of soil or leaching bed fill on the sides and below the pit. Dig in the spring when the water table is at its highest, Bos says. If your pit fills up with water, you know you’ve hit the water table and you’ll need to find a drier spot. Mound the earth up around the outside of the privy to a height of 15 cm, as per Code, so that rainwater is directed away from the pit, and to keep the vermin out. (You can also add a sheet-metal barrier to prevent rot on the bottom of the structure.) The OBCrequires you to vent the pit with a pipe running behind the toilet seat up through the roof. On a hot day, you’ll be glad you did.
For a good description and drawing of an approved outhouse, go to the Leeds, Grenville, and Lanark District Health Unit website (www.healthunit.org). Click on Sewage/Land control, then Class 1. For more on regulations, and to purchase plans for the Cottage Life outhouse, visit cottagelife.com/outhouses.
Christine Langlois
* Published in the September/October 2007 issue of
Cottage Life
