well....

[redman2006]

A deep subject for such a shallow mind as my father would tell me. Gee, thanks Dad!

Anyway, being a member here as well as feeling some urgency due to other issues, I started wondering about the old well on the place. The only experience with it previously was rescuing a very stupid cat from it. At that time we were having a severe drought and there was a trickle of water in the bottom of it.

Fast forward to today.

This is a bored well of about 2 feet in diameter or a little more. It is a total of 42 feet deep with 6.5 feet of water in the bottom. It is dirt sided with no reinforcement. It has a wall around it and a roof over that.

The water is a murky, muddy water that smells like earth but nothing foul. It does not really settle out to clear.

This year has been reasonably wet. Last year was very wet. I still have a hard time adapting to the volume of water we get here, so what they consider drought would be a fabulous year back home.

So, where do I start to get this well useable?

My thoughts at this point are to rent a submersible pump and pump it all out. Go down in there and check for debris and clean out the bottom if I can or need to. Then I will get an idea how long it takes to fill again. At that point, pump it a few more times and take the water in to have it tested at the extension service for coliforms and nitrates.

Honestly, I am far less than enthused about going to the bottom of a dirt well that deep.

Should it be bored more deeply since it was basically dry when I moved in?

Should I leave it open so that I can use a bucket or install a pitcher pump?

Should I consider a solar pump?

Does this need to be cased?

I have zero intention of putting the house on this well. I may use it for the livestock and garden. Mostly I want it for emergency water. Even if it is not clear, I have no issue with filtering and boiling.

I do have a small stream out back I can get water from as well. Even in the severe drought, there were pools in it though it did not run.

Whatever I do, the budget for it is limited.

Thanks for the help as always.

[W.Lynn]

If that big hole is stable enough, it's certainly worth pursuing the idea of using it.

Don't go into a well (cased or not) for any reason though, please. Too much bad stuff happens.

Some wells, even primitive ones, are designed with a cistern at or next to the top, that way you aren't pumping all the way from the bottom. No telling, just a thought. Even if you find a pro and get advice to use a regular casing, and fill in the rest, there are well-buckets you can get that will fit down inside the casing, they're long tubes with a flap valve that fill from the bottom.

If a day should come when regulatory offices aren't so prevalent, you might want to build a spring house, with a container cooled by the water that you'd be able to keep perishables cool in.

[dangerdan]

Redmman2006 .
I have seen people use corrugated plastic culvert pipe to case large bore wells .
They drilled holes all through them to allow water to pass into the well .
I don't know if that is in your budget .
The culvert pipes would have to be smaller than the bore to fit , but you could back fill with pea gravel to help stabilize the well .

Do not go into the well ...(Timmy didn't fare well at all)

DD

[redman2006]

It seems very stable. At 40+ feet, I would have to use a rope or a rope ladder to get in and out. My extension would not go all the way down.

Corrugated plastic would be cheaper than pouring one or using the concrete culvert I had been reading about. My concern would be its ability to stand pressure from the gravel. Fourth feet is a fair bit.

This well has been here way over 60 years according to the neighbors.

I wonder if I should have it bored deeper since it was dry the year I moved in?

That may open a can of worms with tptb. I don't know the legalities of wells and rehabilitation of them

[redman2006]

Oh yes, what I called a pitcher pump is incorrect. It is a simple pump or deep well hand pump. The true pitcher pumps can only pump water up about 25 feet as they are suction.

The hand pump alone will be at least $500 or more. I could puck up a cheap submersible and a generator for what a hand pump would run, but then I am depending on gas or electricity again

[angeryamerican]

I think corrugated plastic would be perfect, if it's 26" then a 24" would fit nicely and you could backfill with the suggested gravel. On going into the well, don't do it unless you can test the atmosphere down there, industrial air sampler that looks for the O2 percent as well as any harmful gases and have a rescue tripod and hole watch, someone that can crank you out if it goes south. Confined space entry is a dangerous thing, generally the first first responder that arrives unprepared becomes the second victim. Additionally Google soil classification, if the well has been there that long the soil is probably pretty safe, but where I'm from in Florida there is no way in hell I'd go into a hole that deep.

[redman2006]

Thanks AA

The soil here is clay. You can still see the marks of the drill still in the side of the well.

I have no real desire to go down. Maybe I could find a way to stir the bottom and use a trash pump to pull all the silt and trash of whatever sort out.

I need to drain it and see how long it takes to fill regardless.

Now, does anyo e have pump suggestions?

[tk]

I would Just get an electric submergible pump hook a piece of one inch plastic to it and pump it out hold it off the bottom so your not sucking mud. pump your well down get a measurement and measure again in an hour take the dimension and divide by the new measurement to get gallons per minute. When you pump the well down the first time pull your pump out and put it in a bucket of clean water to clean your pump just don't let it run dry for long. Even a sludge pump isn't going to bring the muck up off the bottom so short of going in there ( If the well is making water) I would dump about 3 feet off limestone covering the bottom. Then take the double walled corrugated and perforated ( they make it) You should be able to get 40 foot joints and put it down the well. I would go with 20 inch casing centering in the well and back fill around the out side with 2 inch lime stone. All wells get surface water from the top 1 to 10 feet so now with the perforated sides the water can leach around the casing as well as thru the stone in the bottom. Then if all goes WELL you can throw your pump in it and use it. JMO

[MillenniumMan]

I found this about a year ago when I was trying to figure the well out here on my property:

[redman2006]

All of this helps, thanks
I wish it was a little closer to the surface to get away with the pitcher pump

[redman2006]

http://m.harborfreight.com/portable-utility-pump-65836.html?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Would this work since it is a primed pump?

None of the affordable submersible pumps will raise water high enough and none of the non submersible utility pumps will suck it up high enough. With this one being primed, I wonder if it would work.

My goal here is just to be able to pump water to fill the stock tank and water the garden if we go on restrictions. For some reason it feels like we are shaping up for a dry summer.

The water is at 36 feet with a total well depth of 43 feet from the surface of the ground and 46 to the top of brick well house around the hole.

[AD]

I am going to guess no.

Look here for pumps designed for that but if its dirty water you may have issues


This is an in well pump. Look at the "lift" figures

http://t.homedepot.com/b/Plumbing-Pumps-Well-Pumps-Systems-Deep-Well-Submersible-Pumps/N-5yc1vZbqja

Here are suction lift pumps shallow is 25 ft or less.

http://www.grainger.com/category/ecatalog/N-/Ntt-50ft.+Lift+shallow+well+pump?searchSortKey=priceAsc&sst=All

In an electric pump ypu probably talking $300-$500 plus.

Now you could build a mechanical pump that may do the just but your flow rates will be low. I will see if I can find some details on those.

Here you go

http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/ah810e/ah810e06.htm

http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/ah810e/ah810e07.htm

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/yago91.html

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/hygiene/om/linkingchap4.pdf

[redman2006]

It is not really clean. It is cloudy but won't settle if you leave a bucket sit. I did have it tested. No coliforms.

It was my hope to find a set up for about $150 to make this work as a backup and garden waterer.

Ideally, a true well pump and filter system would be good, but that is not in the budget. If I absolutely had to, I could drop one of the utility pumps 1/2 way down the shaft so it could get the suction and still have enough total head height to work. It would be a pain in the ass to rig a frame for it.

Northern has one that will pull 20 feet and have a total head height of 98. Since the garde is down hill of the well, and I am going to be reducing from 1 1/4 outlet to garde hose, I wonder if that increases the head? I don't think so since the psi of the column is still the same, but I am not sure.

Also, I would like to run this on an extension cord. At this point, I really do not want to run electric to the well.

[redman2006]

I did case this with the corrugated pipe and crushed limestone around it. It worked really nicely. I have a fill of only 8-10 gallons per minute as I calculated it. When I cased the well, I rented a trash pump. Roughly, the volume of water in the bottom is 165 gallons. It took about 20 minutes to fill. The last few inches took much longer for some reason.

The trash pump sucked out a lot of mud and muck at the bottom including bits of critter bones.

[redman2006]

Wow. Thanks ad