Olddude
New Member
I built my house in 1992 and although everybody tried to get me to install the new style septic system and a deep well. I'm kinda old school and went with the standard gravel/ drain tile septic system and the old shallow type well. That's what we used to call them anyway. Basically a hole is bored and is lined with the 3' concrete well curbs. At 55' the driller hit a large vain of water that you could hear coming into the hole all the way to the top of the ground. The well guy told me then that I would never have a water problem with this well. He continued on with 20 more feet of curbing and left 4 sticking out of the ground when he left for the day. The next day those 4 had settled and he had to add 3 more to get even with the ground and he added 1 more to get it above ground.
He ordered concrete and they poured a whole load of grout around the outside of the curbing's. He told me that normally 1 load would seal off the curbs to the top but this time was the exception and he ordered another load and it took almost that whole load to flush it off to the ground level. The next day my plumber showed up and installed the water line and pump and run the lines under the house.
I never had any problems for 15 or more years other than the first tank got waterlogged after around 11 years and I really don't know how long it was like that before I replaced it. I was out of town a lot and it was probably like that for some time. When I got off the road and was home more I noticed the pump running a lot and checked it out to find it had gone bad and I replaced it. I'm thinking it was like this for several years at the very least.
I always had plenty of water to water the lawn and keep my Koi pond filters clean and the pond full. Some time later I was filling the pond and watering the lawn all in the same day and while I was filling the pond I came back and the pond water was white with sand. I also noticed that there was very little flow coming out the hose also. I shut off the hydrant on the side of the house and went over to the well and pulled the cover and nothing looked unusual. I didn't have time to go further into it that day but the next day my wife was complaining about the washing machine that made her work close dirtier than they were before she washed them. At that point I had never installed any kind if filter into the system so I figured it was about time. I went to Lowes and picked up a whole house filter pack along with a few replacement filters. I also changed the pressure switch and check valve when I installed the filter. That made her happy for like a week til one morning she got up and was getting ready for work and there was no water at all. The breaker had tripped so I figured the pump had failed so I went up to Furgersons and picked up a new one to the tune of about $400.00
Once back I went out to pull the old pump and that puppy would not budge. I jerked and yanked on that thing for 30 minutes with no results. I went next door and got my neighbors son to come over thinking that both of us to pull it free. Still no good and I decided that I would have to get some kind of lift to pull it free. I dragged my 3 ton motor hoist up to the well head and hooked it up to the pull rope and jacked on it until the rope got so tight I knew it would surely break. I let it sit there for a little while and every 5 mins or so would jack it a little more and after a half hour or so it finally broke free. That thing was buried under 6 feet of sand and mud how it worked at all I still can't figure out. When I got it up I tried it again and the dang thing started and ran so I dropped it back down into the well and dropped it under the water a couple feet and started it back up and the thing ran like it did when it was new. I went up to the house and got one of my old cat fish fishing rods and a black magic marker to see what was going on. The well had filled in almost 20'. The water level was still at around 30' but rather than the 45' of water I had to begin with I was around 27'. I didn't have the money to dig a new well of get this one cleaned out so I raised the pump up around 5' off the bottom and that's how it's been for the past few years. I still had plenty of water for everyday needs an I would change the the filters about every 5 or 6 months. and everything was good until I was adding water to the fish pond and I got distracted and forgot the water was running and when the light bulb came on I found a white fish pond again. I shut it off and let it sit for a couple hours and when I turned it back on no water came out the hose.
Turns out the water line I was using was completely stopped up with sand and I had to replace every piece of CPVC pipe under the house. The filter element had somehow got twisted and was letting all that stuff through. Keep in mind that that old pump is still in the well......that thing just won't die.
I had been wanting to convert my crawl space to a conditioned space so I figured this would be a good time to do it all. So replacing the piping wasn't that big a deal being I had to pull all that old insulation out anyway. At that time I added a sand screen with a clear bowl before the tank and replaced the old whole house filter also. I've been getting by by being very careful not to run the water more that about 20 minutes at a time. That seems to be the sweet spot and the water stays fairly clean with filter changes every couple months. I haven't checked to see where the water level in the well is but I plan on doing that again this week just to see where I'm at.
The well man wants $2500.00 to clean it out with no warranty how long it will last, which is out of the question right now. I have to make do with this well for at least another year are there any options you guys could offer.
He ordered concrete and they poured a whole load of grout around the outside of the curbing's. He told me that normally 1 load would seal off the curbs to the top but this time was the exception and he ordered another load and it took almost that whole load to flush it off to the ground level. The next day my plumber showed up and installed the water line and pump and run the lines under the house.
I never had any problems for 15 or more years other than the first tank got waterlogged after around 11 years and I really don't know how long it was like that before I replaced it. I was out of town a lot and it was probably like that for some time. When I got off the road and was home more I noticed the pump running a lot and checked it out to find it had gone bad and I replaced it. I'm thinking it was like this for several years at the very least.
I always had plenty of water to water the lawn and keep my Koi pond filters clean and the pond full. Some time later I was filling the pond and watering the lawn all in the same day and while I was filling the pond I came back and the pond water was white with sand. I also noticed that there was very little flow coming out the hose also. I shut off the hydrant on the side of the house and went over to the well and pulled the cover and nothing looked unusual. I didn't have time to go further into it that day but the next day my wife was complaining about the washing machine that made her work close dirtier than they were before she washed them. At that point I had never installed any kind if filter into the system so I figured it was about time. I went to Lowes and picked up a whole house filter pack along with a few replacement filters. I also changed the pressure switch and check valve when I installed the filter. That made her happy for like a week til one morning she got up and was getting ready for work and there was no water at all. The breaker had tripped so I figured the pump had failed so I went up to Furgersons and picked up a new one to the tune of about $400.00
Once back I went out to pull the old pump and that puppy would not budge. I jerked and yanked on that thing for 30 minutes with no results. I went next door and got my neighbors son to come over thinking that both of us to pull it free. Still no good and I decided that I would have to get some kind of lift to pull it free. I dragged my 3 ton motor hoist up to the well head and hooked it up to the pull rope and jacked on it until the rope got so tight I knew it would surely break. I let it sit there for a little while and every 5 mins or so would jack it a little more and after a half hour or so it finally broke free. That thing was buried under 6 feet of sand and mud how it worked at all I still can't figure out. When I got it up I tried it again and the dang thing started and ran so I dropped it back down into the well and dropped it under the water a couple feet and started it back up and the thing ran like it did when it was new. I went up to the house and got one of my old cat fish fishing rods and a black magic marker to see what was going on. The well had filled in almost 20'. The water level was still at around 30' but rather than the 45' of water I had to begin with I was around 27'. I didn't have the money to dig a new well of get this one cleaned out so I raised the pump up around 5' off the bottom and that's how it's been for the past few years. I still had plenty of water for everyday needs an I would change the the filters about every 5 or 6 months. and everything was good until I was adding water to the fish pond and I got distracted and forgot the water was running and when the light bulb came on I found a white fish pond again. I shut it off and let it sit for a couple hours and when I turned it back on no water came out the hose.
Turns out the water line I was using was completely stopped up with sand and I had to replace every piece of CPVC pipe under the house. The filter element had somehow got twisted and was letting all that stuff through. Keep in mind that that old pump is still in the well......that thing just won't die.
I had been wanting to convert my crawl space to a conditioned space so I figured this would be a good time to do it all. So replacing the piping wasn't that big a deal being I had to pull all that old insulation out anyway. At that time I added a sand screen with a clear bowl before the tank and replaced the old whole house filter also. I've been getting by by being very careful not to run the water more that about 20 minutes at a time. That seems to be the sweet spot and the water stays fairly clean with filter changes every couple months. I haven't checked to see where the water level in the well is but I plan on doing that again this week just to see where I'm at.
The well man wants $2500.00 to clean it out with no warranty how long it will last, which is out of the question right now. I have to make do with this well for at least another year are there any options you guys could offer.
