>Here’s a “dumb” idea from a lady’s point of view

It’s not a dumb idea as portable toilets are built with little more than what you’ve described. But I honestly don’t think that I could get that past my wife. She’s not entirely convinced that we need a male specific fixture added to the gender neutral ones already installed. Something “home brewed”, as it were, wouldn’t stand a chance.

On a more pragmatic note, I’m sure something sanitary *could* be constructed but one would want to make sure that the trap was large enough so as not to evaporate too quickly and allow gas into the house. Not quite the concern with the portables.

Your profile mentions that you’ve done welding before. If yer wanting to put in a urinal and you can’t find a ceramic one, you could just make out of metal. If you’re worried about cleaning it, before you install the thing have it glazed or enameled. We use to do enameling projects in metal shop on a small scale. All it involves is sticking some powdered glass on the outside of the metal, and heating it up until it melts. If you really wanted to have some fun, you could do a Cloisonne’ finish on it and get artistic!

Or you could also make your urinal using tile and grout/caulking and small sink or wash basin in the bottom. Or peice one together using slabs of countertop material and silicon caulking. I remember when bus stops use to have big metal trough urinals in them made of stainless steel. 55-gallon steel drum could be cut up and used for that (sure would be louder than heck to use though). Last resort, if you really want a ceramic Urinal: Get some clay and sculpt one. Build a brick kiln and fire it yerself the old fashioned way with wood or charcoal. Then glaze it and yer ready to go.

All my friends tell me “Think outside the box, be innovative!” I’ve eventually gotten to the point where I don’t believe there ever really was a “box” except in my head where I imagined there was only one way to do anything. To quote my favorite author, Daniel Quinn, “There is no one right way to dig a burrow, or to feather a nest, or to build a hive. There is no one right way to do anything. There are many right ways.” Don’t make like any more difficult that it has to be by trying to conform to rules made by someone thousands of miles away who’s not living in your situation, doesn’t have your level of skill or creativity, or access to your local resources. Do what works best for you, in your time, place, and situation.

Sage

What’s strange to me is that none of the local home improvement stores stock them. Nothing “residential” for the fixer-upper. What I’m thinking is simple enough that I can’t imagine nobody else has considered it.

Commercial pieces can be had off of eBay but they’re more expensive than what I can buy a new residential toilet for locally *without* the cost of shipping a large chunk of porcelain across the country.

The next step, as I see it, is to call around to see if any of the local construction companies are doing any remodels where I can find a commercial piece used. I get the urinal for little or no money down and that’s a large chunk of porcelain that doesn’t end up in the landfill.

If you find that youTube link I’d like to see the video.

For the most part, in this part of the country, I want to say that the only *foolproof* way to keep unheated things from freezing is to get enough of it below the frost line such that the convection tends to the remainder of it. Rule of thumb is five foot down but your mileage may vary.

A person might be able to pull enough heat with a ground loop providing the pool was *really well insulated* and remained covered during the off season. That would be easier if the surface area were reduced by going deep and halving the circumference.

Wouldn’t say no to a trout pond!

With the right equipment, you could even make that non-potable-pool-water into perfectly clean, potable drinking water. All it reqires is the right filters. Come to think of it, that above ground pool could be made into a type of cistern. I remember seeing pool covers years ago that were made of a thick black plastic that soaks up the sun’s heats to heat the pool water. Insulate the sides of the pool to retain the sun’s heat and it should keep the water above freezing temp. Then you can pipe it out as needed. Better yet, what about building a greenhouse kind of structure over the pool to heat it. Some farmers put large water tanks in the middle of geodesic dome greenhouses where the sunlight is focused to heat the water, which then re-radiates that heat during the night to help stabilize the temperature inside the structure. One guy I saw had even taken to raising fish in the tanks with oxygenating water plants floating on the top of it. Anyway the principle is the same, fish or no. Use the sun to heat the water and keep it from freezing.

My parents use to have an above ground pool, and when they drained it, the vinyl liner dried out and cracked. Eventually dad just disassembled the pool and junked it.