Dug well Caisson

[20 20]

My question is how to you plan on filling a pond with a well? How big is the pond? A big dug well lets say 4' diameter still won't bring a pond up 5'. Maybe I'm missing something .

 

[hr3]

20-20 Don't really need to fill it just keep it topped off,, In the spring the pond if full then slowly drops through the summer.. Right now it's down 3' from full.. I would like to add fish at some point and need more O2, thought this might be a good way to keep the water fresh ??

 

[ElDorado]

ElDorado,, where did you find a short piece of culvert like that ?? Sounds like a great idea.. :thumbsup:

hr3 - I called around to the area plumbing suppliers. The first one, and closest, only would sell 20 footers. I called the next one and he didn't even hiccup about cutting one in half for me. Heck he even delivered to my house. Boom there it was when I got home from work. Put it in the back of my truck (shortbed mind you) and halled to a landing, put it on a barge, and brought to camp.

I also was planing on checking with some local excavation contractors. It seems they always have stuff lying around.

Glad my story helped!

 

[ElDorado]

Eldorado .... I too have thought about using black plastic culvert pipe. I thought that I would drill holes in the bottom part of the culvert pipe to let water seep in and filling up the outside of the pipe with gravel partway up. I am glad to hear someone did it now I know that my idea wasn't nutty after all and that it would work. I wonder about the galvanized culvert over the black plastic though. When we were kids we all drank out of a zinc water bucket and a dipper, I wonder if that zinc water bucket was actually a galvanized bucket, might have been.

I also have had the same experience with galvanized buckets and really wanted to use plastic but as I said once I told him I was using for a well he said he couldn't sell me the plastic one. Seems backwards to me.

I really do not think you need to drill holes though. I think most of the water comes up from below so I didn't put in any holes. By having the 12 inches of stone around the culvert acts kind of like a reserve tank. Water will follow the least resistance, through the stone (acting like a filter), and up into the culvert.

I have to come clean the details were my version of what I observed on other camps. Most of them use the old clay well tiles that are 2-3 feet tall, 16-18 inches wide, and have tongue and grove ends that mesh together. Then use a pulley with a bucket. I was really trying to find some of these but no success. Can you get a machine to your well location? If so what about the precast concrete well tiles? I thought about these but my spot was not machine accessible.

PS why did this quote not come through as a highlighted quote?

 

[hr3]

ElDorado.. Cost of the tiles and trying to squeeze them into the spot I have dug would be hard to do.. I agree I don't think holes in the side are necessary,, the water would be cleaner if it travels down through the sand and up through the bottom..

 

[handirifle]

That's odd about the plastic. I bought a piece of land and had to have a well dug. 400'. Anyway, the casing for my well, and everyone elses here is PVC. They will not use galvanized because it WILL break down and runs, and the last thing you want is rust geting into your submersible pump that is 380' down.

My storage tank above ground is plastic too. Maybe it's the TYPE of plastic, maybe it's NOT made for potable water. Might be a chemical in it the manufacturer warns them about using it for potable water.

 

[ElDorado]

Handirifle, I agree it is weird. I say stupid. Some lawyer somewhere got a hold of the idea and is CYAing the companies tush. Lesson learned is don't tell supplier what your using it for.

 

[hr3]

handirifle ,, Your right about the type of plastic.. Drinking water bottles are a much finer plastic than a plastic oil can...I'm sure that well casing plastic and culvert plastic are very different..

 

[radioman]

Honestly , I don't get it. couldnt you just dig down 7 and half ft and just pipe it from bottom to the pond ? no pumping needed. If you dig too far, you might punch a hole allowing water table to drain out in that new well you dug out. If the well is 4-6 ft around and if you have alot of rocks laying around, use that to line the well just like the old timers. all you need is a shut off valve near the pond to top it off as needed.

Quite often the simplest solution is the longest lasting one, even if itdoesnt give you the volume you need.

 

[toy]

I am glad for this thread I wouldn't need to drill the weep holes I agree and that would make the water cleaner. When you dig the hole for this you would dig it larger than the pipe that you intend on using, when you grout around the pipe if you wanted to make it a better filtered water how would you fill in around the pipe? I hope what I am asking makes sense, I have heard of people that built their own water filtration system. That means that I need to take more time to study out this to get the best instead of just jumping in and putting something in. Gone off to ponder some now.