Reviving an old well

[irlitewave]

We bought some property in North West Arkansas a couple of years ago that had an old well house located about 250' from the house. When county water came into the area about 20 years ago the owner stopped using it and the roof fell into disrepair. There was a lot of styrofoam insulation in the roof and it seems that over the years it has gone down the well hole. I was able to pull the pump out and want to replace it and get this thing going again for our garden and swimming pool. The well is only 50' deep but I am concerned about the styrofoam that may be left down there. Would it be possible to use the county water to fill the hole and flush it out or would this do more harm than good? Is there anything else that I could try? I guess that the casing goes down about 30' because that is where it got hung up on the way up the pipe, after I plowed through the styrofoam it came right out.

Thanks for your help.

[Waterwelldude]

You will not be able to fill the well with water. Any well that will make water, will take water. The water level will stay the same no matter how much water you put in it.

The styrofoam that is still in the well, should not affect the well. When you pulled the pump, you more than likely got 90% of it out. It will float on the water.
If you need to get what is left out. You could try to blow it out with an air compressor. It would need to be a decent sized one. 100 or 185 cfm. Most air compressor that size will be trailer mounted. It take volume not that high of pressure to blow a well.


Travis

[irlitewave]

thanks for your tips

[irlitewave]

well it seems the there is about 36" of loose styrofoam to push through before I get to the water table. I have had some luck getting some out by pushing a 2" PVC pipe into it and pulling it out. Styrofoam is a heck of a lot harder to push through than you would think.

[Waterwelldude]

Using air may be the best way to get it out. Run about 30' of 1" to 3/4" pipe below the water level, and use the air to blow the water out. That should get the styrofoam out. You may have to tie the pipe to the casing to hold it in the well while you are blowing it out. It can push the blow-pipe you use right out of the well.


Travis

[irlitewave]

Thanks. It will be a task for another day.

[speedbump]

If you could find an auger slightly smaller than the casing that you could attach to pipe, so you can auger through the styrofoam, you could lift it right out. Finding this auger might be a bit of a problem though.

bob...