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Another Workshop Time Waster: 3000 Gallon Masonry Cistern

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vtsteam:
Andrew, Pekka, I was definitely hurtin after that one, and into the next day, too. My mixer is getting on in age, too, and bogs down if you do a lot more than a cubic foot at a go, so that was part of the problem. So many loads!

Plus I was trying to be real good and keep the mix stiff -- without over watering it. But that makes it a lot harder to scoop out out the wheel barrow, and place, etc. Plus walking around the form with each shovel full. Definitely didn't make it easy.

One good thing though -- mixing with piles of sand and stone is a lot better than lifting and pouring in those bags of dry pre-mix. I'd probably needed 40 or 50 of them by the time I was done! Shoveling loose ingredients into the mixer is a lot easier, I think.

Andrew, I know exactly what you mean about filling columns. I once built a HAHSA outdoor furnace, and that thing had 8 foot concrete block walls with rebar in every other block space all the way up, and those were filled with concrete -- it takes a LOT of buckets to do that on 44 linear feet of 8 foot tall wall. Luckily that time I had a helper. But it took us a very long day to do it.

The new tank won't have a liner, the ferrocement walls hold the water in.

SwarfnStuff:
Hi Vtsteam, I can sympathize some with your pain. I recently replaced a toilet pan (bowl) and cistern for my daughter. Nowhere near the shovel mixing you had to do. It was just the constant up / down movement whilst removing the old broken pan. Then because the replacement was of different design it was up and down some more cutting the old fittings off the waste then fitting new to extend the reach. Finally ready to install everything and it went ok. Mind you it turned out to be a 7 hour job instead of three. The following morning I could hardly  move - found aches in muscles I didn't know existed. At almost 74 orbits round the sun there will be no more of that much exercise.
John B

vtsteam:
Well fast forward two months and I hadn't done anything more on the cistern -- the reason? Plenty of rain all summer and no need.

But things have been getting drier this month, and I noticed the kiddie pool wasn't filling overnight from the overflow from th spring, so I figured I'd better get back on it.

I bent and welded rebar verticals to the stubs from the base reinforcement yesterday and today:

awemawson:
That's looking very artistic Steve, shame to cover it in concrete  :thumbup:

vtsteam:
Thanks Andrew.  :beer: Well I hope it will look good after I finish the reinforcement and plaster it, but no telling -- i've never done this before! A little trepidation about the plastering, but onward and upward!

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