Seen it all? What is this?

You do see some strange redneck things in northern Michigan...
I have this galv. pipe coming out of the ground at the corner of my cottage. The pvc pipe next to it is from the kitchen sink and drops down & over about 30 feet to the septic. Just on the other side of that wall is another galv. pipe that comes up thru the slab under the counter. It has a cap on top. I dropped a weighted string down that one and it appears to be the original well--which had to be abandoned when the septic went it.

Who wants to take a guess what the outside metal pipe might be? How can I find out? The bathroom piping is also galv. so it's my guess the sink line is newer and that short pipe may have frozen and cracked at some point so was abandoned--but why leave it visible?

Where is your shovel? take it and start digging around this pipe to find out more about it.

Unless they had a pitcher pump on top of that "well" pipe, it would be unusual for it to be that close to the house.

hj said:

Unless they had a pitcher pump on top of that "well" pipe, it would be unusual for it to be that close to the house.

Click to expand...

Entirely possible. The cabin across the street still has a pitcher pump and outhouse for plumbing. Most of these homes started out with that. The elbow is out of place for an outdoor hand pump, but it might be what was available to cap the pipe at the time.

My curiosity won't let me ignore it--I'll have to figure out what it is. I think it will be easier to drop a string down it than to dig it up. If the string hits an elbow 4 feet down I can assume it's a septic pipe. If the string drops 20-some feet into clean water I'll know it's another abandoned well pipe. Might have to put a pitcher pump back on it so I'll be ready for the zombie apocalypse ;-)

I wish I had a camera snake--considering cobbling one together--but can one be used to explore a 1.5" pipe that may have elbows?