Jagster
New Member
Hello. I purchased my home some years back (Jacksonville, FL) and I would like to switch from my city water irrigation to using a shallow well if possible. Many of my neighbors use wells for their irrigation, and it looks like at some point in the past this home also had a shallow well - or at least it appears that way based on some PVC piping that is in the back yard near the irrigation manifold. I purchased the home as a foreclosure so I never met the prior owner and don't know the history behind this but there are two 2-inch PVC pipes in the yard spaced about 23 feet apart. I've measured their depths (to sand) just by using my measuring tape and found that one is 30 feet deep from grade, and another is 21 feet. The 21' deep one sits about 2' lower due to the way the yard slopes down away from the house. The 30' deep one has about 15.5' of water and the 21' one has about 8.5' of water. I don't know how far the casings actually go down, I just measured with a weigh on the end of my measuring tape until they hit sand.
I have no idea why there are two, but the one farther away has some additional piping that looks to be for the outlet side of the pump and heads back into the ground. But I have not dug up to find where it ends yet. I can only make guesses as to why it is the way it is but what is certain is that the irrigation was tied into the city water at some point before I found and purchased the home. It's worth mentioning that when I purchased the home it was missing many items because it looks like the prior owner removed them before it was foreclosed on. The HVAC condensor and evap units were gone, garage door openers, all appliances and some cabinets, water heater, even fence panels (though the posts were left behind). So it may be that they took/sold the pump and maybe the bank plumbed it back to city... though that seems unlikely.
So I ,never having any experience with a well, would like to get some advice on how I would go about purposing one of these wells for my irrigation. Obviously I would need to plumb into the existing manifold and such, but my ignorance is along the lines of maybe understanding why these casings were left unused.. and if there is any testing I should do before investing in all the work and hardware needed. And what would be the recommended design for the system (pump, head, tank, valves, etc). Thanks
A few pics of what's in place.
I have no idea why there are two, but the one farther away has some additional piping that looks to be for the outlet side of the pump and heads back into the ground. But I have not dug up to find where it ends yet. I can only make guesses as to why it is the way it is but what is certain is that the irrigation was tied into the city water at some point before I found and purchased the home. It's worth mentioning that when I purchased the home it was missing many items because it looks like the prior owner removed them before it was foreclosed on. The HVAC condensor and evap units were gone, garage door openers, all appliances and some cabinets, water heater, even fence panels (though the posts were left behind). So it may be that they took/sold the pump and maybe the bank plumbed it back to city... though that seems unlikely.
So I ,never having any experience with a well, would like to get some advice on how I would go about purposing one of these wells for my irrigation. Obviously I would need to plumb into the existing manifold and such, but my ignorance is along the lines of maybe understanding why these casings were left unused.. and if there is any testing I should do before investing in all the work and hardware needed. And what would be the recommended design for the system (pump, head, tank, valves, etc). Thanks
A few pics of what's in place.
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