Why This is the Best Outhouse Plan on the Internet:

• 🪚 Optimized for materials – Designed to use full sheets of plywood and a single piece of tin roofing, which means way less waste and lower cost.

• 💰 Budget-friendly – Fewer materials = less money spent. No specialty tools or expensive hardware needed.

• 🚛 Portable or permanent – Build it on-site or pre-build and move it into place. Great flexibility depending on your needs.

• 🔨 Beginner-approved – Step-by-step plans make this totally doable for DIYers with basic tools and skills.

• 📏 Compact & efficient – Similar in size to a powder room, this outhouse fits well in tight spaces without sacrificing comfort.

• 🧼 Clean and dry floor design – The built-in deck-style flooring keeps dirt and moisture from collecting inside, making it easier to maintain.

• 🌲 Perfect for off-grid living – Whether you’re at a cabin, campsite, or homestead, this outhouse is built to last in the outdoors.

Why I Built this Outhouse

In Alaska, where temperatures get so cold, composting toilets don't work unless you supply heat to them constantly.  So the great majority of cabins and second homes are dry, freeing the homeowners up from wasted heat and frozen water lines through the cold months of the winter.  

There are a lot of outhouses in Alaska - even our rest stops, bathrooms at the city park, and the majority of remote cabins have outhouses.

I needed an outhouse for a remote project, but didn't want to build it in the sticks with the bugs and mosquitos.  So I designed this outhouse to be built in my workshop, move it out the garage door, and haul it to the work site.  

Video of the Outhouse Plan Being Built

We love this video by Girl in the Woods of building this outhouse plan!

How I Built this Outhouse

I built this outhouse entirely by myself.  Here's how:

I framed up two walls using 3" self tapping star bit screws.

I attached 1/2 inch sheathing plywood to the outsides of the walls.  

The framing nailer was handy as I built this up at the new house site, so I just used it to attach the  plywood to the framing. The nails are 8D 2-3/8" - I'd recommend galvanized if you aren't siding it, as non galvanized nails will bleed when wet.  

Bam, bam, bam, done.

Then I just tied to two side panels to together with back pieces and too pieces.

Then I just added sheeting to the back.  For the seat, I just tied in a board across the two walls, and put plywood on top.  

Then used my jigsaw to install the toilet seat.

I built the door using 3/4" plywood scraps and set the hinges.  My theory is doing this now on a level surface with access to tools and electricity is much easier than doing this in the wood, in the dirt, with the bugs biting me.

I also put plywood on the roof and added tin to the roof (this outhouse is designed to fit a 36" tin roofing panel).  

Then the hubs came home and I showed him the outhouse before I started disassembling it for transport, but he had a different idea ....

My brother helped up get the outhouse somehow on to the back of the ATV - it weighs a ton a this point and is very cumbersome.

Down the trail, through the mud,

And to the tiny house.

My carefully constructed outhouse just got dumped off the ATV.  Thankful I went a little generous on the wood screws right now.

After a little clean up, we've got a bathroom finally!!!

It's simple.  It's functional.  It's all we need. 

Happy to share these plans with you today.  If you do build, please share, I'd love to see how your project turns out too.

XO Ana