PVC well casing damaged near top

[ElvisF16]

I have been winterizing my wells, and today I was out digging around to install a small enclosure around the main well. This well was constructed in 1995. I just purchased this house in March and I'm not sure if the components in the well are original.

While digging some dirt out from around the casing I began to see the top of a red piece of plastic that appeared to be wrapped around part of the casing, about 6 inches down. When I pulled the top back a little, I could clearly see a hole and a damaged section of the casing. I dug on down and ended up finding what you see in the photos: a pretty good sized hole in the casing that someone tried to fix using this piece of plastic (which incidentally appears to be part of the packaging for a Red Jacket pump).

My question for the well professionals is, what are my options for repairing this hole? Is there any way to patch this? Should I expect to have to dig down to below where the damage is and then have a coupling installed and a new piece of casing? An entire new casing and pump (the well is 450 feet deep).

Once I cleaned off the casing, I could see that the red piece of plastic had been used to "repair" the hole; some sort of material had been applied, apparently in an effort to glue or attach the red piece of plastic over the hole in the casing. If it ever had sealed and stuck, it failed

long ago, resulting in the piece of red plastic simply being held loosely to the side of the casing by the dirt packed in around it.

Thanks for any insight or advice.

 

[Craigpump]

Dig down, cut it off below the hole and glue a coupling with short piece of pipe back on

 

[Sponsor]

 

[ElvisF16]

Dig down, cut it off below the hole and glue a coupling with short piece of pipe back on

Thanks. I believe that's what we will do.

 

[DonL]

That pipe looks very brittle.

What Craig says will work, then you should pour more concrete around it.

Looks like it could have been caused from sun damage.


Good luck on your project.

 

[Craigpump]

Don't put concrete around the pipe, when concrete sets, it creates heat and that can deform the pipe.

 

[DonL]

Don't put concrete around the pipe, when concrete sets, it creates heat and that can deform the pipe.

They require it here. It is the norm.

I guess I had my head up my ass.

Where is my flashlight ? I can not find it in the dark.

If the heat causes problems with the heat of concrete setting up, then you need a different type of casing.


Me thinks.

 

[ElvisF16]

Thanks for all the info. Some well guys came out this morning and dug down below the damage, lifted the pump a couple feet, cut off the bad piece of pipe, and replaced it with a piece of PVC that had a flange coupling built in.

Don, the damage was not caused by the sun as it was a good 6-8 inches below grade. It was caused by trauma--probably when they dug it out to add a connection to the backup well, which was dug later. $375 later all is well except for my thought that the previous owner of this house should have disclosed this damage back in March when I bought this place.

They left the hole open, at my request. What I think I will do is go buy a few bags of bentonite and use that to fill in around the casing.

 

[DonL]

Thanks for all the info. Some well guys came out this morning and dug down below the damage, lifted the pump a couple feet, cut off the bad piece of pipe, and replaced it with a piece of PVC that had a flange coupling built in.

Don, the damage was not caused by the sun as it was a good 6-8 inches below grade. It was caused by trauma--probably when they dug it out to add a connection to the backup well, which was dug later. $375 later all is well except for my thought that the previous owner of this house should have disclosed this damage back in March when I bought this place.

They left the hole open, at my request. What I think I will do is go buy a few bags of bentonite and use that to fill in around the casing.

Nice job.

When has a previous owner ever disclosed all damage when they can cover it up ?

Very few that I know of. It is a shame.


You did good.