Drainage for a bath - installation of drainage under the bath

Taking a steam bath is pleasant and very useful; at first glance, it seems that it could not be simpler?
I warmed up, lay down on the shelf, sweated well, performed a complex broom massage, plunged into a plunge pool with cool water or dived into a snowdrift of fluffy snow. No one argues that this is an overly simplified understanding of bathhouse traditions; there are many nuances on which our positive emotions depend, such as who tied the broom and how, what is the temperature in the steam room, what wood is the bathhouse made of, etc. However, in order for a visit to the steam room to leave only positive emotions, it is important to fulfill all the mandatory conditions during construction. One of them is the proper organization of water disposal and drainage.

Problems and challenges of wastewater collection

The first of them is related to the operating features of the structure. Wastewater collection is carried out from the washroom, shower compartment and (if available) the pool. Also, for example, in a Russian bath or Turkish hammam, where the humidity in the steam room is quite high, it is necessary to take care of effective drainage from these rooms. The solution to this problem is determined, first of all, by the need to ensure sanitary and hygienic conditions in the premises. Tens of liters of water, which are consumed in one go, even in a small bathhouse for two people, create a high level of humidity. It, as well as elevated temperatures, create favorable conditions for the development of pathogens and mold. In addition, ineffective collection of wastewater and residual moisture leads to the gradual destruction of structures due to water erosion (when using natural or artificial stone, concrete, brick), corrosion of metals and rotting of wood products.

Reviews

Most reviews from barrel sauna owners are positive. But there are also negative ones. Owners of such designs praise them primarily for their original design, as well as ease of assembly, mobility, and quick warm-up. Many note that this design is intended for temporary use only during the warm season. Although there are those who used them in winter.

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There are a lot of records of bathhouse owners who recently purchased them, in contrast to those who have used them for at least 3-4 years. Positive reviews are often so “sweet” that one involuntarily doubts their reality and non-commercial component. Therefore, negative comments are especially valuable. Those who are against and criticize barrel baths - that is, probably real buyers - note the following:

Over time, the boards dry out, and then pulling and installing them becomes problematic. Although in many ways this indicates the initially poor quality of the building materials - they were not properly dried.
In winter, baths do not warm up as quickly and cool down just as quickly. It feels cold from below when there is still steam above. There is no opportunity to sit for a long time in the steam room.

The need to monitor drainage, especially when used in cold weather. The drain pipe may burst, and this will lead to poor drainage, stagnation of water and the occurrence of rot.
The appearance of mold and mildew even with proper care - regular ventilation and cleaning.
Many users of summer baths are confused by the thickness of the walls. The boards that are used are quite thin - only 4-5 cm.
Expensive - for the same amount you can build an ordinary frame or foam block temporary bathhouse, which will be more spacious.

Waste disposal

In the past, baths were most often built on the banks of rivers and lakes. In this case, there were no problems with the disposal of wastewater - it was simply dumped into water bodies. Today such a solution has become almost impossible. • Firstly, the coast of water bodies is almost everywhere a nature protection zone in which the construction of any structures is prohibited; • Secondly, federal (for example, sanitary and hygienic standards) and local legislation strictly limits the possibility of discharging untreated wastewater into natural and artificial reservoirs; • Thirdly, people today widely use active substances in household chemicals (and detergents are no exception), which even in small concentrations can cause irreparable damage to the ecosystem of a reservoir. All this forces owners, when organizing drainage systems for a bathhouse, to provide effective measures for the collection and purification of wastewater, similar to those used when organizing sewerage systems for a residential building or site drainage.

Drainage of wastewater from bathhouse premises

The solution to the problem of draining wastewater from the steam room and washing room is closely related to two main issues: • the nature of the soil on which the bathhouse is built; • type of floor in the premises.

It is also necessary to understand that for a classic Russian steam bath, with dry hot steam, by and large it is necessary to equip only an emergency drainage system - which works only at the time of global cleaning of the room. This decision is primarily due to the fact that there is practically no water consumption and, as a consequence, the need to remove it, in the steam room, but this can only be true for a Russian bath.

For hammams and saunas with low temperatures and 100 percent humidity, the presence of drainage in the steam room is very important and vital. Considering the fact that the floor of a hammam or sauna can be made of marble, water disposal in most cases is easily solved by using special plumbing trays with decorative gratings, often called shower trays, or plumbing drains.

If an area with soils with high permeability is selected for construction, the problem can be solved in the simplest way - by installing flood floors and discharging water directly onto the ground or into a drainage well, performed directly under the floors. In the second case, the drainage well may have an area almost equal to the area of the room.

Characteristics

There are many options for round baths, each of which has its own characteristics, ranging from size to internal arrangement. Thus, after going through all the possible options, you can choose your “ideal” barrel sauna.

Dimensions

The smallest bathhouse, located horizontally, is 2 meters long. Its design implies the presence of 1-2 rooms. You can undress here at the entrance if the bathhouse has a porch with a canopy. The weight of such a building is about 1.5 tons.

The largest barrels reach a little over 6 meters. There can already be up to 3 rooms: a dressing room (with a well-thought-out resting place, a table, clothes hangers, benches), a wash room (with a shower or water containers), a steam room (with comfortable benches and loungers); or in the case of a sauna, the washing room can become a relaxation room. On average, the length of each room will be 1-2 meters.

Classic round baths can be of the following sizes - up to 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 meters in length, about 2 meters in diameter (1.95 m is the internal diameter). Quad and oval baths may have slightly different parameters: 4x4, 3x6. Almost any bathhouse can accommodate comfortable sun loungers with a width of 500 mm.

In two-meter baths there is only one room. In the three- to four-meter ones there are already two – a small locker room and a steam room. The largest ones have space for three rooms.

The classic shape of a barrel bath is a circle, or rather a cylinder, located horizontally.

Less common are oval, square or rectangle shapes with rounded corners. In addition, there are options for baths with a semicircular top and rectangular bottom.

The entrance to both oval and quad baths can be from the front or the side. The entrance can be framed by a canopy or equipped with a gazebo. And the barrel sauna can be additionally enclosed in the frame of a gable roof.

Double-rounded baths have a rectangular outline. Vertical barrel baths are most often round-shaped buildings, less often oval or rectangular with rounded corners.

Materials

The main performance characteristics of a bathhouse depend on the materials from which it is made. The bathhouse is built from wood, or rather, specially processed profiled timber with a moongroove or tongue-and-groove fastening. The following types of wood are usually used for construction:

Oak is a very high-quality material that becomes even stronger when exposed to water. It has excellent properties and can serve for many years. It has a beautiful structure, but is very expensive.
Linden is an excellent material for a bathhouse. Known for its medicinal properties. Unfortunately, poorly treated wood of this species is easily susceptible to rotting and other negative effects.
Aspen is an analogue of linden. With its help you can also create a favorable microclimate. But unlike linden, it is more resistant to harmful effects.

Larch is a material that does not rot, and therefore will last a very long time. True, the price for round timber of this breed is quite high.
Cedar is the only conifer that is highly recommended as a building material. It can also be used to create a healing microclimate. It has a beautiful unique structure. It has one drawback - it is quite expensive.
Spruce, pine and other conifers are not recommended as building materials for baths. This is due to the fact that when exposed to high temperatures, wood is capable of releasing resins, which can cause burns. However, this effect only occurs from temperatures exceeding 100 degrees. Moreover, if such wood has undergone good chamber drying, then this process is minimal.
Alder and birch are not suitable for building a barrel sauna, as they get very hot.

In addition to wooden elements, you will need ties, which are made from iron tape (strip), or steel hoops. Of course, metal corners, screws and other fasteners will be needed.

How to organize a drainage well

To build a drainage well, it is necessary: • to remove the soil to a level below the freezing line (the difference between the depth of the well and the freezing depth must be at least 150%); • fill the prepared pit with material with high filtering capacity - washed crushed stone, coarse gravel, to a level 20-30 cm above the freezing line; • backfill with soil or materials prepared for floor construction (for example, sand). Drip floors are laid on top of the finished structure. It should be noted that such a drain becomes an additional source of water, which, with intensive use of the bathhouse, can lead to fluctuations in levels throughout the entire area. This factor should be taken into account when organizing the drainage of the site and the drainage systems of other buildings and structures.

Wet valves

If you choose a water seal for a bathhouse based on the efficiency of locking, then the best option would be a hydraulic circuit with a curved U-elbow, or an annular chamber with a concentric partition.

Eternal knee

A water seal in the form of an elbow requires a free space of at least 150 mm in height for pipes with a diameter of 50 mm and an overhang of 250-300 mm for a full drain with a cross-section of 100 mm. Therefore, knee bellows are used primarily for bathhouse projects on stilts or columnar foundations. To reliably lock the pipe, the height of the water column must be at least one and a half diameters of the channel.

The main advantage of a water seal is its simplicity of design; it is quite possible to make such a siphon for a bathhouse with your own hands from parts of sewer fittings and pipes. It turns out not as beautiful as industrially made drains, but for a bathhouse it is more important that the structure is easy to repair and simple to maintain. The knee can be easily cleaned, either with a brush or with specialized attachments, rotating brushes and even chemicals such as “Mole”.

This type of drain can work in a properly constructed bathhouse for a couple of decades, until someone uses a cable to punch a hole in the plastic elbow of the water seal.

Flat water seal

For a bathhouse installed on a strip foundation, it is best to use a trap water seal. Its height usually does not exceed 10-12 cm, so the drain box can be safely mounted into the floor screed, and no additional fastenings are required for connection to the sewer.

For example, the “CENTER AQUAPA” model consists of two halves. In the bottom part of the water seal there is an annular cavity with water, which, after installing the top cover, will be divided by a partition. The result is the same bellows, but with a gate height of only 15-20 mm. The drain body is simply put on the receiving hole of the compensating adapter of the sewer pipe of 110 mm.

Important! In this case, the use of a sliding adapter is a prerequisite so that the water seal box is not torn off the pipe due to the expansion of plastic from hot water in the bathhouse.

The box-shaped design turned out to be quite reliable and easy to maintain; the only drawbacks include a small level of water in the water seal. In summer, the water in the drain evaporates, and, accordingly, odors from the septic tank will break into the bathhouse within a couple of days. Whereas in the bellows elbow the water seal will last 3-4 days.

In winter, in a country bathhouse, the drain drain may freeze, but this does not affect its operation in any way. There is little water left, so the risk of damage is minimal. A water seal with an elbow can actually be crushed by frozen water.

Float device for organizing a drain in a bathhouse

Structurally, the water seal with a float is very similar to the previous version of the water seal. The only difference is that in the ladder version, the outlet hole is blocked by raising the water level, and in the float version, the same window is blocked with a foam liner.

Float valves very tightly and reliably block the drain passage even with a minimum amount of liquid. In practice, the drain in the bathhouse can be reliably blocked within 10-15 days from the date of the last visit to the steam room. Among the disadvantages, one can note the sensitivity of the water seal to contamination. After soapy water, the float must be washed with clean boiling water.

Floors with drain

In modern construction practice, waterproof floors with a drainage system have become more widespread. They are built from concrete or other similar materials with a slope towards the drainage system. This allows you to build bathhouses according to standard designs, regardless of the nature of the soil on the site. The last factor is taken into account only when deciding on wastewater disposal. Drains are organized in the form of a gutter or drain neck. The collected water enters the pipes and is discharged outside the building's foundation. Pipes are laid simultaneously with the construction of the foundation, the drainage system is organized along with the construction of floors and partitions. In the case when floors with a drain are used, it is necessary to take into account that: • moisture may remain on uneven surfaces (there will be a danger of the development of mold and pathogenic bacteria); • Unpleasant odors may come from the drain pipes in the room. The first problem is solved by construction methods - monitoring the quality of the floor surface, laying tiles and other materials on top of concrete. To solve the second problem, a ventilation riser must be installed in the drain pipe. Additionally, valves (on the drain hole), dampers (on the gutters) or water seals are installed that prevent the penetration of air from the pipes into the premises.

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Design of a sewerage scheme

The design and installation of an autonomous sewer system includes two mandatory parts:

internal - includes communications laid indoors;
external - connects communications beyond the boundaries of the building.

If desired, the sewer system installation project can be completed on your own.

A scale plan of the building, taking into account the thickness of load-bearing walls and interior partitions, is easiest to draw on graph paper or checkered notebook paper

To simplify calculations on the plan, you must indicate:

Places for installation of plumbing fixtures.
Dimensions of rooms and distances from drain points to partitions.
Main line outlet location.
Installation of a drain pipe (if a toilet is provided).

In the drawn up plan, plumbing fixtures are connected to the main pipe along the shortest and at the same time convenient path. The main task is to minimize the number of turns on the highway.

After this, sum up the length of the communications, not forgetting to add an allowance for the thickness of the outer wall, and begin drawing up a drawing of the external wiring.

Basic rules to consider when designing external wiring:

An inspection hatch is installed at the junction of the internal and external sewers.
At the turning points of the pipeline and places where the side branches of the pipeline branch, inspection wells are constructed.
The first inspection well is placed no closer than 3 meters from the bathhouse and no further than 12 meters.

According to the prescribed SNiP standards, when laying external sewerage with pipes D 100-150 mm, inspection wells must be built every 15-30 meters of a straight line.

If the room has a toilet, and the building itself is built on a relief site with a large angle of inclination, you will need to build a multi-stage system that involves the use of drop wells

When dealing with a relatively flat area, when laying an external network along its entire length, to ensure uninterrupted operation of the system, you only need to maintain an inclination angle of 10-15 mm per meter.

Drainage systems with drain

Drainage for a bath with drainage from the premises is effective for any type of soil on the site. In the case of predominance of soils with high filtering capacity, it is sufficient to organize a drainage into a drainage well. In heavy (clayey) soils the task becomes more complicated. Moreover, in addition to organizing water drainage, foundation drainage may be required. In such conditions, a drainage system is created according to one of the following schemes: • with a pit; • with a drain hole; • with access to the general sewer system of the house or site. The pit acts as an intermediate reservoir for wastewater, from where water flows into the drainage pit, the general collector of the site's drainage system or the sewerage system. The technologies for constructing such a drainage system are practically no different from those used to create sewer systems. In this case, it is necessary to take care of the organization of water flow (by gravity or using pressure equipment), the prevention of freezing of lines (calculation of thermal insulation or recess below the freezing level), the disposal of wastewater - pumping with a sewer truck, discharge into septic tanks or sewers.

Choosing a barrel for a sump device

If, for financial or other reasons, you cannot install a septic tank (a more efficient treatment facility), you will have to install a cesspool.

You should immediately abandon the option that does not involve installing a container. Sewage that has not undergone the decomposition process and immediately enters the ground and groundwater contains dangerous microorganisms. Over time, they can pollute fertile soil, well water, and cultivated plants in the garden.

The cheapest, but least reliable, is considered to be a well made from old car tires. It requires high-quality waterproofing and is not suitable for bulk sewer drains. A brick structure is too labor-intensive and also requires careful sealing.

Chambers made of monolithic concrete are durable and easy to maintain, but require knowledge of pouring technology and skillful execution. Concrete rings are popular, but their installation requires construction equipment and additional labor.

An alternative to a barrel cesspool is a well made of concrete rings. When installing it, it is necessary to pay attention to sealing the joints between the rings and waterproofing the entire structure

A barrel cesspool is easy to install, easy to maintain and has a long service life. Modern sewer tanks made of plastic with stiffening ribs and a neck for maintenance are especially good.

For temporary needs, a metal container additionally treated with an anti-corrosion agent is also suitable, but it will last no more than 4-5 years.

In order for a cesspool to serve for a long time, not require repairs and have maximum functionality, when constructing it it is necessary to take into account two factors: material of manufacture and volume. Let's take a closer look at each.

Reservoirs are selected based on two main requirements for the material: strength and tightness. Metal and plastic barrels correspond to these qualities. Let's consider their advantages and disadvantages.

Both types are perfect for any type of soil. These are sealed containers without a filter bottom, so it makes no difference what is under the barrel - high-throughput sand or waterproof clay.

The type of soil will become important if you decide to build a more complex structure of 2 or 3 barrels, the last of which will act as an absorption well.

A variant of a cesspool device made from two identical plastic barrels connected to each other by an overflow pipe. The bulk of solid precipitation will settle in the first reservoir from the house

For a sealed reservoir, it also does not matter where the aquifers are located. Correct adherence to the technology for installing a cesspool guarantees safety for high groundwater. There is only one way for waste that gets into the storage tank - into the tank of the sewer truck.

Thus, metal and plastic barrels are united by their tightness. When it comes to durability, plastic products win. Modern types of plastic intended for sewage tanks can last up to 50 years, easily resist the effects of household chemicals, and do not corrode.

The light weight of the products allows you to install them yourself, without the involvement of special equipment, although for the most voluminous models it is better to rent a manipulator and hire a team of workers

The only disadvantage of plastic is freezing at very low temperatures if the tank is close to the surface. The problem is solved by additional insulation.

Disadvantages of metal barrels:

heavy weight, causing difficulties with transportation and installation;
inability to resist corrosion that can break the seal;
the need for additional processing on both sides;
high cost of new products.

We can conclude that the best option in terms of price/quality ratio is a plastic container specially made for sewage systems.

The size of the barrel depends on the volume of wastewater, and its quantity, in turn, on the number of people living in the house and the availability of water consumption points. If a married couple periodically comes to the dacha and does not use a washing machine or a bathroom, the amount of waste will be much less than for a family of 4-5 people constantly living in the house.

The amount of sewerage per person is very individual. Some houses have neither a bathtub nor a shower, so the volume of liquid will not exceed 0.5 m³

Suppose there are 3 people living in a house, each of whom produces 100 liters (on average) of sewage waste daily. According to the agreement, the vacuum cleaners come once a month (30 days). We get 3 x 100 x 30 = 9000 l. Therefore, a fairly large tank with a volume of 9 m³ will be required.

If you decide to use small containers, you will need several of them, but for ease of pumping and installation, it is better to purchase one large tank.

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If it is planned to drain gray and fecal waste into a cesspool, then the calculation is made based on water consumption for 2-3 days

Approximate calculations suggest that there should be approximately 250 liters per person per day. This volume should accommodate a storage tank or home-made treatment facilities

If you plan to discharge only gray wastewater coming from a bathhouse, swimming pool, shower room, kitchen, then it makes sense to install a system with a barrel without a bottom. Through it, settled and partially purified water is discharged into the underlying soil layers

To install a storage type cesspool, it is better to choose a large container that can hold 1 - 3 mᶾ, so as not to have to resort to sewer trucks too often

Plastic barrel of compact dimensions

Metal barrel for a small family

Treatment system of two or more barrels

Tanks for cesspools

To insure against errors in the construction of a cesspool for a summer house or a small country house, it is better to draw up a small plan and draw a diagram indicating the dimensions of the barrel, pit, trenches, and pipes.

The list of necessary materials and tools must include:

plastic barrel (Eurocube, tank);
pipes and fittings for assembling communications;
tools for excavating soil (shovel with buckets, winch, wheelbarrow);
backfill for arranging the bottom of the pit (pebbles, gravel, crushed stone, sand).

To determine the length of the pipeline, you need to measure the distance from the building (bathhouse, garage, guest house) to the intended installation location of the barrel.

The dimensions of the pit must correspond to the size of the tank, but do not forget to leave 0.3 m on each side for backfill. It may be necessary to level the bottom of the hole and strengthen it with concrete pouring or a pre-prepared concrete slab.

There are several options for constructing a cesspool from used containers (or barrels). The simplest one is to install a single tank at a distance of 5-7 m from the house (closer is not recommended due to sanitary standards). If there are several barrels, they are connected with an overflow pipe and an oblong-shaped pit is dug.

The larger the volume of the barrel, the further the distance of the installation site of the cesspool from the house and other important objects - wells, pools, ponds

A large number of pipe joints and sections of pipeline junctions with barrels increases the risk of sewerage getting into the ground, so it is necessary to consider an effective way to seal the joints.

A cesspool with a filter bottom is a type of conventional cesspool. However, it is used exclusively for the collection and processing of gray waste - water contaminated during cleaning, hygiene procedures, and cooking. It cannot be considered accumulative, because part of the sewage flows into the ground.

A gravel-sand bed is used as a filter. The filter thickness in a pit with a filter bottom must be at least 1 m. Backfilling is done so that at the base there is a sand layer 30–40 cm thick, which is quite enough to clean gray waste from fine suspended matter.

Above are layers of gravel or crushed stone: first the fine fraction, then the coarse one. They retain large contaminants and clarify the water. In this way, multi-stage purification of wastewater is carried out, which is disposed of in the ground, where it is further processed under natural conditions.

To prevent sewer fluid from mixing with groundwater, a pit without a bottom is installed only where the level is low enough.

A more effective scheme for constructing a cesspool is a septic tank made of two containers. In the first, mechanical separation of wastewater occurs, in the second, anaerobic treatment and partial filtration

To create a cesspool without a bottom in sandy loam soils, characterized by extremely low filtration properties, the lower part of the walls of plastic barrels is perforated. This increases the absorption area to speed up the recycling process. True, solid sediment will gradually clog the holes, so barrels with holes will have to be cleaned no less often than simple storage tanks.

A homemade collection point and partial wastewater treatment requires regular maintenance using biologically active agents, which are described in the article we recommend.

Drainage hole size: width 50cm, length 100cm, depth 70cm.

Sand (30-50cm) is poured into the bottom of the pit; the sand is covered with crushed stone (fine gravel) on top. Water, entering and accumulating in the drainage hole, gradually goes into the ground.

Water can flow into such a pit directly through the drain holes. Experience shows that if there is drainage in winter, ice does not form under the barrel bath.

If your bathhouse has only one drain hole (in the steam room), then, as an option, you can use a buried barrel without a bottom with a hole for a pipe on top for drainage. The top of the barrel should be covered with a layer of soil (from 30 cm)

Video - what a drainage pit looks like after 3 years of use

Not the most common option, but quite workable if you use a sauna in the warm season and don’t steam so often.

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Various materials can be used to construct bath drainage pits. Their choice directly depends on the expected volume of wastewater, the financial capabilities of the site owners and the convenience of construction.

Turnkey bath drainage

When creating a drainage system for a bathhouse, it is necessary to resolve issues with the type of system, the need for foundation drainage, coordination with local authorities, etc. The following may be required: • hydrogeological analysis of the site with determination of the level of groundwater, freezing boundaries, and the nature of the soil; • relief surveying; • detailed design of the system with calculation of the volume of excavation work and quantity of materials; • options for connecting to site drainage systems or sewer systems. At the final stage, significant volumes of excavation and installation work are required. Doing all this on your own is quite difficult. To simplify and speed up the process, the optimal solution would be to contact organizations with experience in the construction of similar structures, for example, in.

Arrangement of a simple drainage pit

This method of organizing drainage is simpler than the first one due to the elimination of several stages of filtration. It involves all the stages of organizing drainage in the bathhouse itself and digging a hole, but in this case only a septic tank without filters will be used. The method is used if there is no desire to bother with replacing the filtration material and it is possible to use a sewage machine to pump out wastewater.

But in this case, you should think about approaching the pit within reach of the car’s arm. The second way to clean a simplified pit system is to use special bacteria to process rotting residues in the septic tank. Its effectiveness is, of course, several times lower than complete waste removal or natural filtration, but it also has its place.