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Cisterns, an ancient technology for the collection of rain water, were quite common at homes throughout the 19th century. They can also be found at a few 18th century homes and some built as late as the early 1940s. Using the roof as a rain collection surface, gutters and downspouts delivered water to the cistern. Most had an overflow outlet and some had a diverter on the inlet, to direct the water away from the building when the cistern became full.
Although some were manufactured of iron, steel or made of wood, most were constructed below ground of brick or stone. They could be made watertight with an interior parge coat of hydraulic cement. After about 1900, formed concrete was sometimes used. The masonry cistern chamber could be shaped like a vault, bell, beehive, jug or flat-topped with a wooden platform for the cover. In my experience, most were a large rectangular box located under a porch, with the porch floor being the cover. As many porches eventually become enclosed and part of the living areas of the home, still active cisterns can contribute significantly to interior moisture. There’s often still a trap door to access the cistern - a good place to lose kids or pets.
Most were built against the home’s foundation and water was drawn from a tap located low on the basement wall. Some delivered the water with a hand pump. The water, not of the quality for drinking, was mainly used for washing and laundry. I’ve found a few large cisterns under barns that appear to have served agricultural water needs. Even though the water wasn’t likely used for drinking, there’s still undesirable debris, like leaves, dirt and bird droppings. The overflow would discharge some floating debris but the stuff that sank would need to be periodically cleaned out.
Although rare, there’s some remaining evidence of filtering the collected water. Some cisterns are divided into two or more chambers encouraging debris to settle and finer particles were filtered out as the water passed through porous brick or stone partitions. Some partitions were made with an interior cavity and animal charcoal, also called “bone black” filled the space, further purifying the collected water. In the latter part of the 19th century, canister filters began to appear on some cistern outlets.
I’ve done the rain barrel thing, but only used the water for the gardens. If I had a home with a real cistern, I’d be looking at a way to pressurize the water and delivering it for watering, washing and maybe even flushing the toilets.
24 Responses to “Cisterns - Historic Water Conservation”
Bill, this is quite an interesting post, especially on the heels of several previous “green tech” posts on the blog. Your final comment made me wonder how feasible the use of a modern cistern might be in reducing our water needs.
You mention a pressurized addition to the cistern so that the homeowner could use the water for washing, toilets, etc. Would it be possible to build a device that used this cistern water when available and only if no water was available from the cistern would the water be pulled from the local pipes?
Perhaps it is already being done but it would save water for many homeowners.
sEB
This also ties in with the discussion about tax incentives for green upgrades. Some countries (not the US) offer tax credit or other financial incentives for installing cisterns. Japan, and some European countries. I think Spain? I don’t know much about installing cisterns, but think that it would be a great option for watering gardens. Mosquitoes could pose a problem though.
Let’s say I was to dig my own cistern, any suggestions on what product to use to seal the interior? I’ve read that a latex additive is necessary.
Lucy,
Traditionally they’re waterproofed with “hydraulic cement”, something even the Romans used.
Manufactured polyethelene tanks would likely be less costly than the material and labor needed for a masonry cistern.
http://www.tank-depot.com/productimages/watertank.jpg
If you have an unlined cistern, crawlspace or under-porch area, not subject to freezing, a bladder tank system might be a less expensive choice.
http://www.water-storage-tank.com/images/cistern_bladder.jpg
Sir Edward,
Installing a system to deliver pressurized water through piping from a cistern is quite simple. It would include a pump and a hydropneumatic tank. It’s the same equipment used for private wells, except the pump doesn’t need to be that powerful as it’s not pulling water from deep in the earth. Example: http://www.rittenhouse.ca/content/images/big%5CMJS-50-PC25S.jpg
It’s not permitted to cross-connect this to a “potable” water supply. There’s a possibility that “collected” water could have stuff in it that’s not healthy.
i bought a house that has a cistern well. the house was built in 1940,and the daughter of the couple who built the house said her dad put charcoal in the cistern well to keep the water good, and she said they never got sick from drinking the water. is it possible for me to use the cistern again? it still holds water. i can furnish pictures if i need to or further info.thanks george
I also recently bought a house with a cistern in the basement. House was described the engineer who did the pre-purchase inspection as a “transition house”. Meaning that it had a poured concrete foundation, and a concrete cistern in the basement. He says it’s the first one he’s seen from the early 50’s with a cistern. This place is in the country, in a small hamlet. House has a dug well and septic. Steel roof with gutters directing water to the cistern using a valve. Pump and pressure container to send the cistern water through the house for washing, toilet etc. It’s also connected to the electric water heater. I like that, using the rain water and conserving the drilled well water. Low tech and makes a lot of sense. The half-basement (house is built on bedrock) is on the humid side due to cistern, but joists and floorboard don’t look damaged. Basement window is kept open all season long, while cistern in use, to allow ventilation. The hose connected to gutter which brings water to cistern has a nylon sock at the end to trap leaves and dirt in the water. Likewise, on the inlet hose connecting to the pump. In the Fall, the owner drained the cistern with a submersible pump, into the low area in the basement (a depression in the bedrock) where the sump pumps it out of the house. Then go in the cistern (2foot gap between top and joists) to clean it up for winter. I may consider building a cover for it, to reduce humidity in the basement.
on the back of this lot is a pipe 9″ tall,7″ across and 10′ AROUND WITH A RUSTED OUT LID THAT SEEMS TO BE MADE OF STEEL AND DROPS DOWN APPROX.6FT. IS THIS A CISTERN AND HOW WAS IT USED?
I have a late 40’s house in WV, USA that has a working 750 gallon (estimated) concrete cistern. It has a pebble/sand filter that the water runs through before entering the cistern below ground. We fill it from our spring-fed pond when our spring runs dry in the summer, and I use it for laundry year round. It was originally filled from the roof run off, but when the roof was replaced, the roofer removed the guttering hookup. We hope to return it to fill from the roof water at some point. In the meantime, filling it from our spring-fed pond (by gravity from a hose). It had a working inline pump and bladder tank, but the pump recently died…and I am getting by with a small submersible pump.
In Bermuda we have cisterns under almost all homes, and the water is used for drinking. Just add some bleach and your well on your way to building up your bodies immunity and quenching your thirst!
Hello .Do you think you could help us.Our neighbouring plot of land(the owners have left it) has a well that connects with a cistern with a pipe that empties into the cistern.So my question is why did they need a cistern if they had a well,and if you need hose pipes to connect to the pumping mechanism of the cistern.Today a child fell into the well.The well is old ,built with stones and it was full of contaminated water.The cistern is made out of cement.But the water wasnt swirling so the child was saved.
Awaitng your reply, thank you.
In 1981 my parents purchased a home in country in SE Kansas. I was 13 and I remember that my dad and I had to remove and replace the sand / charcoal in a large filter box. We had a bouyed electric submersible well pump pumping water from our 1 1/2 acre pond to out filter box that was located in a big 3 car garage. The box was a square about 10 feet x ten feet. Made of concrete it stood about 3 or 4 feet high. It was layered with sand and charcoal. By gravity it filtered into a cistern that was beneath the floor an room addition in the back of the house next to the garage. We used the water for drinking, bathing etc. It was pumped by an electric pump into the house. I’m sure there was a hand pump there years before. The filter box was filled with water and we only filled it when necessary. Still was the best tasting water I can remember. I wish I remembered the process and layout better.
This is a crazy question, but thought I’d ask. I have a house built in 1940 and for some reason, they ran french drains from the yard to under the basement floor. There is a cistern which is only about two feet deep where the water empties into. I have a pump that pumps it out of the basement. Is there another way to alleviate this problem. I have gone through five pumps in 7 years. The last time a pump burned out, the water filled the whole basement.
nowadays, we are seeing some water shortage and water conservation is even more necessary:.:
I have a cistern in my basement in the middle of a city from the 1930’s. It’s cement and not in use but it’s very large. Easily the size of an average bathroom if not larger. It’s in the corner of the basement and goes almost all the way to the ceiling. I’m 5′9″ and it’s taller than me. It now makes sense to me after reading your article as to why there’s a toilet next to it. My guess is they used it for the toilet if not other things as well. Many of the water pipes are close to the cistern and probably was used in the sink on the first floor directly above it and possibly the bathroom that was next to the kitchen.
I think this cistern would be very easy to presurize due to the sheer size of it and the location. I wonder if I can get it to work again.
Thanks for writing this article. It’s the best I’ve read on the subject.
there is always a need for water conservation specially these days where natural reources are scarce’”,
We just bought our neighbor’s house at an auction, after removing everything that was left in the basement we found a piece of plywood covering an old hand dug well. We were told it was approximately 30 to 40 feet deep but haven’t checked it yet. We shined a light down it and found it still has water in it about 10 feet down from the top. I find it odd to see a well in the basement, the house was built in 1938, we thought about filling it in with rock and cementing over it but thats lots of work, has to be carried down the steps in buckets. Another thought was to put rebar in the sides of the brick and cover it with wood, frame around the top and pour a cement top on it. Do you have any ideas? This piece of plywood is hardly safe.
Our 1902 home had a cistern, which we found a several years ago while digging up the yard in preparation for an addition. Unfortunately it was located right where the new basement needed to go, so we had to remove it. Sad…
My family had a rain gutter collecting cistern. The water fell fromm the downspout into a square brick container about 3′x3′x3′ which contained layers of sand, pebbles. charcoal and rock with the finest layer on the bottom. The water then ran out thru a small hole at the bottom side into an attached smaller enclosed second brick box and it was again filtered with finer sand and charcoal and that water ran into the cistern. The cistern was brick-lined with a hand cistern pump at the top. My parents would pour a cup of bleach into the holding tank about once a month. This was the water we drank and cooked with, carried in by the bucket. We did not drink the city water that was hauled in to a different well (dry) that supplied the house with water. There was six of us drinking this water and we were all very healthy. Our cistern was about 10 ft away from the house.
i would like to find more articles on construction styles for cisterns we live in an old house built in 1850? and has been in my wifes family since 1881 it is built of stone but what allways seamed odd the walls are 2′ thick the front part is large blocks the back half is built into the hill and is made of smaller sand stone rocks of all sizes and shapes, since i spent many hours thinking about this and found out where the old cistern was located and every time it rained heavy it would leak in side the house, the cistern was filled in thirty years ago , i have knocked a hole in the concrete floor to build a sump hole to pump out excess rain water it was made of alot of rocks and stones did it fill and filter rain water off the hill and roof ?? Randy
We recently purchased a home that was built in 1923. It has this huge cast iron circular thing that is closed to the basement side but is in the wall. We do not see any evidents of where it goes or what size it is. The owner’s son said they used to have a pool outside. If anyone knows more about a cistern that is in the wall, please email me back.