Excavating an intact cistern???

[mdharris68]

So I opened up a wall in my basement that had two 1 1/4" pipes coming out of a bricked up, (closed in) opening. I removed the blocks and bricks and dirt to find the outer circumfrence of a brick cistern.

Today I removed enough bricks from the side of the cistern to get some of the fill out of it, about a 2ft square. Inside I can see that the entire 6 foot above my hole is intact and I can see where they poured concrete over the opening at the top which is under a concrete patio.

They filled this thing with plaster from the walls during a remodel, numerous tin cans that were opened with an old time can opener, some bottles, leather from old horse harnesses and lots of other unidentifiable objects. Whatever would fit in the opening I guess.

My question is this; Has anyone attempted to excavate all of the fill out of one of these and if so, what is the easy way? I thought about using water a trash pump to try and get the biggest amount of dirt and plaster out with the water, kind of in a slurry solution.

With 5 gallon buckets and a small shovel it could take a year. I don't know how deep it is, but the ones I have seen around here are usually 15 to 20 feet deep. Looks about 10 ft wide.

My plans are to use it as a cheese cave if it doesn't hold water, so I plan to clean it out one emptied. Any ideas will be considered. Thanks.

[coup]

i would try and find out from someone how big and why it was filled...it could have had a wall cave or something....i don't like the water idea.......

i would open hole up bigger and dig some out each day if i decided to do it..

[mdharris68]

It was filled in during the 1941 remodel of the house, which leaves me to believe that rural water had come to the house prior to this. I have removed enough now to see that the original opening under the concrete patio is big enough to put a ladder in there and climb in and see what's what. Now I need to go rent a hot saw and work it from the top. I need to get a long length of grain belt like they use to move grain in the bins and fix it to some sort of gear reduction hooked to my 5 hp motor.

[rambler]

The title of your thread made me think of someone wanting to sell post holes. Just the hole.

An intact cistern would be a big empty hole, so pretty easy to excavate.

Sorry for my bad humor.

Sounds like just takes a lot of labor.

Be sure the top is truely & totally intact, and they didn't use the fill to hold up the roof when they made the patio.

--->Paul

[mdharris68]

Yes, I wish I could change the titles to my threads sometimes. It should have said filled cistern. I bored through the side of the thing and have cleaned out enough to see the entire upper circumfrence above the dirt/trash level about 7 ft to the top. Its all in great shape. Lots of 1956 budwizer beer cans and various bottles and jars. Hopefully at the bottom there will be enough antique bottles to make it worthwile. I should of been an archeoligist.

[jlxian]

Sounds like they used it for years for trash disposal!

We once looked at a house, thinking to buy it, that had a filled cistern just as you describe. That was so disappointing to us we didn't consider the house any longer.

I'd be very interested to hear what "goodies" you find! I love that kind of treasure hunt. Whenever DH does any digging around the place I always ask if he found any treasures. Good luck with your excavation.

[WildernesFamily]

A cheese cave? Sounds interesting! We have an old cistern on our property too, but ours has water in it. It was originally set up to catch rain from the roof. The system is still in place but the two downspouts were completely blocked up. We've unblocked them now but deciding whether or not to keep it as a cistern, fill it, or do something else with it.

We've estimated it to be about 10,000 gallons.

[Michael W. Smith]

Originally Posted by mdharris68

Lots of 1956 budwizer beer cans and various bottles and jars. Hopefully at the bottom there will be enough antique bottles to make it worthwile

I just hope all those Budweiser cans and bottles aren't covering the bodies that were dumped in there!!!!!!!!!