Pump House

[fax]

We are fix'n to have the well dug out at our house. My question is location, location, location??? The builder axed today if the home owners association has a particualr place they would like for us to put it (which I'm going to double check) if not where would we like to put it? Is it as simple as that? I mean can they can they dig just about anywhere and find water? I thought that had to send the guy out with the water rod first to find it [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] But seriously what would be a logical proximity to the house close w/easy access or out of the way and hidden. I know that their would be more expense having to run the water line a farther distance. Or....... putting it closer to the house, but not to close, and building a small simple shed around it to store water hoses garden stuff etc. and with lets say a gravel floor just in case work needs to be done on the well [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img]
Wha cha'll think?

[Phred]

Fax,

How deep will the well be?

I will desribe my setup just to give you an idea.
Well is ~650' deep and ~250' from my house. All the electronics to run it is in my house. Pump is at the bottom of the well. Run wire and water line to well.

Pros: everything is in the house and easy to get at except the pump. Simple install. No need for a pump house.

Cons: Pump is at the bottom of the well. Expenive to replace if you need to. For deep wells not much choice.

If you have a shallow well you could use a jet pump and keep all the equipment in your house, just run a water line to the well. That would be ideal.

Keep the well some place where it will be out of the way IMHO.

Fred

[MarkV]

I am sure your builder would know this but if you are on septic most codes require the well to be at least 100' away. Another note is where the pressure tank will be placed. Many wells in our area put the tank in a well house at the well head. May just be a Southern thing. I like mine in the house, basement or crawl space. Just seems I am more likely to check it and no worry about freezing. Also no need for a well house if it is a deep well with the pressure tank in the house.

MarkV

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Well, FAXIE, if you have to go deep and use a "sub", you actually do not have to HAVE a pump house per se. We have a well that has been boxed in with a huge, unsightly clay block enclosure and is RIGHT IN THE WAY of everything. What we are going to do is strip off the block enclosure, and just use a manhole cover over the main well bore. The sub power cable and the DISCHARGE PIPE will enter below grade, and the pump and the drop pipe will hang on what they refer to as a "pitless adapter". To service it, you pop the manhole cover off, attach the lifting sling to the eye that is provided in the top pipe fitting, and pull the whole thing up until you can take the wire splice loose, and then continue pulling the pump out. The discharge pipe and the power cable go underground to the basement where the bladder tank, the pump motor control box, and the pressure switch is. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Alan_L_Texas]

Fax, consider access to the well by service equipment. I made a mistake in the placement of my well. Its behind the house up on the high bank of the creek, but after it was drilled we came and did some dirt work for the house pad. The result is that if my pump goes out (399' down in a 500 foot well) the service truck will have trouble accessing it, especially if its muddy. If its dry its a minor problem with access, but if wet, nearly impossible.

Consider putting it out front where they can get to it easily if necessary.

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Alan, you are speaking up for thousands of pump service people all over this country. I was in that business for twenty years, and I cannot tell you how screwed up some of the locations were. Pump houses that had NO WAY of removing them, pumps INSIDE a barn that was built after-the-drilling of the well, you name it. One time my crew showed up to pull a household submersible and found the well under a manhole in the driveway. Now THAT, buddy was the ultimate in convenience. It was, however, tough to not leave marks on the driveway from the jacks in back of the rig, so they pulled it with the rig standing on the tires.....no jacks. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[KJFoster]

Well (pardon the pun), that brings up a ggod question. What should a "well house" look like for serviceability? We recently had a well dug and have yet to cover the unit. It's a fair sized tank (Gould I think - blue in color - about 4 foot high) that sits on a concrete pad about 3 foot square. Has a small electrical box to the side and then the water pipe connections. Not much to it at all. Should it be covered?

I was thinking of building a "pole barn" type pump house around it (sink 4 six foot posts about 8 foot apart, toss on a roof, door, and siding) - but from the replies that seems like it would be a mistake. [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

[CJDave]

HUGE mistake.....really HUGE. What you want is a "drop-over" type of shelter that has an eye bolt on the top so that the whole thing can be snatched up and high-lined out to the side somewhere out of the way. Whatever you put around that well, be it posts, bolts sticking up, or some kind of built-up concrete foundation, it will be a grinding hassle for the rig guys to work around. Also....never put the power cable through the wall of the building, that makes it even harder to remove the house. Make a drop over shelter that comes off CLEAN....no stubs or vicious bolts sticking up. If you set four posts, do them level with the ground with some kind of tricky bolt-down system like a long lag bolt that goes down into the post. The payback for all this is that when the guys get there the rig clock is already ticking off sixty bucks an hour and it would be NICE if they could begin pulling the pump instead of spending the first hour wrecking out a pump house with crow bars and nail pullers so they can get TO the pump. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] Oh, and one more thing.......leave open sky above the well and enough space alongside it so they can stand the rig up AND have someplace to lay the pipe as it comes out of the hole. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[KJFoster]

Ok CJ - now tell me what you really think! [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Alright, I've determined that the pole barn pump house is a REALLY bad idea. Didn't say I was really going to do it - just thinking about it! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] Of course you could always take a chainsaw, cut the post at ground level, and yank the house off with my front end loader...

Which kinda brings me back to the first question, why are we covering the thing in the first place? Does anyone have a set of plans for a pump house?

What about just bolting the frame post to a concrete block like they use for decks? Maybe use an auger to drill four holes (there he goes again) about two foot deep and 10 inches across, fill the holes with concrete and set in the deck mounts. Then bolt the frame of the pump house to the deck mounts. Am I getting warmer? I'm worried about wind damage if I don't secure the pump house.

[CJDave]

You're closing in on an idea here. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] If you could somehow pour the footings at grade, with something like a J-shaped piece of 5/8" all-thread in them topped off with a coupler nut that was flush with the top surface of the concrete and THEN bolt through the mudsill to anchor the house. The crew would love that setup [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img] since you'd have it off by the time the rig got there, and nothing would be sticking up. Use plenty of grease on those bolts so they'll come outa there when the time comes. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] In my opinion, pump houses are to protect the tank and well head from weather and damage by animals, bicycles, ATVs, and of course, wind. They DO, however, invite pests, so be sure you hang a no-pest strip in there. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]