Hi everyone,
I have an old, unused cistern in my basement. It is a 6' x 6' square hole, about 7' deep, and it is built right into the stone foundation walls of our 1880's-era house. The top of it is level with the basement floor, so it's basically an open square shaft 7 feet deep. It is completely under the house, and completely open to the basement, no part of it is obscured or covered.
There seems to be a foot or two of loose soil, old bricks and general crap on the bottom. I've dug down through it and found what I think may have been a clay layer, but it is not watertight now. (Hurricane Irene occurred the week after we moved in -- the water that got into the basement all went into the cistern, and then it quickly disappeared.) (I've fixed gutters and grades since then, and no more water gets in.)
I'm going to clean it out, take pictures of it for the house's historical record, and sift through the dirt at the bottom of it to see if any interesting bits of history fell into it over the years.
Then I would like to fill it up with concrete and reclaim that floor space. I could also fill it with sand or crusher run, but concrete seems like much less labor. I can't picture how to get sand or gravel in, except in wheelbarrow-loads.
Questions:
Structurally, is there any reason this is a bad idea? The four walls of the cistern are stone foundation walls, presumably as thick and strong as the rest of the house's stone foundation walls. The cistern walls are parged with some kind of mortar that has some damaged spots but is surprisingly tight and solid.
Is there any reason not to pour one giant 8-yard cube all at once? Any kind of prep to do in advance other than clean out the bottom and tamp it down?
With regard to access, I think I can pop an old former basement window out on the driveway side of my house, right over the cistern, so that the delivery driver can get the truck quite close to the house and put the chute through the former window opening, and let the concrete drop right down into the hole.
How high should I pour the top of the concrete relative to the rest of the basement floor? The floor is bricks, basically set in dirt. Was thinking I would pour concrete to within 8" or so of the existing brick floor level, then put a layer of crusher run or sand on top of that, and brick it over to match the level of the rest of the floor.
Any advice and/or better ideas welcomed!
Thanks,
Earl
PS - multiple friends and neighbors have already suggested making it into a bomb shelter, wine cellar, root cellar, priest-hole, gun safe, panic room, etc. There is no possible renovation that will get my wife to set foot into it, since she saw the spiders living down there, and it is second-quality space at best, no matter what you do to it. I'd rather have the floorspace back for my workshop.
I have an old, unused cistern in my basement. It is a 6' x 6' square hole, about 7' deep, and it is built right into the stone foundation walls of our 1880's-era house. The top of it is level with the basement floor, so it's basically an open square shaft 7 feet deep. It is completely under the house, and completely open to the basement, no part of it is obscured or covered.
There seems to be a foot or two of loose soil, old bricks and general crap on the bottom. I've dug down through it and found what I think may have been a clay layer, but it is not watertight now. (Hurricane Irene occurred the week after we moved in -- the water that got into the basement all went into the cistern, and then it quickly disappeared.) (I've fixed gutters and grades since then, and no more water gets in.)
I'm going to clean it out, take pictures of it for the house's historical record, and sift through the dirt at the bottom of it to see if any interesting bits of history fell into it over the years.
Then I would like to fill it up with concrete and reclaim that floor space. I could also fill it with sand or crusher run, but concrete seems like much less labor. I can't picture how to get sand or gravel in, except in wheelbarrow-loads.
Questions:
Structurally, is there any reason this is a bad idea? The four walls of the cistern are stone foundation walls, presumably as thick and strong as the rest of the house's stone foundation walls. The cistern walls are parged with some kind of mortar that has some damaged spots but is surprisingly tight and solid.
Is there any reason not to pour one giant 8-yard cube all at once? Any kind of prep to do in advance other than clean out the bottom and tamp it down?
With regard to access, I think I can pop an old former basement window out on the driveway side of my house, right over the cistern, so that the delivery driver can get the truck quite close to the house and put the chute through the former window opening, and let the concrete drop right down into the hole.
How high should I pour the top of the concrete relative to the rest of the basement floor? The floor is bricks, basically set in dirt. Was thinking I would pour concrete to within 8" or so of the existing brick floor level, then put a layer of crusher run or sand on top of that, and brick it over to match the level of the rest of the floor.
Any advice and/or better ideas welcomed!
Thanks,
Earl
PS - multiple friends and neighbors have already suggested making it into a bomb shelter, wine cellar, root cellar, priest-hole, gun safe, panic room, etc. There is no possible renovation that will get my wife to set foot into it, since she saw the spiders living down there, and it is second-quality space at best, no matter what you do to it. I'd rather have the floorspace back for my workshop.
in 2009
