I decided to build a cistern so I can use the water from my sump pit on my
grass. the sump does not produce enough GPM so ill need the reservoir to
be able to run the pump without cycling continuously.

It will be 600 to 1000 gallons. Right now it will be 10' long 4' wide and
4' to 5' deep.

I planning to have 8" thick concrete base and the walls will be concrete
blocks. My question is, do I need rebar anywhere? and do the walls need
to be filled with cement? any rebar in the walls?

Its looking to be 5 blocks high and its going to be in the ground. Any
gotchas I should know about? Do I need to have any provisions for
drainage around the cistern footer?


Thanks,


Carl

"dnoyeB" wrote in message
. ..
I decided to build a cistern so I can use the water from my sump pit on my
grass. the sump does not produce enough GPM so ill need the reservoir to
be able to run the pump without cycling continuously.

It will be 600 to 1000 gallons. Right now it will be 10' long 4' wide and
4' to 5' deep.

I planning to have 8" thick concrete base and the walls will be concrete
blocks. My question is, do I need rebar anywhere? and do the walls need
to be filled with cement? any rebar in the walls?

Its looking to be 5 blocks high and its going to be in the ground. Any
gotchas I should know about? Do I need to have any provisions for
drainage around the cistern footer?


Thanks,


Carl

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Why not use a septic tank. Fast and easy.

"dnoyeB" wrote in message
. ..
I decided to build a cistern so I can use the water from my sump pit on my
grass. the sump does not produce enough GPM so ill need the reservoir to
be able to run the pump without cycling continuously.

It will be 600 to 1000 gallons. Right now it will be 10' long 4' wide and
4' to 5' deep.

I planning to have 8" thick concrete base and the walls will be concrete
blocks. My question is, do I need rebar anywhere? and do the walls need
to be filled with cement? any rebar in the walls?

Its looking to be 5 blocks high and its going to be in the ground. Any
gotchas I should know about? Do I need to have any provisions for
drainage around the cistern footer?


Thanks,


Carl
You will need some sort of waterproofing on the inside because blocks and
mortar are not themselves watertight. I would definitely use rebar and some
cavity filling, as earth pressure can be pretty high and it would be likely
to crack when empty. If a high water table is possible you might need some
way to keep it from floating out of the ground. There should be government
guidelines available, maybe build it like you would a septic tank. Be alert
to possible bacteria problems in the water.

Don Young

dnoyeB wrote:
I decided to build a cistern so I can use the water from my sump pit on my
grass. the sump does not produce enough GPM so ill need the reservoir to
be able to run the pump without cycling continuously.

It will be 600 to 1000 gallons. Right now it will be 10' long 4' wide and
4' to 5' deep.

I planning to have 8" thick concrete base and the walls will be concrete
blocks. My question is, do I need rebar anywhere? and do the walls need
to be filled with cement? any rebar in the walls?

Its looking to be 5 blocks high and its going to be in the ground. Any
gotchas I should know about? Do I need to have any provisions for
drainage around the cistern footer?


Thanks,


Carl
A tight daylight lid to keep down mosquitoes? Why reinvent the wheel? Go
to nearest farmer ag supply store, and look at the premade plastic
tanks. Leakproof, and likely as cheap as rolling your own, unless you
value your time at nothing. Something to keep daylight off it, and it
will likely last longer than you will. If you insist on concrete and
below ground, call local precast place and see what septic tanks,
installed, go for. I've used a new one as a cistern to capture a ground
water layer (a spring, really) for non-potable water use. It worked
great. 50 feet of corrugated plastic in a gravel layer feeding in,
another leading out, and the thing never went dry, and the water was
always cold and clear. It probably would have passed lab tests for
drinkable, it just was outside of accepted code.

--
aem sends...

Pat wrote:

"dnoyeB" wrote in message
. ..
I decided to build a cistern so I can use the water from my sump pit on my
grass. the sump does not produce enough GPM so ill need the reservoir to
be able to run the pump without cycling continuously.

It will be 600 to 1000 gallons. Right now it will be 10' long 4' wide and
4' to 5' deep.

I planning to have 8" thick concrete base and the walls will be concrete
blocks. My question is, do I need rebar anywhere? and do the walls need
to be filled with cement? any rebar in the walls?

Its looking to be 5 blocks high and its going to be in the ground. Any
gotchas I should know about? Do I need to have any provisions for
drainage around the cistern footer?


Thanks,


Carl

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Why not use a septic tank. Fast and easy.

Well, not septic tank, pump chamber, pretty much the same thing, but
without a baffle you don't need. Available from the same precast places
and if you have the hole ready and in an accessible location their truck
can place it in the hole for you.

On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:59:49 +0000, aemeijers wrote:

dnoyeB wrote:
I decided to build a cistern so I can use the water from my sump pit on
my grass. the sump does not produce enough GPM so ill need the
reservoir to be able to run the pump without cycling continuously.

It will be 600 to 1000 gallons. Right now it will be 10' long 4' wide
and 4' to 5' deep.

I planning to have 8" thick concrete base and the walls will be
concrete blocks. My question is, do I need rebar anywhere? and do the
walls need to be filled with cement? any rebar in the walls?

Its looking to be 5 blocks high and its going to be in the ground. Any
gotchas I should know about? Do I need to have any provisions for
drainage around the cistern footer?


Thanks,


Carl
A tight daylight lid to keep down mosquitoes? Why reinvent the wheel? Go
to nearest farmer ag supply store, and look at the premade plastic
tanks. Leakproof, and likely as cheap as rolling your own, unless you
value your time at nothing. Something to keep daylight off it, and it
will likely last longer than you will. If you insist on concrete and
below ground, call local precast place and see what septic tanks,
installed, go for. I've used a new one as a cistern to capture a ground
water layer (a spring, really) for non-potable water use. It worked
great. 50 feet of corrugated plastic in a gravel layer feeding in,
another leading out, and the thing never went dry, and the water was
always cold and clear. It probably would have passed lab tests for
drinkable, it just was outside of accepted code.

I would gladly buy a tank if I could find a store locally. $1000 gallon
tanks cost about $600 and delivery is just about as much. I live in
Michigan, Detroit, and just can't see to find any such stores around
here. Maybe I don't know the right term to search for. I know we have
lots of septic systems in my city.

"dnoyeB" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:59:49 +0000, aemeijers wrote:

dnoyeB wrote:
I decided to build a cistern so I can use the water from my sump pit on
my grass. the sump does not produce enough GPM so ill need the
reservoir to be able to run the pump without cycling continuously.

It will be 600 to 1000 gallons. Right now it will be 10' long 4' wide
and 4' to 5' deep.

I planning to have 8" thick concrete base and the walls will be
concrete blocks. My question is, do I need rebar anywhere? and do the
walls need to be filled with cement? any rebar in the walls?

Its looking to be 5 blocks high and its going to be in the ground. Any
gotchas I should know about? Do I need to have any provisions for
drainage around the cistern footer?


Thanks,


Carl
A tight daylight lid to keep down mosquitoes? Why reinvent the wheel? Go
to nearest farmer ag supply store, and look at the premade plastic
tanks. Leakproof, and likely as cheap as rolling your own, unless you
value your time at nothing. Something to keep daylight off it, and it
will likely last longer than you will. If you insist on concrete and
below ground, call local precast place and see what septic tanks,
installed, go for. I've used a new one as a cistern to capture a ground
water layer (a spring, really) for non-potable water use. It worked
great. 50 feet of corrugated plastic in a gravel layer feeding in,
another leading out, and the thing never went dry, and the water was
always cold and clear. It probably would have passed lab tests for
drinkable, it just was outside of accepted code.

I would gladly buy a tank if I could find a store locally. $1000 gallon
tanks cost about $600 and delivery is just about as much. I live in
Michigan, Detroit, and just can't see to find any such stores around
here. Maybe I don't know the right term to search for. I know we have
lots of septic systems in my city.

Look just outside the city, for an agricultural supplier. For a septic tank,
you go to the manufacturer, "Concrete Products" or such in the yellow pages,
look for cast concrete tanks. These things are not transported far due to
their weight and need of power equipment to unload them, and not sold
through any retailer. Although one would normally be supplied via an septic
system installer in most cases.

What if instead of building the cistern next to my house, I trench out the
stream at the bottom of the hill about 20' away where the sump water
currently goes. I can dig it down perhaps 3' would be safest. And I can
streach it wide to make a sort of catchment area. I can easily drop a PVC
pipe into that with a filter on it.

I have 2 concerns with this though.

1 How frequently will I have to re-dig it.
2. It flows, but not very strongly until my sump kicks on every 10
minutes. Is this enough to deter mosquities?


What do you think? Sees much easier than the concrete cistern.