Ugh!! Water Well contractors...

[gsganzer]

What is the deal with water well contractors? I'm getting to the point I'd rather have all my teeth pulled without Novocain, then have to deal with another well person. No shows, poor service, deceitful, the list goes on.

The first time I ever needed my well serviced, I had a guy show up with starched pants, silver tips on his boots and smelling like a french *****. Turned out he was a bail bondsman; his brother was the actual well guy who showed late in the evening. He temporarily got me water (repaired a split drop pipe), but I could never get him out to finish replacing the pipe.

A year or so later, I got a guy out to replace the pipe, but he didn't actually have enough pipe, so some of the better original sections (which still weren't that good) had to be re-used.

The last guy was the worst. I never met a guy that got himself so twisted up in his own lies. Long story short, he replaced a 1.5HP pump with a 5HP pump that would overdraw the well in about 5 minutes of run time. His solution was to add a pump protector cut-out to cut the pump off each time the pump ran dry.

My latest predicament started almost two weeks ago, when we noticed our pressure was starting to drop. I did some troubleshooting and found the pump is drawing about half the amps and suspect either the pump has an issue or there's another split pipe. I called the well guy that everyone recommends (he's actually pretty good) and told them my issue. They said they could get to it, but it would be a few days. No problem, I can limp along a few days. It's good service to take care of those in dire need, if someone says they can get by a few days. It's now turned into almost 2 weeks and I can no longer limp along, no water pressure today. Tried calling them again and no answer now.

It's actually put me in a pretty bad position. I have an elderly parent staying with us in an in-law apartment without water, we have goat kids being born so we're hauling water from a neighbors and I was supposed to head out of town Friday.

I should change careers and start a well business.

 

[Moxie 15]

5hp is a large pump. how deep is the well?

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I find that with a lot of contractors around here. We are about to start building a house. Bought a mobile home for the interim and probably tried 15 people to get it moved.

 

[sree251]

I should change careers and start a well business.

You should change career and be a writer. You write well.

 

[Torvy]

I find that with a lot of contractors around here. We are about to start building a house. Bought a mobile home for the interim and probably tried 15 people to get it moved.

Same, here.

 

[grsthegreat]

problem is, in most areas work has been so strong, the good contractors are buried and not taking on more work. the crappy guys are the ones looking for work....there the ones you find

 

[gsganzer]

I have water!!! The well guy came out and did some troubleshooting, ran some water on the ground, checked for air etc. Low volume and won't build pressure. Pulled up 400' of pipe, put on new pump (more appropriately sized) and got it running. Coming back in the morning to see if we can drop the pump a little to give some more drawdown and clean up some of the previous contractors work/mess.

This was the only well person I trusted and was willing to wait for him, but I hated that it turned into almost 2 weeks and I was down to a bucket brigade. Talk about pucker factor, especially with the freezing temperatures expected through the weekend. I expect there will be a whole new batch of people with frozen well houses. The well guy said he's still knocking out repairs and cleaning up things from last years big TX freeze. Like others have said, the contractors that are good are busy.

 

[ponytug]

I am glad to hear that the well is working for you now.

I feel for you, we had a similar event earlier this fall, when our 37 year old pump started to have the footer check valve start leaking. A highly recommended well company sent a team out and they had to be towed into the well area because they have no traction their tires. They pull the well pipe and motor, and discover that their original paperwork has the wrong motor in the notes, so they have brought the wrong motor/pump combination. So they leave, and three days later we have a record rainfall, so they really aren't going to make it to the well. Meanwhile, the ranch is running on stored water.

Yes, we were sweating about running out of water for the animals.

Two weeks later, they came back with the right pump/motor, not that the install went without a hitch, but two more follow up visits got the details sorted out.

Along the way, I learned that filter media on a backwash type filter supposedly needs to be replaced every three to five years.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Root Cause]

I am having a tough time here in NC. It is difficult to find people to even call back. Almost everyone I meet is about to retire and several references have retired.

I know many who crack on the younger generation not being willing to work but the concept of apprenticeships and mentoring seems to have died about 2 generations ago. Combined, it is where we are today. It looks unlikely that I can have a house built before the end of the year.

 

[gsganzer]

While we're cleaning things up tomorrow, I plan to make some piping changes in the well house and add a double block and bleed. This would allow me some flexibility in the future. I could tap a tote with a pressure demand pump (like an RV pump) into my main line, or I could run a line from/to my neighbors well house to provide backup between us. At one time, my well actually supplied his house too.