The wet room in the Duro

There was one thing that was a big deal during the expansion – the wet cell in the Duro. In our minds we quickly imagined the shower – as we always call it. Basically, nothing crazy. Three walls room, build a door, two existing walls and cover the ceiling  –  is manageable. Yeah, yeah, yeah…   as I said, in spirit we were already done. In September 2016 I took two weeks off to buy material and build the wet room in the Duro.

The construction of the wet room in the Duro

So we bought masses of birch plywood boards full of zest for action. Then glass fibre mats and epoxy resin were added. The necessary tools like a sharp knife, old credit cards, tarpaulin, latex gloves – … – Latex gloves? Yeah, epoxy sticks to your fingers like crazy.

Well… with the same drive as when buying the material, we measured the area for the wet room to the millimeter.   And here   the tricky one already took its course. The living suitcase of the military enduro does not have a single straight surface. The side walls taper towards the top. In the front part of the case the ceiling flattens out steeply. And not in corners and edges but in curves. Furthermore, the ceiling is also not flat but semicircular.

A CAD graphic of the construction of our living suitcase. No straight walls, ceilings.

Out of the duro, into the duro

The two weeks of vacation just slipped by. In the first week of alone, we were busy “crooked” the ceiling paneling, fitting the walls to the interior with all the sloping lines, round ceilings. I have certainly resharpened individual boards to the felt 30 times, carried into the duro, measured again, carried out of the duro, resharpened, carried into the duro, measured again, carried out of the duro, resharpened, carried into the duro, re-measured, carried out of the duro, reground, carried into the duro, re-measured, carried out of the duro, reground… I repeat this here not 30 times.

The rounding in the front was a great fit. But the ceiling itself flattens   rounded outwards

When there’s an asshole humming, it’s good for your heart.

According to the motto, the loo should also find its place and its construction. We have been looking for a long time for a solution that is useful and acceptable to us. And found these then also in form of a separating toilet. That’s really a genius thing to do.

Two separate containers. One for the solid substance, one for the liquid substance.

Separation toilets (more precisely:   dry separation toilets, abbreviation TTC) offer hygiene and environmental protection. They are a   modern, environmentally friendly sanitary solution without waste water or chemicals. With the TTC   a separation of human excrements is performed. This reduces the formation of odours right from the start. Therefore, the ventilation can also simply be led directly over the roof or through the wall.

The excrements can be better converted into organic humus, which can be returned to the natural cycle. And the colle thereby – completely without water pollution!

The separation of solids (the toilet paper belongs in the solids container) and urine prevents enzymatic and biological processes that normally lead to increased unpleasant odours. The urine makes the faeces rotten and vice versa faeces in the urine leads to the separation of pungent ammonia gases (in conventional camping toilets this is only whitewashed by chemical additives). Through the separation, faeces can dry superficially for itself and finally silt up. Urine on its own is easy to store, develops less odour than when mixed with water and faeces and does not in itself pose a hygiene problem.

With dry toilets and especially with separation toilets, large quantities of water are saved – in addition, the toxins normally produced by the mixing do NOT have to be removed from the water cycle with a lot of energy.

Source: www.oecobuy.de

This is simply the total solution for us.

The end is near

Good things come to those who wait. After two weeks of holidays with boards cut, fit, touch up, fit in, after… we already know that… we were able to finish our wet room. In total it took us about 8 weeks to build the shower. Besides cutting boards to size, the laminating with galsfiber mats and epoxy resin, the construction of the door, the construction of the separating toilet, the grouting of the corners, the priming and painting of the ceiling and walls took place. We are very satisfied with the final result and are looking forward to the first sessions.

The first session – the smell still works but the burning in the eyes is hellish.

Materials used

We have used the following materials for the wet cell.

Used tool:

• Old credit cards
• Brush and roller
• painter’s book
• Latex gloves
• Cover sheet
• wooden stick
• Cutter
• Sharp scissors
• Scale
• Handsaw
• Jigsaw
• Circular Saw
• Wood rasp
• Sanding block
• Sandpaper (60, 80, 240 grain size)

Material used:

• Plywood panels birch
• Glass fibre mats
• Epoxy resin
• Urine separator
• Canister for urine
• dung bucket

Bought at:

• Brush and roller   of Ruco colours:   www.ruco.ch
• hand saw, latex gloves, ruler, tarpaulin, sharp scissors, wooden rasp, sandpaper from the hardware store
• Glass fibre mats and epoxy resin from Suter Kunststoffe AG
• Jigsaw and circular saw borrowed.