dewatering wells

Bubb1957

Bubb1957

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Is anyone on this forum familiar with "dewatering" wells? Would dewatering be a practical way to lower the ground water table around my home? I realize it would probably be expensive, but would it be effective ? Tiling and other options have been explored, I have no outlets to drain into. Thanks in advance for your opinions .
 
It can be terribly messy and probably expensive, but have you talked to any of the guys that dig drainage lines under your slab. They jackhammer trenches and lay a proper drain line and bed. They re-pour the concrete and then you use a pump in the sump they will build to keep the water under control. I don't suppose you have any way to determine what sort of volume will have to be pumped. Porous soil and lots of water may make this impractical where you can't provide a daylight drain.

A friend had this done a bunch of years ago and it worked well with a sump. It went from water running across the floor to dry.

Where is the water comming in? Are your basement walls poured or block?
 
Dewatering a well is a bad idea. You don’t know how many millions or billions of water that will have to be pumped or how often.

Depending on the soil I have seen where they use a 18” bit and drill a hole a few feet deeper than the basement and put in a sump pump and your good to go and have your own man hole cover.
 
A friend in the same business as me did this once in North Tampa for a customer who got water in his sunken living room when it rained hard.

My friend Chuck put in about 10 well points around the home, mostly in the perimeter around the sunken living room. He tied them all together and attached a self priming centrifugal. He also put in a sump pit which housed only a float switch to monitor the water level and controlled the pump.

It worked for them. The flooding stopped. I don't know what kind of material was around the house, so I won't be much help there, but it did work for these folks.

bob...
 
Thanks for the replies. I do have footer tile around my split level home which empties into a sump crock in the basement. My problem is, is that during the seasonal high water table and heavy rains, my pump runs alot. I was thinking that dewatering wells just involved drilling down into the aquifer and the ground water would just dump into that aquifer, and not have to be pumped up and out of the ground? Apparently this is not correct? No one in the area gets water from wells, so I wont be emptying anyones water supplies. I have looked into an outdoor sump crock lower than my footer tile, but I really have no good outlet for the water to be pumped to.
 
If the pressure in the aquifer is sufficient a well might run by itself (artesian) but I wouldn't drill a well counting on that.

If it were me and you are not actually getting water into the building and the sumps work OK I would not drill wells. If it is the noise bothering you perhaps you could find quieter pumps or add insulation to the sump lid.

If you have no good place to dump sump water, where were you going to dump the well water.

If you need to get a pipe away from the sump; can you bury it? If the sump pump can't lift the water high enough to get over terrain you could bury a tank, send sump water there, and then pump where you need to go. A bit complicated but it gets pump noise out of the house and would likely be a lot less cost that drilling wells. And more likely to be effective. If it is a real productive aquifer my thought would be that there is no way wells could change your house water environment.
 
bubb1957 said:
. . . I do have footer tile around my split level home which empties into a sump crock in the basement. My problem is, is that during the seasonal high water table and heavy rains, my pump runs alot. I was thinking that dewatering wells just involved drilling down into the aquifer and the ground water would just dump into that aquifer, and not have to be pumped up and out of the ground? Apparently this is not correct? No one in the area gets water from wells, so I wont be emptying anyones water supplies. I have looked into an outdoor sump crock lower than my footer tile, but I really have no good outlet for the water to be pumped to.
Click to expand...

Putting surface water (and you are really talking about surface water) into an aquifer is not a good idea and is usually prohibited. If permitted, it would require a permit. You risk contaminating the lower aquifer for someone who may be a mile away.
 
Around these parts, a "De-watering Well" is what you would consider an "outdoor sump crock" I have been on the wrong end of a 24" pipe wrench turning the shaft of a 16 bucket auger too many times.

They work, and they work well. Basically it is the same thing as a sump pit in your basement, but on the outside of the block wall.

Your goal is to create a depression in the water level below the level of your basement floor. You pump the water out using a sump pump and dispose of it as far away from your house as you can.

They are hard to install, as most are at least 12' deep, and at least a foot in diameter.

They are not for every situation, lets say a slope issue where at series of horizontal tiles would be better, but are a direct replacement for a sump pit dug into your basement floor.
 
bubb1957 said:
I have looked into an outdoor sump crock lower than my footer tile, but I really have no good outlet for the water to be pumped to.
Click to expand...

A couple ideas.

Bury a sistern (large tank) in your yard. Pump your sump water, and pipe any close gutters into it. You can then install an inexpensive shallow well pressure pump to use this water for irrigation or even laundry and toilets.

I see a lot of people who pipe their discharges to a pop up emitter in their yard (most are about 6" from the curb, and most the water ends up in the storm sewer)
 
Be careful if you try a tank. If your water table really is high, the tank could float up out of the ground when it is empty. Even a concrete one.
 
Rule #1 if your are an easterner with shallow water: buy your house on a small knoll or bump up in the earth... always there is a hill in every county where your basement can be free to send its water down to the foolish down-underers who must - Sysiphus like- pump water up the hill only to have it percolate back home the next day. Why live with the grief?

You guys could also just give up your basements and build a bigger garage like the westerners.
 
I had basements in Michigan and never had any drainage problems. My 10 acres was pure brown clay, but the water could just as easily run off as some with sand could soak in.

bob...
 
Gary, I wish I had a way to get my water to the west, I seem to have a year round, never ending supply coming into my sump crock. "Slowest" its ever been was around 45 minutes between cycles this past summer in our dry season. In the winter, its normally 3 to 15 minutes. During 3-5 inch rains, its about 15-40 seconds. Best Wishes and thanks to all for your comments and advise.
 
Have you looked at things like the slope and composition of the soil around the building, where you downspouts drain, slopes that guide water to your house, etc.?
 
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