Dug well Caisson

[hr3]

Hi all I have a question about a dug well I would like to put in.. The reason for the well is to feed water into my pond.. The pond goes from full in the spring to 5' below this on a dry summer,, Right now it's down 3' from the top..

Ok so here is the question !! I have dug down 5' about 30' away from the pond and have 1' of water. After some rain the other night I had 4' of water and it seems to be staying there,, If I can dig down another 5' bringing the total depth to 10' then build a Caisson 4' sq.by12' out of PT 2by6 wrap it in fabric then fill in the outside with sand .. Would this make a good well structure ???

 

[tommu56]

A concrete manhole with perforations or a concrete pipe would be a better choice or even a septic tank with holes in the bottom and lower sides.

Put a couple of 6" pvc pipes in the hole vertically at opposite sides and back fill with clean stone
Reverse french drain and pump out one 6" pipe monitor level in the other one on the other side of pit.

Is the water level the same as your pond (pond water flowing in to pit)?
How do you plan on getting water to the pond?
You should pump down your pit and see how fast it recovers before going any further

tom

 

[hr3]

Thank's for the advice Tom,, As far as the level it's about 8' below the pond height. and it's all gray clay so I don't think it's coming from the pond.. I want to stay away from the concrete tiles if I can, Price is one reason the other is it's tucked in the woods and it's easy to put a well roof on the wood ??? As for the pump I was going to build a platform a foot from the bottom and set a sump pump on it.. Figured it would turn off and on as the water flowed in.. ??

 

[bindian]

Water will seep through clay. I dug my pond in solid red clay and I had water seeping in as I dug it. I think the pond and well will seek the same level.
hugs, Brandi

 

[hr3]

Brandi.. So far good on that one...the pond level is about 8' above the hole I dug where I would like to put the well..

 

[ElDorado]

What about a culvert on end? I did that for a well at our camp and it works fine. The retailer would not sell me a plastic one once he found out that we were going to be consuming the water, I had to buy a galvanized metal one (go figure- galvanized safer than plastic???).

I placed about 15 inches of crushed stone on the bottom, installed the culvert, and place around 1 foot of stone around the culvert (4 foot). I then attached a pitless adapter to the culvert and around 6 feet of copper going down into the well. The pump and pressure tank are in a small pumphouse and I have a wooden cover on top of the culvert and keep the pumphouse locked to keep out the kids.

This works fine. There is usually around 5-6 feet of water in the culvert x 4 feet in diameter is a lot of water. Oh yeh, I dug down until I hit ledge which was around 9 feet. The culvert was 10 feet long - the pregnant wife and I muscled it from the horizontal plane to the vertical plane.

Good Luck!

 

[hr3]

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

 

[tommu56]

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

If you have to get a longer one cut it in half or thirds and put 2 or 3 in more volume

tom

 

[dave1949]

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

4' culvert is going to cost a bit if you have to buy a 20 footer new. I like the idea too. If you have to pay for a whole one, hire an excavator to put it in the ground as far as it will go is another option. I don't know if one really deep vs 2 or 3 short ones is equivalent for water collection. Deeper would be better is my first thought.

Maybe check around with some construction companies, behind town hall, people who do road work, etc. They might have a cut off laying around.

Dave.

 

[toy]

Eldorado I have a hand dug well that is walled up with rock, some of the best water you have ever drunk. I have thought about doing the same thing that you did on the upper end of my property closer to my house, and 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.

My hand dug well is about 20 feet deep, my brother has a hand dug and rock walled well that we put a 41 foot suction hose and foot valve in and it still wasn't on the bottom. I don't know how the old timers could dig a well that deep and wall it up and how they could get air down there to breathe and how they could keep the water out while they dug. I know digging a well like that would have been during the driest part of the year, had to have been dug during a drought.

 

[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.