Water supply from well to the house

[soal man]

1" sch 40 PVC with belled ends. Use good quality glue and primer, you'll never have another problem.

Black poly pipe is terrible, I can't believe anybody would use that stuff for their main plumbing line. Dig up enough with splits and leaks and you'll see.

1" will be fine for what you're doing.

I was told to stay away from the black poly also but after reading a couple of the replies here it seems that it has worked well for some. It looks like using the 200psi or better may be the key.

I am more comfortable with the sch 40 since most of my plumbing work has been with pvc. But again, I do like the idea of one continuous piece of pipe.

I'm going by Ace this afternoon to see what most people are using around here now.

 

[Qapla]

I use PVC for a living. Though it is true, it comes in sections that have to be glued together, that has never been a problem.

If you have an irrigation supply in your area, they should carry sch 40 PVC in 20' lengths with bells. These glue up nicely and don't need additional couplings.

Keep in mind that 1" sch 40 moves about 15 gals per minute. If you want more flow for that longer distance, you might consider 1-1/4" or 1-1/2" pipe. (again, an irrigation supply should have the 1-1/4" pipe and fittings - though most HD and Lowe's do not)

The fittings that glue on at both ends will be standard pipe thread so you can hook up to whatever is there.

I would agree with the post that said to put a check valve at the house. I would also put a shut-off. These two items could save a water heater element if the water fails for some reason by not allowing the water to drain from the house. I would also put pipe insulation on the exposed pipes.

BTW - I have nearly 1000' of water main supplying 3 houses on our land. The pump is 400' from my house and 600' from my brother's house. We have buried 1-1/2" PVC that has been down there for 30+ years and NO PROBLEMS. Just make sure to use cleaner and do not skimp on the glue.

Ours is buried about 2-3 feet deep.

Hope this helps.

 

[herd]

The new house is coming along nicely and I'm about ready to run the water supply line from my well to it, about 150 feet. I have been planning on using 1" pvc buried about 8-10 inches since there is no frost line to worry about. Does anyone recommend using anything other than pvc these days? I've heard from several people to stay away from the black flexible piping (can't think of the name).
Any other ideas/advice you may want to throw in on this will be appreciated.

You did not mention the size of your casing at the wellhead. I am sure it's not an issue but if you're going to use 1 1/4 supply line to the house, the wellhead casing should be at least that. On newer wells, I am sure this would not be an issue but I am using an 80 year old well that I reopened. It originally had 1 1/4'' gav'd casing the was a little rusty and I didn't trust it.

Wound up running schd 40 3/4'' pvc down the old casing with a foot valve. So, that limited me to a 3/4' supply line to the house since I can't push out more than I'm pumping in. The water pressure and volume tho is real good.

Someone mentioned a check valve at the house, I hadn't thought of that but it's an excellent idea. Gonna have to do that myself

 

[gerard]

If you're getting a whole house generator you should be able to pick up the well without a problem. My well pump is 220v, 480 feet down, and I run it and the rest of my house with a 6500/8000 watt portable. Any whole house generator is probably going to be a minimum of 10,000 watts. The pump is only a big draw on start up, then it levels out a bit.

Re pipe size - what size is the pipe from the pump? Going a little bigger may help a LITTLE by reducing friction loss, but your limiting factor is going to be the pipe size from the pump and the pump output. 1 1/4 even seems like a pretty large pipe for a supply line. Of course bigger won't hurt anything, just cost a little more and not increase flow above the most limiting factor which is the pump capacity and pipe coming out of the pump. I just had my well casing replaced and I think they uses 1 inch pvc with brass screw connections at the joints but this was the actual well line, not the horizontal run to the house.

 

[rjmack]

i used 200# x 1 1/2" black buried between 6' -8' (frost)

i buried the tech cable about 2' above that.

i wouldn't go with less than 1 1/2", also, i wish now that i had also included some cat5 cable along side the tech. with the emergence of cat6, the cat5 is getting pretty cheap, and imho is a much better solution than wireless as far as video monitoring goes. i don't see any good reason not to have internet access in most if not all buildings on the property. my wellhouse is perfectly situated and provides a good place to mount cameras to monitor/photograph deer, bears, racoons, and owls grabbing rodents... as well as any two legged rodents that may venture where they shouldn't.

i guess the only thing better than a private grid that includes all of my infrastructure would be to have wind/water generation capacity of my own, able to feed my independent grid on a permanent basis.

btw, i think the notion of enron style bankrupting of people via electricity costs is not nearly as much a thing of the past as a lot of people seem to believe.

 

[soal man]

It's a 4" well with 1 1/2" supply line that I'll connect to. It has a submersible 2hp pump about 135 ft down. Best I recall its capacity is about 27gpm.

I'll definitely have a check valve and shut-off at the house.

 

[herd]

You're good to go! I hope you enjoy your new house, that is always a special time!

 

[Qapla]

One other thought about burying your line. This is something I wish we had done when we put ours in. But then, 30 years ago I did not know then what I know now

You should think about burying a single run of insulated direct burial wire, a small gage is just fine (again, an irrigation supply would have this). When you bury it, leave a couple feet exposed at the well end and the house end.

What is this for? You may think you will remember just where the line is buried, but several years from now when things have grown in, it will be much more difficult to locate. With the wire running with the pipe, you can use a locator to find the path in the ground whenever you need to. (of course you will need someone with a locator to do this.)

Someone with the city or an irrigation company should have a locator. You may also be able to rent one, they are not that hard to use and they are quite accurate when operated properly. (you don't really want to buy one unless you really need one, they run $600 and up)

 

[CurlyDave]

If you haven't put a locator wire alongside the pipe, and need to find it, you may be able to insert an electrician's "fish tape" into the exposed end of the pipe and push it down the pipe.

Just as long as you don't have any ells or tees, you can push this stiff steel "wire" about 150' into a pipe. Use it to carry the locator signal. About $40 at Harbor Freight.

Just use a different fish tape for fresh water vs. sewer.

 

[captaincrab55]

If you haven't put a locator wire alongside the pipe, and need to find it, you may be able to insert an electrician's "fish tape" into the exposed end of the pipe and push it down the pipe.

A fish tape will work with a locator, but why not just use divining rods ????