5,000-Gallon Underground Water Cistern Installed at Lockett Ranches

Properties out in wooded, rural areas often have one big problem - reliable water storage. There's no municipal hookup. No easy solution. You either figure it out or you go without. At Lockett Ranches, the client needed a serious water storage solution that could handle the demand without taking up any usable surface space. That's where we came in.

We're talking about a 5,000-gallon water cistern buried completely underground, right in the middle of a forested setting. That kind of job starts with a lot of careful excavation. The ground out there was layered - topsoil, then dense rocky material underneath. Our CAT excavator had to work through some tough conditions to get a hole deep enough and wide enough to seat a tank that size properly.

Once the hole was ready, we brought in the cistern itself. Getting a tank that large lowered into position without damaging it - or the surrounding trees - takes real precision. We used the excavator to guide it down and get it set level in the pit. After that, it was about getting the backfill right. Proper compaction matters here. You don't want settling or shifting that could stress the tank or the connections over time.

The finished result is exactly what the client was after. The entire 5,000-gallon cistern is completely underground. All you can see from the surface is the access riser and vent pipes poking up through the dirt. The land around it looks natural - boulders placed around the access point blend right into the forest setting. Zero visual footprint above ground.

Jobs like this are what we do. Big excavation in tight or sensitive areas, underground tank installations, rural water solutions - we've got the equipment and the experience to handle it start to finish. When the ground is tough and the job has to be done right, that's where Bluebrook Excavating earns it.