[Greenbuilding] cistern questions

[RT]

On Thu, 02 Aug 2012 10:48:54 -0400, Sacie Lambertson  
<sacie.lambertson at gmail.com> wrote:

> 1.  Cisterns in this area are built by the same people who do septic  
> tanks, ie of concrete.  Could I use such a tank to support a room above?

Without crunching any numbers first to confirm, I'd say "Yes".
It'd be a matter of designing the reinforcement.

> do I need to worry about insulating the walls of a cistern? ie there  
> would be
> room for expansion.  Freezing is normal in our NE Kansas winters.

I'd say "yes".

Some years ago one of my neighbours exposed the upper portion of an end on  
his septic tank. (I forget how or why. I think that it had something to do  
with a landscaping and/or deck and/or pool project.

The septic tank developed a nice crack on that newly-exposed (outlet) end  
just below the outlet hole for the line to the weeping tile, presumably as  
a result of freezing & frost expansion of the top surface of the water.  
And yes, it stunk in the vicinity of the tank.

Even though the walls of the septic tank could be made to be capable of  
supporting an addition, I think that I'd surround it with a CMU stem wall,  
spaced away from the tank by a minimum of 6 inches and then fill the  
cavity with Roxul insulation, and tie the CMU wall back to the walls of  
the septic tank, essentially making an insulated-core, double-wythe wall.

-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom					AOD257
Kanata, Ontario, Canada

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