ᐅ Rainwater Cistern: Useful? Necessary? Costs?

Created on: 30 Apr 2015 18:23
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Bieber0815
Hi,

in a fixed-price contract, the following is offered to us:
Rainwater cistern and wastewater connection
Construction of a concrete cistern of approximately 5.4 m³ (190 ft³), up to 5 m (16 ft) from the building structure, including piping and backfilling, connected to the roof drainage system. The wastewater pipe will be routed from the foundation slab to the existing wastewater transfer chamber and connected.
What do you think?
- Are the cistern and wastewater connection directly related?
- Do we need the cistern? What is it for? What happens if we don’t have it?
- What portion of the cost do you think it accounts for (it’s not listed separately, of course, I will ask the supplier as well)?
S
schuckie
13 Nov 2015 14:47
nathi schrieb:
On our property, water must also be infiltrated on-site, which is managed through an infiltration trench. According to the architect and the civil engineer, installing a cistern in addition is not worthwhile because you still need the trench, and you don’t get a significant amount of usable water that way. They recommended that we have a well drilled instead, which costs about half as much.

How large is your swale and trench infiltration system?
We currently have the same setup but are considering installing a cistern.
We are bothered by the swale, the potential for mosquitoes, and we are also unsure how suitable this solution is with small children. Have you had any experience with that?

Good luck, Timo
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Bieber0815
16 Nov 2015 20:54
A cistern is not suitable as a replacement for a soakaway, but maybe you are using the term a bit loosely. What you are looking for is an infiltration shaft (roughly like a cistern without a bottom). Alternatively, a proper soakaway (i.e., an underground infiltration system) might also be an option.