I've got .... water

[riptides]

And it is a problem.

For the last six months I have been looking at my crawl space entrance that has turned into a small frog pond.

Well, it really has not rained until ....yesterday. We recently renovated and added a new wing on the house. During excavation, we did NOT notice any water. So that was good, right?

So yesterday, I decide to go run some more insulation under the house.

I remove the crawl space cover and, well, (no pun intended) one hour later, it is all pumped out.

That is a lot of water for a drought. Yeah, I am slow.

Today, it is BACK. It is about 5 inches deep. My well feed comes into the house in that general area.

I have NOT noticed the well pump coming on, other that what we consider - normal.

Questions:
Could a spring have sprung? There is a hand pump well less than 50 feet away.

Could my well feed line be ruptured?

How do I test if the line is leaking?

What should we do for finding the problem source?

Thanks for your ideas and directions.
-Mike Z.

 

[BTDT]

Hmmm. I would make sure all faucets, etc. in the house are off. I am guessing that you have a pressure gauge on the pump (?), watch the guage and see if it bleeds down, and pump comes on. That to me would indicate a leak. I would pump water back out of crawl space and see if you can tell where it is coming back in, maybe listen and see if you can hear the water running (if guage at pump indicated a leak). Maybe put a long screwdriver handle to your ear and the other end on the pipe, and see if you can hear water running through pipe. Good luck.

 

[RobertN]

Do you have slope away from the entire foundation? If not, water may be held near the foundation instead of flowing away from the house.

Do down spouts all drain away from the house? Are they clean and clear?

Is it possible during the addition a downspout drain or something was damaged?

I have seen where down spouts were tied to a main drain. The main drain line got choaked up with roots and mud... In fact, I saw one that was new three years ago, a year ago a bunch of the drain(not french drained, but still perforated pipe) got roots in the pipe, even though it had the nylon sock over it.

How is the pressure on the well? If the well pressure switch is not working correctly, you could be geeting too high of pressure, causing a leak somewhere.

 

[riptides]

Thanks so far... keep it coming...
BTBD I am going to have to pump again, when the rains stop. I don't hear the well pump kicking in, but I'll try that, maybe a two person job.

RobertN Pressure looked OK, I'll open up the well house again and make sure.
Good points on the drains, they are all clogged with leaves right now, but this started just before the rains started. Well, it started a while ago. The level has been constant throught the drought. We had thought maybe the A/C line had clogged, but it looks like too much water. All downspouts go away from the house.

Now, I need DRY weather. Man I should have done this BEFORE the rains. Not smart on my part.

Thanks again for the quick advise. Hope to look at it in the AM.

-Mike Z.

 

[RobertN]

Pressure looked OK, I'll open up the well house again and make sure.

My water is really terrible; I have to replace filters frequently, and occasionally my pressure switch and pressure gauge. the orifice on the pressure guage gets gummed up. We have very high iron content. I have an extra gauge I can put on a hose bib as a backup/sanity check.

 

[frank_f15]

seems to me that if your well feed line was leaking that bad your pump would suck air and not pump, you have had no rain so i would be inclined to think it is ground water from the old well, 5" in 1 day is a lot of water.

 

[RonMar]

seems to me that if your well feed line was leaking that bad your pump would suck air and not pump, you have had no rain so i would be inclined to think it is ground water from the old well, 5" in 1 day is a lot of water.

Frank
I think they are refering to a pressurized system where the pump is in the well and all the pipeing is under pressure.

Well one way to know for certain is to excavate and expose all the well water line that is under the house But as suggested, look at it for a while after you pump it down and see if perhaps you can get an idea where the water is first appearing from. That might narrow down your digging. Watching it for a while might also give you an idea how quickly it is comming in.

 

[RobertN]

Pressure looked OK, I'll open up the well house again and make sure.

Just thought about this... Turn the well off for the day. Get some bottled water for drink, take the family out to dinner, fill some 5 gallon buckets with water so you can fill toilets for use if necessary.

That would help rule out an isue in the main well line.

 

[riptides]

Just thought about this... Turn the well off for the day. Get some bottled water for drink, take the family out to dinner, fill some 5 gallon buckets with water so you can fill toilets for use if necessary.

That would help rule out an isue in the main well line.

Excellent idea! I'll give that a shot during the week.

Right now, it has just started clearing up. My bone dry creek is back up to "normal" pre-drought levels. That's a lot of water that came down these past few days. Mother nature is a force!

-Thanks!

-Mike Z.

 

[riptides]

Not the well, nor leaky pipes.

Looks to be ground water saturation. I have the drain pipes running by this area for the house perimeter. I also have two downspouts real close.

Looks like I will be digging and try to put solid drain tile in around this entrance, just to move the water away from it as much as possible. The downspouts will also have to be moved.

Bad design, layout on our part. Should have never placed a drain tile by a low spot.

-Mike Z.