Well not refilling

We moved to this house 4 years ago and there is a well just outside the main house. The area has a very high water table and even in summer the well has refilled quickly. We also live in a valley and so there is a lot of water coming down to us.

In the last week or so the well has only refilled to just under a third full. We have had a LOT of rain so I'm just wondering if anyone can give me some ideas of what the problem could be.

Thanks.

something down below has changed.

I'd need to know much more about your well and how wells are completed in your area. Sometimes it helps if I know the state and city. As Wally Hayes says "Something Down Hole Has Changed"!

Hi, We are in Suffolk, in the UK.

for more information, the well is relatively shallow - about 10ft / 3M and is traditional herringbone brick wall, so plenty of places for the water to come in. I have recently dug a trench nearby for a different purpose, only 2ft /60cm deep and it had water half way up within a few hours, so the water table is still there!

wells in the area (traditional type) are generally this brick type - probably dug by hand 50-100 years ago. as I said, ours is relatively shallow (but about 5ft /1.5M across), but a frends up the road (slightly higher ground, is the same construction, but 3ft across and 80ft deep...

there hasn't been any disruption to the surrounding ground or any (known) diversion of underground water. could it just be that the surround to the well has silted up or doesn't this happen?

any further help much appeciated. thanks.

Possibly mucked with fines and slime behind the bricks. Perhaps a high pressure back wash to blow out the "crevices"

A guy with a small backhoe and a big round plate could possibly "surge" the well. Ask around with the local well guys.

Sorry when you said Suffolk I was thinking Suffolk, Virginia, USA. Suffolk, Virginia is near my home Virginia Beach, VA.

Somertimes when a bored or dug well is suspected of being silted in a best and simplest method to try is to fill the well with water as full as possible. The inward water has a tendency to put outward pressure on the formation and will sometimes help flush out the pores in the rock curbing. Try to keep the well as full as possible for as long as possible (say 12 to 24 hours). Then see if that helps. Ballvalve had a good idea but most drillers would laugh at it. I don't laugh at any idea that may rehabilitate any well. We used to fill doug wells with water then install a 4" PVC pipe near the bottom, then run a 3/4" hose or pipe in the 4" near the bottom and connect an air compressor of 150 cfm or more and blow the trash, silt, bricks, pecans and whatever from the bottom. We could sometimes even deepen doug wells this way. However you must always be sure the rockwork srounding the well is set on a ledge at the bottom otherwise the brickwork could seperate, sometimes destroying the well.

Thanks to all for the responses. We filled the well from the stream and now the level has remained where it should be.

Thanks again, Hugo

Hugo Smith said:

now the level has remained where it should be.

Click to expand...

What does this tell you about the likely cause of the problem?
How long would the problem need to be gone before you can safely conclude it is gone for good?

Problems going away are good, finding the root cause of a present or past problem is better.