ᐅ Is it possible to relocate the cistern outlet? / Lid for the cistern access shaft

Hello everyone,

Our house construction is progressing quickly, and the day before yesterday the cistern with a capacity of 7700 liters (2037 gallons) was installed. It’s quite a massive unit.
The shape is like a shoe, so somewhat rectangular, and the shaft is located at one end. As it happened, the cistern was installed the wrong way around, and now the shaft is in our lawn instead of the planned garden bed.
I don’t want a cover right in the middle of the lawn nor do I want to have to access water from there.
At the moment, I assume the cistern will stay where it is because everything is already connected and it really is a huge piece.

This leads me to two questions:
1. What does a cover look like when it’s in the lawn? My neighbors have something like a “manhole cover” similar to what you find in the street. It’s a disaster to have something like that in the lawn. 🙁
1.1. Do I really need a visible cover or can I just bury it and dig it up when needed?
2. Is it possible to relocate my water tap with pump? I mean, can I just run the hose from the shaft into the garden bed and place the faucet there?

Do you really consider it a disaster? Usually, you just look past it. We have one in the lawn and one in the front garden. Unfortunately, the one in the front garden only allows you to place a pot on it, because nothing grows there.

You can try to cover it with grass; either it works or it doesn’t (water stays there or it’s constantly too dry).
Alternatively, there are “decorative” drain covers you could use. Our neighbor has one with a coat of arms from Hamburg or something similar.

ShaymiLenny schrieb:

Hello everyone,

Our house construction is progressing quickly, and the day before yesterday, the cistern with a capacity of 7700 liters (1700 gallons) was installed. It was quite a massive unit.
The tank is shaped like a shoe, somewhat rectangular, with the shaft located at one end. As it turned out, the cistern was installed backwards, so now the shaft is in our lawn area instead of the planned flowerbed.
I don’t want a cover in the middle of the lawn, nor do I want to have to access water there.
At the moment, I assume the cistern will stay as it is since everything is already connected, and it really is a huge unit.

This leads me to two questions:
1. What does a cover in the lawn usually look like? My neighbors have a “manhole cover” similar to those on the street. It’s awful to have something like that in the grass. 🙁
1.1. Do I really need a visible cover, or can I just fill it in and dig it up when needed?
2. Can I relocate my water outlet with the pump? For example, can I lay the hose from the shaft into the flowerbed and place my outdoor faucet there?

You can basically position the outlet wherever you like. It is not necessarily linked to the cistern cover. The only limitation is the capacity of your pump. There are water outlets available that can be buried with a cover; inside you’ll find a connection for a garden hose. We routed the hose through a rigid sewer pipe (KG pipe) into the cistern and connected it to the pump.

Alright. Colossal or not, if they install your garage the wrong way around, they have to fix it.
Was there any documentation specifying the correct orientation for installing the cistern?

The lid should definitely be accessible, as covering it with lawn is not a good idea. Eventually, you’ll need access, whether something is clogged or for some other reason… do you want to remove the lawn then?

The cistern lid must be accessible. You should check inside it once a year for inspection, and every few years it should be properly cleaned—especially in summer when it is almost empty anyway. This includes removing any sludge, etc. For aesthetic purposes, you can place a pot or something similar on top. My parents had a flower wheelbarrow like that, built by my grandfather who fathered their first granddaughter 😉

For the outlet point, simply run a hose or pipe to the desired location and install a tap there.