Homesteading Multipart Series Part III – Wells
Water is an essential. You cannot survive without it. Having a source of water and a backup source of water is so important. So far we have discussed Gravity Fed Stream systems and Cistern water catchment systems. Today we are going to talk about wells.
In
Appalachia the water is very close to the surface, if you live in the river
valleys. The first type of well we are going to talk about is a surface water
well. Surface water is just that – water contained above the bedrock of your
property. There are several ways to get at that surface water. When I was a kid
we had an 18 foot deep hand dug well. The well was located about 150 feet from the
Clover Fork of the Cumberland River. The river was running approximately 15 vertical feet from the top of the well. So the well was actually 3 feet below
the river level at the bottom.
The
well had been hand dug years earlier than I can remember. It had a pitcher pump
and a foot valve in the bottom of the well to keep the pump from losing its
prime, although it often did. In later years it had a small shallow well pump.
The well was approximately 5 feet in diameter for the original hole. I can’t
imagine being down in there digging but someone did it. This digging always occurred
in the driest time of the year. Once the well is dug down deep enough then
river rock with concrete is placed around the sides of the well in order to
sure it up from collapse. These days you could do the same thing with a rented
excavator and a steel culvert placed in the hole vertically with stones on the
bottom. To calculate the volume of water in any round well you use this
formula:
½
the diameter of the well in feet x ½ the diameter of the well x 3.14 x Depth of
the water in feet x 7.5 = Gallons of water
As
a math formula it looks like this
Pi
x r^2 x Depth x 7.5 = Gallons of Water
Thus
a 4’ diameter well with 8 feet of water in it is:
2x2x3.14x8x7.5=753.6 gallons of water.
The
bottom of the well can be lined with gravel or just creek rock so that there is
not always all the sand and stuff coming up with the water. Our well often in
the spring, winter and late fall had water all the way up to within a couple of feet
of the top. For the sake of argument that was about 1500 gallons of water. In
the summer just the bottom 3 feet had water in it during the driest months of
the year and it was slow to refill. Or
in other words only 300 Gallons of water. I only remember the well going dry
like one summer during a pretty major drought.
The
next way to get surface water is with a sand point. It is just a length of rod
that can be driven into the ground on the end of steel water pipe. Sand points
range in size from 1 ¼” diameter to 2” diameter. Sand points can be driven
deeper than say a hand dug well as long as you don’t hit a big rock. The
deepest sand point I ever saw driven in was like 50’. The water comes in
through the screens in the sand point and can be pumped up using a hand pump or
an electric pump. A sand point well that is 2” in diameter and has 40 feet of
water in it will have available 6.8 gallons of water. So hand pumps are
generally more appropriate for this type of system. Some people combine a sand
point well with a cistern and use a very light duty pump, I.E. solar, to pump
water into the cistern over a long period of time and then use a heavier pump
to deliver water from the cistern in the short bursts it is needed in the house. But for a small amount of livestock or
camping out a hand pump works very well. Sand points are great for a bug out
location or hunters cabin in the woods.
Finally,
for a modern home the best option would be a drilled well. There are a lot of
advantages to a drilled well. Generally the water is potable without treatment.
We had a 165’ drilled well when the kids were little. We had a submerged pump down in the
well. A ¾ hp submerged pump at 150 feet – always leave some room at the bottom –
supplies enough water with a pressure tank to two homes, 13 gallons per minute.
I
would like to tell you that drilling a well yourself is an option and there are
lots of folks on youtube that drill shallow wells (surface water) by hand but
if you want a super dependable well you will want it to be drilled by the pro’s.
They have the equipment to determine what the flow and quality of the water is
and they can case the well to keep out surface water. We will discuss in a
minute why this is so important.
This
is not cheap. Depending on where you
live the price for a 165 foot well like ours could range from $4,500 to $10,000
just for the drilling part. Then there is the cost for the casing which is basically
6” pvc pipe that has to be driven down below the level of the bedrock. For us
that was 60’ of casing. Then there is the pump, pressure tank, electrical
controls, and piping. All told this well could cost a whopping $20k. If you
live on a mountain expect it to be much deeper and a heavier pump required thus
even more expensive.
The
number one drawback to a “Deep” well, or shallow for that matter, with pumps is that when there is no electric
there is no water. The second drawback is that drilled wells can sometimes
encounter things like hydrogen sulfide and high iron. You don’t get your money
back from the drilling company if this happens. One stinks and the other stains
your clothes and both taste bad. We had “Sulphur Water” in our 165’ well. It
was great for all the stuff you need water for except it smelled like a fart
and it tasted that way too. If you left it in the fridge for a day most of the
smell left but there was still a taste and filters for that stuff are nearly
useless. But when you flushed a commode, took a shower, or washed clothes there was always
plenty of water.
The
drawbacks and pros to hand dug wells and sand point wells are many. For less
than $200 and a hand pump from Harbor Freight you can drop in a sand point
well. But volume will be low. A hand dug well is another option that done with
hands can be as cheap as a sand point well or way more expensive. At some point
your life has to be worth something. I would never recommend anyone hand dig a
20’ deep well. It is too dangerous for the chance of a cave in when you can rent and excavator
for $500 for a day. So for less than $1,000 and a second hand culvert you can
drop in a fairly decent higher volume shallow well.
But
the elephant in the room is the potable status of the water. Any contamination
of the ground water by animals, humans, septic systems, oils, antifreeze, etc. that
can be in that surface water will be in that shallow well. It is exactly why
you want to case surface water out of your Deep Well. Poop that runs over 7
rocks is purified into pure shit and no amount of dirt cleans that out. You don’t
want to drink that. It will be full of Coliform bacteria. So any shallow well
needs to have the water boiled in order to drink it. We drank our shallow well water
all the time and didn’t die but we could have. Cholera is an infamous water
borne disease that has taken out entire communities.
A
deep well is basically the only way to assure a consistent flow of water on
your homestead aside from municipal water. A well in addition to municipal
water is a good hedge for SHTF if you have some way to pump without electricity
or a way to generate electricity. We do not have a deep well on our current property.
The well that was here was filled in years ago. It is possible that it was just
covered and I could still open it up. I think I know where it was. But we also
have a cistern available so we have several SHTF options.
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