Sand and Gravel Fell Down Well Pipe - Now What??

[Bob99]

Hi All,

We are new owners of a year round lake community property. We have a 2" galvanized well pipe to a shallow well. The standing pipe rises about 4' above the surface and is capped. It is surrounded by a 3/4" gravel driveway. I'm told by the previous owner that a 1-1/4" poly pipe enters the well pipe about 6' below the surface and travels horizontally to our home (about 30' away) through a concrete crawl space floor and to the shallow well pump mounted in the crawl space. There is a check valve on the pump.

It turns out the standing pipe was not properly secured at the connection point 8" below the surface and someone knocked it out of place. The result was sand/gravel (I suspect) fell into the hole. Not long after, the pump lost it"s prime and we lost our water supply. We tried re priming the pump without success.

Is there a way to clean the sand and material by accessing from the top of the stand pipe? Other options to restore water supply from this well without having to dig things up?

Thnaks,

Bob

 

[Reach4]

Hi All,

We are new owners of a year round lake community property. We have a 2" galvanized well pipe to a shallow well. The standing pipe rises about 4' above the surface and is capped. It is surrounded by a 3/4" gravel driveway. I'm told by the previous owner that a 1-1/4" poly pipe enters the well pipe about 6' below the surface and travels horizontally to our home (about 30' away) through a concrete crawl space floor and to the shallow well pump mounted in the crawl space. There is a check valve on the pump.

It turns out the standing pipe was not properly secured at the connection point 8" below the surface and someone knocked it out of place. The result was sand/gravel (I suspect) fell into the hole. Not long after, the pump lost it"s prime and we lost our water supply. We tried re priming the pump without success.

Is there a way to clean the sand and material by accessing from the top of the stand pipe? Other options to restore water supply from this well without having to dig things up?

Thnaks,

Bob

Does this drawing represent what you are describing? Was the coupling plastic, and broke, or what?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Bob99]

Does this drawing represent what you are describing? Was the coupling plastic, and broke, or what?

Hi There, the setup is like the top drawing. The coupling was galvanized, but was not properly secured to the threaded well pipe sitting 8" below grade. When it was pushed over by someone, debris (sand/gravel) dropped into the open hole (well pipe).

 

[Reach4]

To remove crud from inside of the sand point, you could try running a pipe down and blowing air at high velocity into the tube. That can expel water and crud. You could use a big compressor, or a smaller compressor to charge a tank, and then release the air down the hole all at once.

On a suction well, small vacuum leaks will reduce/eliminate the ability to suck water.

If you have a well point, there is no way to fill the pipe with water. Your pump I think needs to have water itself, and then from there, I think it has to be "self priming".

 

[Valveman]

Gravel is hard to blow out, even with a big compressor. If it has a drop pipe, try to pull it out. You maybe able to just shorten it and get it above the gravel.

 

[Bob99]

Gravel is hard to blow out, even with a big compressor. If it has a drop pipe, try to pull it out. You maybe able to just shorten it and get it above the gravel.

I don't think I can get the pipe out or raise it up easily as it enters the vertical well pipe about 6' below the surface (to stay below the frost line).

I have no experience with this but I was wondering if I could disconnect the 1-1/4" poly line at the pump, connect it to a truck mounted vacuum, flood the well pipe with fresh water from above and then suck out the debris for 5 minutes? Or does that sound like a hair brained scheme?

 

[forcewashingwa]

You could try running a garden hose down the standpipe to flush out any sand—sometimes that’s enough to clear the blockage and get things working again.