How to Build a Spring Box?

[wasabi]

We have a gravity feed country water system. Basically the water is picked up through a screen covered black plastic pipe which runs about 1200 ft downhill, buried two to three feet underground, to our buildings. We've got plenty of flow and vertical fall so volume and pressure are not problems...in fact, we have to use a 300 gal food grade plastic water tank to collect the water about 80 ft uphill from the shack to <font color=red>reduce</font color=red> the pressure!! Problem is the spring has moved considerably uphill from the original location ove the years, so we are now basically collecting ground water.

Our friendly backhoe contractor (alas, no tractor of our own yet) suggests we dig uphill at the "duck's tail" where he is convinced the spring originates, to capture water that is still flowing underground, then sort of pen it in with a gravel filled, plastic liner wrapped scenario containing a header made from 1 1/2 pipe with holes in it, and then re-bury the whole thing.

Sounds to me like it would work, assuming the spring stays put.

What think you, common sense minded fellow TBNer's?

 

[EdKing]

Re: Building a Spring Box

I recently had a new spring box installed by my friendly backhoe contractor. He put pipe in simular to your collection system. This flows into a concrete cylinder about 2 ft diameter and 4 ft tall. The inlet pipe is a few inches lower than the outlet pipe. The outlet pipe then goes to a 1000 gal concrete cistern. The main purpose of the spring box is to let the sediment in the water settle out before it goes to our cistern. I would use either a concrete or plastic pipe for your spring box, as a plastic liner will probably shift and possibly colapse, interupting or stopping your water flow completly.

 

[wasabi]

Re: Building a Spring Box

Sounds logical. Does the concrete cylinder have a bottom?

Sabi

 

[EdKing]

Re: Building a Spring Box

The cylinder has a top and a bottom. One thing I forgot to mention, he set a post in right next to the box before he covered it. Makes finding it a lot easier when it comes time to clean it out.

 

[wasabi]

Re: Building a Spring Box

Another good idea. Thanks, I think I have a picture and a plan now.

 

[rgarrison1]

One thing I notice in some spring boxes is a low point drain. Apparently, that makes cleaning much easier. It is used to flush out all the stuff that builds up.

Such a spring box would have the overflow near the top, in the bottom third the place where you draw water for use. The bottom wouldn't be flat, but would be sloped to the low point drain.

 

[Michele Amico]

Wasabi,
I started a thread with the same name... sorry, didn't realize there was one already. Check there for more suggestions.

Here's my suggestion: try a water dowser if there is one available in your area. I found two. One charges $1000 plus travel expense for four hours work!, the other charged $75 and walked a good bit of my 20 acres. I went with the $75. You gotta believe but this really works. When dowsing he said, "you must ask, should I dig here?", as opposed to "is there water here?". There might be water but for many reasons digging could be impractical. So the dowser might be a good option for finding your ducktail?, I've never heard that term before.

He found water for us and I'm in the process of installing a system similar to what you describe. I plan to use a 2" diam. plastic pipe with 3/16 inch holes drilled in to collect and channel the water into a 30 gal. food grade plastic barrel. Not sure how to keep sediment out,...I'll probably use gravel?, plastic sheet?, wire mesh/screen?, or a combo of the above? The barrel will be about 18 feet from the source and just below the elevation of the source. Then I've got to lay 2500' of pipe.

Good luck.