Anyone cleaned out their cistern?

[lupinfarm]

Hi..Anyone cleaned out their cistern..if so how did you do it. What type of pump and tools did you use. I have a contractor
coming tomorrow to give me a quote and I will be grilling him on his method.

[CountryGirl]

Not yet, very interested what your contractor has to say

Susan

[Don M]

I have a submergable pump & a 1 1/2 inch flexible hose that I use when the basement floods, to empty the hot tub fast, or drain the little pond across the driveway. It works very well & it has a screen on it so it doesn't clog with debris. Is your cistern inside or outside? I wonder if it will empty or continue to refill with ground water?

[Daniel Meyer]

Filled cistern as full as I could.

Took a 2" pipe long enough to reach bottom (I used that black poly)

Taped an airhose to the black pipe, all the way to the end, with a nozzle into the end of the pipe.

Stuck pipe to bottom. Turn on air (doesn't take all that much flow) and presto, instant vacuum. Water and crud comes out top of pipe. Keep as vertical as possible.

I cleaned out first with a magnet. Just used the pipe to suck out sand/sediment. If manageable, PVC pipe would work better than the black pipe as it would be easier to guide the bottom end of it.

[lupinfarm]

Well the contractor came by...He said it would take two guys a day to clean out my 6ft by 12 ft cistern under my kitchen.
This is what they will do:
1. Shovel out solids, silt, dead animals, sundry items.
2. Pressure wash walls floor
3. Use 4hp jet pump and two inch hose to suck out water that will collect in low spot.
Verbal estimate $500 Canadian plus HST ( Harmonized sales tax)
He is emailing written estimate.
I also have a second contractor to call tomorrow.
Problem is it has to be done before the liquids freeze ( -2c this morning - 10 overnight)
More money spent, nothing exciting to show for it.
To add insult to injury this week my 17 year old washing machine died. When I told my hubby his only words were" What did
you do to break it" I said it died due to old age.

[Igloochic]

I had treasure diggers clean mine out (though I did the last six feet). I have hundreds of bottles, dozens of of chamber pots and the parts to a model t or a to show for it. Mine is 15x16 or so. If yours was accessible to throw trash into don't use a regular contractor. You can find treasure diggers who will do it for free (ours did) just to get a chance at the "treasure".

On a personal note...digging is stinky and so dirty but beyond fun. I would rank it right up to the excitement of having a room in my hotel switched because a polar bear got there first....it was fun and a tad bit nutty!

[Nettie]

Funny that you posted this, we are just getting ready to open up the wall so that we can access ours. It's under our dining room which would have been the original kitchen to the house. We disconnected the gutters that fed into it 20 years ago and fortunately the water all evaporated or seeped away over the years. I was actually disappointed that there doesn't seem to be any treasure or trash to clean out. So it's just an empty unused chamber at this point and we can use the cellar space so we are going to open the stonewall and make a doorway into it.

[Daniel Meyer]

Ah, our cistern is 44' deep and 4' diameter...some folks call it a hand dug well...(hence the tube/vacuum instead of going in and shoveling it out)

[lupinfarm]

Hey some great cistern stories. I like the treasure hunters idea. I am not sure my cistern has any treasures in it. Seems they
were all removed by the POs. I have a secondd contractor coming out this morning. Apparently I am supposed to get a permit
to clean it out. Well the 2nd contractor came by. He said it would probably take about a day with 2 men shoveling and he would
do pretty much the same procedure as the first contractor he is going to get back to me with his estimate.
I would go the treasure hunter route but my only concern would be the liability. If something should happen I could be sued.

[lupinfarm]

Update to earlier post...the 2nd contractor said once the cistern is thoroughly cleaned by pressure washing and using a cleaning agent ( such as bleach) it should be painted with Sodium Bentonite to water seal it. I checked out this compound
and found it is comprised of a mineral that swells many times its original size and forms a seal that way. Has anyone on OHW
used this product on their cisterns and what were the results?