Cleaning a cistern

Every now and then you need to clean your cistern and I was totally unsure how much mud and sand was in mine. All I knew was that the intake valve was often plugged after non use of my pump and the first bit of water was always dirty. The first year the system had no filter for water from the street so I thought it might be serious but there turned out to be less than an inch of mud. My intake valve is 4-5 inches above the bottom so how it got plugged I don't know.

I drained most of the last 5 inches with a bucket and then we lowered a neighbor in and he finished the job with a sponge, rags and a little cloro. I imagine with double filters the cistern will be good for 3-4 years now.

Entrance under the palapa

Yony inside partially cleaned

I just liked this foto

Pumphouse, bath, wash area, well and patio

I originally went down for one week but ran into some workers that could really crank it out. Rather than getting the place livable in November I decided to get it done so I can move right in.

We first brought electric to the pump house to a 4 breaker box. Installed lights, outlets for trailer, washing machine and two pumps. Two pumps because we hadn't had city water for two weeks so I decided on a well. The second pump is from the cistern to the tinaco when there is no city water for short periods. The tinaco has an automatic float switch to request water when needed.

The albañiles (masons) were great and fast. They stuccoed the pump house, in and outside of the bathroom under the stairs, made a cement pad for the wash area, support for the clothes wash basin and a small container for the well pump.

During the end of the 2 1/2 weeks my neighbor built a flower bed around the wall near the trailer and started on a patio. He also had some old palapa wood that we used to make a lamina ramada over the wash area.

So generally the place will be ready to move into in November except I'm not sure the fridge in the trailer will work well enough. Will have to get a reefer guy to check it or just buy another fridge.

Starting the stucco work

Setting up for the pad in the wash area

Bath under stairs and pump house (jail)

Lavadero and well pump area

Patio and flower bed

Week Sixteen - Installing the Cistern

Brought in a backhoe on Monday to dig the hole for the cistern (fresh water holding tank) and the ditch for the wall foundation on side of lot. The tank is 2800 liters and cost $4000 pesos (less than $300us). At the bottom of the pit is a cement floor with rebar. They decided to put in 3 castillos (support posts) to tie it together. The form for the top is made a few feet away, also rebar reinforced. We'll see how easy it is to move next week.

It was the first time these guys had installed a plastic cistern (usually just a block box) so the plumbing presented a few new problems. We had conversations about venting, where the pipes go and height of the top above the tank. They had no problem with pipes coming out the top - but the top will be part of a patio. I talked them into another ring of block so pipes exit the side.

Next day I brought out our plumber and he had us turn the tank around so the 1" fitting aimed at where the pump will be. He also mounted the street shutoff on the front wall of the lot, made a spicket for garden water and ran the line back to the cistern. We then waited 'till after 1 pm for city water to start flowing

Building the container walls for the cisterna

Mixing cement for the lid - before the extra ring of blocks were added

Cisterna installed and plumbed with lid sitting in the background