A pea gravel dog potty is an excellent DIY solution for getting your pooch to do his or her business on your balcony. Of course, this presents some problems, such as decent drainage and how to clean it up.
In this guide, we’ll cover the steps to make a DIY pea gravel dog potty with drainage. It’s a great choice for balconies and porches or other enclosed areas.
Considerations Before Building
There are 2 things we need to consider before building this pea gravel dog potty. The first is whether you have the necessary tools. It’s not a super complicated design, but you’ll need a saw and drill. If you don’t own them, consider renting some for convenience.
The second issue is to ensure your balcony has decent drainage. This dog potty has an outlet pipe, so make sure you can connect it to some kind of drain.
Instructions for a DIY Pea Gravel Dog Potty
For this DIY dog potty, you’ll need:
- 4 pieces of lumber (at least 4” wide and as long as you want)
- A sheet of ¼” thick PVC
- Wood battens
- Pond liner
- Nails and screws
- Silicone caulk
- PVA glue
- PVC pipe, including L-corner piece
- Small piece of fine mesh
- Pea gravel
Method
- Plan a wood box to the required dimensions. For convenience, it’s best to make it square, but it really doesn’t matter.
- Cut the 4 pieces of lumber to size, glue together, and fix with screws.
- Screw in 2 support beams across the bottom of the box.
- Flip it back over and cut a hole in one corner for the L-shape corner pipe.
- Fix it in place so one end points upwards in the box and the other points out of one side. Seal in place with the silicone caulk.
- Next, glue some small pieces of wood to the inside of the box. These need to angle towards the corner with the pipe, so they create a slope. The opposite corner should be the highest.
- Put the PVC sheet on top (you might need to bang it into place). On top of this, staple the pond liner.
- Cut a hole in the pond liner and PVC where the drainage hole is. Glue a piece of mesh over the pipe opening and then cover everything with pea gravel.
Maintenance
A benefit of this design is that you shouldn’t need to replace the pea gravel, as you can hose it down regularly. How you connect this to a drain is up to you, but a piece of hose or some PVC pipe will do the job fine.
Final Thoughts on the DIY Pea Gravel Dog Potty
While this design is more complex than a simple dog potty, its advantage for a balcony is that you don’t need to have whiffy dog pee sitting around! You can simply wash it into the drain, making this dog potty a good solution for all involved.