Well Houses

[AlbertC]

I need to build a well house for my well. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to approach this?

The problem I am having with this is how to make the house so that it can be removed if the well needs service. I have seen some very nice houses on the internet but many of them seem to be permanent (concrete floor, etc) and I wonder how can you make repairs for example a broken pipe under the concrete floor. Also, if the pump needs to be pulled out wouldn't the roof need to be removed?

Thanks for any info

 

[KWentling]

Well should be located outside of the house and a pitiless adapter used to run the line into a well house or into the house itself. I have a modified concrete septic tank as a well house below ground level as we can get -30 or colder temperatures here.

 

[Peter 315]

I just have a wishing well over mine,That I can remove to change the well pump

 

[gsganzer]

Well should be located outside of the house and a pitiless adapter used to run the line into a well house or into the house itself. I have a modified concrete septic tank as a well house below ground level as we can get -30 or colder temperatures here.

^^This^^
Put the well outside the well house, assuming the well house is going to contain your pressure tank, disconnect, pump controls etc.

Otherwise, put the tank, controls etc. in your basement (if applicable)

 

[square1]

The roof on the well house at the cabin is a flat sloped roof hinged on the high side. To work on the contents the roof gets tipped up and propped open. I have changed pumps which means leaning over a ~waist high wall. It is a little tough on the back. House has been there since the 1940s, never had cause to work on anything beneath the concrete floor in the 8 years I've been there.

 

[Turbys_1700]

My dad had a small brick well house built for our system back in 57 when he built his house. It was an old bored well. The well did indeed sit outside the house. To put in a light bulb for winter we had to remove the roof of the brick well house. Pretty easy to do. With our mild winters here that was all that was needed to keep the pump and return pressure line from freezing. Everything else was in the ground.

 

[LouNY]

Around here when well houses where common most of them where dug down so as to be 5-6 feet down about a foot above grade,
the earth temperature would eliminate most of the freeze problems, the well house would contain the pressure tank and controls,
the pump if a jet pump, if a submersible pump the pitless adapter if one was used. The increase in submersible pumps and the reliability
of the pitless adapter was the reason for the decline in well houses as the controls and pressure tanks moved to the basement. Also much deeper wells
and the change from shallow dug to deep drilled.

 

[fishheadbob]

Don't know how cold it gets wherever you might be, here's what I have.
It can get to -30 F here. My drilled well has a submersible pump at the end of 50 feet of plastic flexible piping. Every 10 or 20 years when the pump dies it's pretty easy to disconnect the wires and pitless adapter to pull the pump up by hand for service or replacement. The pipes for 300 feet to the house are below the frost line. There are different grades of piping, the drop pipe is a bit heavier than the pipe to the house. There are 300 feet of 10-3 UF wire plus 50 feet of drop cable to provide electric to the pump. Pressure switch and bladder tank are in the basement. Important to have some poly rope from the pump to a good tie off at the top of the well in case the unthinkable happens and the pump, cable, and drop pipe all break loose and the pump sinks.

My barn has a shallow dug well maybe 18 feet. Shallow well jet pump is in an insulated box in the barn. 100 watt bulb for heat, maybe 70 feet of the lighter plastic pipe from the well to the barn. No pitless adapter, just a foot valve at the bottom of the well. If the foot valve ever goes i would have to do some disconnecting where the drop pipe meets the lateral pipe to the barn to get at the foot valve.
Close to 40 years on both wells without any serious problems other than some pump repair or replacement every decade or two.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Depends on how fancy you want to get. Ours is just a lift off cover that has a shingled "roof" and is insulated. Nothing fancy, but you can lift off the entire thing if needed.



This is about the best pic of it that I can find (left side of pic-obviously).

 

[turnkey4099]

Having worked on severawl wells I can agree with several of the above. Do not put the pressure tank in a well house if there is any way at all to squeeze it into a basement or house. That puts all the maintenence things right there where you can get at them. Pitless adapter on the well, pipe into house. No well house needed, just a cap on the well casing. That, of course, assumes a submersible pump. If a shallow well pump on top of the well you are pretty well stuck with a well house but the tank and controls can still be in the house.