Amateur Plumber
Member
I have a 50+ year old single pipe shallow well supplying potable water for my home. The well is about 20 feet from my home, and the piping terminates in my basement where it is piped into a shallow jet well pump. I suspect that the galvanized iron pipe used is at least 50, if not 60 years old. I am seeing chunks of what looks like rusted iron in my input filter. I decided to dig up the well head and replace the foot valve, well head, and piping leading from the well to the jet pump. I'm attaching a photo of the existing well head. It is about 4" diameter. Some questions for you pros.
1. How do I remove the old well head? Looks like it it pretty well corroded in the casing.
2. Is it likely to damage the casing when I do the removal?
3. Once I get the old well head removed, is there any maintenance I should do on the casing?
4. The current setup runs a copper tube into the basement to vent the well. I would like to change that by running a small diameter PVC pipe vertically out of the well head and vent through that directly above the well. That will also help to locate the well in the future. Any issue with just placing a 4" PVC pipe on top of the well head and running the vent pipe up through it above the ground?
5. The existing input to the jet pump has a check valve at the input to the pump, to keep the pump primed. Should I remove that?
Thanks for any and all help.
1. How do I remove the old well head? Looks like it it pretty well corroded in the casing.
2. Is it likely to damage the casing when I do the removal?
3. Once I get the old well head removed, is there any maintenance I should do on the casing?
4. The current setup runs a copper tube into the basement to vent the well. I would like to change that by running a small diameter PVC pipe vertically out of the well head and vent through that directly above the well. That will also help to locate the well in the future. Any issue with just placing a 4" PVC pipe on top of the well head and running the vent pipe up through it above the ground?
5. The existing input to the jet pump has a check valve at the input to the pump, to keep the pump primed. Should I remove that?
Thanks for any and all help.