exploring an old cistern (underground room) at my house
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- Found an old cistern under an addition to my house that I tore down, had to climb into it on camera. No idea what to do with it yet. It's only about 9 feet deep, but you wouldn't want any pets or kids falling into it, that's for sure.
We use our cistern constantly, 1890s home!! Great video!!
Super bad idea to go down there with no one else around. A confined underground space like that can be very low in oxygen. Without even knowing that you're suffocating, you can pass out and die. There have been situations where one person passes out, and three more people die trying to rescue that one guy because of the lack of oxygen.
Working construction, we have to be licensed to work in spaces like that. We are trained to recognize, as well as mitigate the dangers.
If someone sees this video and decides to do something similar, I hope you read this and get a couple strong friends to help you out. Lash yourself off so they can hoist you up if you lose consciousness without entering the space themselves.
A couple minutes exposed to fresh air and you'll be fine. But if you pass out down there with no one to help you out. Yer done, son.
Good observation of a potential hazard, and I did think of that. Annoyingly, I do enter confined spaces at work occasionally too. (Welding inside a certain stainless tanker comes to mind.) But something always has to actively replace the air, or deplete the oxygen and generate a byproduct with some type of reaction, usually co2. For example, in a room with a bunch of cut up wet plant material in plastic boxes with lids on. That will generate significant co2 and probably methane too. I watched a video on a family killed by decomposing potatoes in a cellar in Russia, the potatoes gave off some kind of weird gas. But the cistern was empty and dry. Nothing in there to alter the composition or makeup of air in it. Without that, natural diffusion would result in it being the same as normal outside air, ie, 19-20% o2, about 350ppm co2, etc.
Wow ThankU BlessU❣❣
Wow, you’re absolutely correct. Three people died in Elgin, Texas yesterday in this exact scenario.
Great advice and information. Most people don’t realize this unless you have been trained for working in confined spaces.
Waterproof with Drylock and use to water the car, plants, etc. This will really piss off the local water department when you get a low water bill!
Repurposed tornado shelter is what i did with mine.
Clean, seal, resurface and use. I want to open our and use to water the garden.
Penelope, I've got one too. What would you seal it with?
@@drjudy0 Vermiculite
Head lamp, It was one of the best inventions since the invention of the flashlight!
I’m late to the party here but I just found one in my backyard home built in 1890, it’s filled with dirt and I’m finding old bottles in it, I’m only 3 ft down, no idea how deep it is
I'd go every weekend with a cooler filled with other bottles and dig history out, bud. 🤣🤣💪🏼
We just found the same thing!! What did you wind up doing with it? I’m afraid it’s too close to our foundation. We have no idea what to do with it.
clean it out and resurface the inside with thorough seal top to bottom deepen it if you can ! open up the top completely as well place one large pipe in the side stand several smaller pipe 2 to 3 inches others up on end like tree trunks til cistern full then place a steel checker plate across the ends of the pvc pipes and rebar and pour the top leaving access larger pipe about 24 inches od open to set sump pump in bottom and use the cistern for laundry. screw down the access lid to prevent mosquitoes and this can be used to do laundry water yard even flush toilets...the street tap will provide potable water needs....for drink and cooking only! Your water bills will be bear minimum as 90% of the water you do use as grey water can be drained into raised planters and gardens peat lined in the bottoms! One planter draining to the next until finally returning the cleaned water to the ground water. The only water going to the sewer is your black water or flushing water to carry poop. In the end you will only pay for what you drink or cook with and what is needed to carry poop to shit plant...This will reduce you sewer water bill to 15.00 per month...cheap compared to the cost of septic system...The rest can be handled by the cistern, which is rain water fed...Naturally soft completely screened by the drain pipes the sealed cistern is bug free, safe it is very hard for a kid to fall down 3 inches of pvc pipes the pump hole 24 inches has a secure screw n lid with a rope attachment to lower electric pump to the base for pumping water and easy removal for maintenance.... all gutters and even drain pipes from yard if socked and encased in gravel will supply the cistern which in most places will remain full...You are returning the grey washing water to the ground it just makes a few pit stops along the way... with water bills going to over 100.00 a month the minimal charges of just 15 a month represent significant changes in your wallet! Especially over time! in case of drought you can even add water to your cistern with the hose bib...
In the house my step dad used to own, the man that owned it before him committed suicide in the cistern. The poor man had lost his hands in a farming accident and was very depressed. He lived alone and his family would occasionally come visit him and he knew they wouldn't know where to look for him, so he tied a rope to the front door handle lead the rope around the side of the house, and through the basement window. He tied it to the cisterns handle and lower himself in and closing the lid behind him.
When my stepdad told me the story, I was amazed at this man's ingenuity, he did this all without his hands. I hope he is found peace, God Rest his soul.
Peace does not come for suicide victims according to the Catholic faith.
@@markcollard9326
Well, it’s good thing that they don’t dictate who gets into heaven.
@@markcollard9326 You know what else comes in the Catholic faith? Priests, on altar boys.
not sure what state your in .but it would make one hell of a grow room
😂😂😂
Silence of the Lambs was plausible.
I've heard of these before but never seen one that wasn't filled in.
Cisterns ( the old one) seem to be different all around the country. I have been looking around for one like mine. I have a leak and when I inherit the property I plan to get ot fixed. It is my hope that I can have some one pipe it into the house to use for flushing toilets, watering the lawns, and maybe drinking if clean enough. I recall drinking rain water when I was kid. I am still alive so, I guess it was not bad. Our cistern looks like a big barrel sitting on a platform. I would also need to get that rebuilt. The home was built in the mid to late 1800's. My town has 2 other cisterns that I know about. Our next door neighbor tore his down when he decided that he was going to turn his place into rentals. What a mistake!
A good storm shelter
Pretty cool! We found a 7 foot deep one on our property.
I have one 26n feet deep with 2 feet of water. I have not ever ran water in it but it always has water down there. Could someone tell me why it has not evaporated?
@@rondelby2482 Probably ground water seeping into it.
@@wiggsan probably so..I went down there once with a ladder and the water I took a sample and it was clear but smelled like soot. There were objects down there I found a rusted bucket but got the creeps when i felt with my hands in the water..
I have one 23 feet deep with a little water maybe 18 inches in it I plan to seal it off.
Fallout shelter man! Patched up and make it safe
well it's mostly full now, mortar, bricks, random household garbage, metal, etc. At least my chevy is nuclear war/emp compatible, all mechanical. My old 7.3 is down currently, clattering and shaking on 4 cylinders, it didn't even need an emp to take it out, it just broke on its own. Lol
Mine collapsed and I discovered it when I was cutting my hedges and my ladder sunk into,the ground. I hired an excavating co. To fill it in and it wasn't cheap!
Music!! Plat music in there
Some counties actually pay you for letting them come to remove. My county we found out will pay us $300 for letting them remove ours. We haven’t yet as who knows if we will need to use it with the way the world is
Put it back in service. You will have emergency water.
When I was exploring abandoned homes I found a basement underground it was the worst system I've ever smelt in my life There was animal faces dead animals black mold and the bunch of garbage And there might be a human remain buried under all the garbage someone already bought that home It's a demolition In the basement/storage underground it's huge
STORM SHELTER FOR CERTAIN
Why there aren't any water at the bottom?
I was also thinking this. Maybe they drained it before sealing off the top, or maybe it leaks from the bottom. Either way, it's been preserved well because of it.
This thing's been packed full of gabage, pieces of scrap siding and metal, chunks of cement, etc since last summer. I didn't have any good ideas about what to do with it other than use it to save on my gabage bill, and eliminate it as a hazard on my property. No way did I want any chance of anyone or any pets falling into it.
It was built for a purpose and you film it to get advice and you end up throwing trash in it anyways haha.
Fallout bunker
idk ...
Confined space hazard
Three men died in a place like that when I was a kid.
not sure what state your in .but it would make one hell of a grow room
If it were bigger and weed were legal it could. (I support permitless conceal carry and not shutting anything down over "covid" but gov Kristi Noem suing to stop amendment A was total bs) But there still isn't any way to enter and exit the cistern discreetly. And there's a lot to add. Wiring, water supply and drain, city gas for co2 burner, etc. Also, what do you use as an exhaust, there's no chimney or vertical vent pipe like in a house. And, shit, what about radon? I did reseach cisterns after finding mine, and some would make awesome grow rooms though.