Underground shallow well w/ concrete cap cemented on casing?

[productofdesign]

Hi all,

Recently, my wife and I closed on a property in PA which failed the water inspection for positive bacteria (Total Coliform).

To shock the well, I'm uncovering the underground well casing & cap (2-3' deep). It is a concrete cap which is cemented right on top of the casing (no metal/plastic cap), and it receives the 1/2'' semi-rigid water line and air line.

I'm planning on chipping away at this diy cap.

Would the next step be to extend the well casing above ground after shocking the well?

How would we proceed?

Thanks,
David

 

[Reach4]

Would the next step be to extend the well casing above ground after shocking the well?

Best would be to get the casing extended and get pitless in there first. You can then sanitize. If that casing is steel, the extension would get welded on.

If that is a submersible pump, that other pipe is for wires. If the pump is a jet pump not down the casing, the other pipe would carry water also. A 2 line pitless exists, but submersible pumps have advantages... including only one water pipe down the well.

You could sanitize before and after if you like.
http://www.moravecwaterwells.com/index.php/maintainance/disinfection-and-testing is the sanitizing procedure I like. I make it more complex by using test paper for getting the pH and chlorine level right. I use a bigger flooding volume. https://terrylove.com/forums/index....attention-to-4-inch-casing.65845/#post-489012

 

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[productofdesign]

If the pump is a jet pump not down the casing, the other pipe would carry water also. A 2 line pitless exists, but submersible pumps have advantages.

Thanks, here's a picture of the small line which comes in to the basement parallel to the water line. It appears to be just an air pipe which displaces air into the well when water is drawn? I'm thinking it's a 'single-drop' jet pump (http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to/a152/1275136/).

Is extending with PVC an viable alternative or is welding a metal pipe really our only sure-fire fix?

 

[Reach4]

Thanks, here's a picture of the small line which comes in to the basement parallel to the water line. It appears to be just an air pipe which displaces air into the well when water is drawn? I'm thinking it's a 'single-drop' jet pump

You are right, and I was mistaken.

I don't know about extending the casing with PVC. One of the experienced people will know. My steel casing was extended by welding steel.

 

[Valveman]

You can extend the casing with PVC, but you would need to weld on a threaded or glue adapter to attach the PVC. Just as well weld on a piece of steel casing, as that is harder to break off if it gets hit by the mower or a vehicle.

I can see where that extra line could be used to vent the casing. But once you get the casing extended the vent will be right on top of the casing. Then you could use the extra pipe as conduit for wire if you wanted to go with a submersible.

 

[ThirdGenPump]

You can also use a dresser coupling to extend it up, with that you could use PVC or steel. The couplings are about 9 inches long, so often interfere with where you would want to drill the pitless in. They also cost a bit so it's a wash, labor welding vs using a dresser. I always use steel pipe to extend up, other guys in my area have used PVC. Steel never breaks.

 

[Boycedrilling]

You hit steel hard enough with a tractor or truck and it will break or bend over so far you have to cut it off. However it is much much more impact resistant than PVC.

I've had to repair a few wells that got hit by trucks, tractors, discs, etc.

 

[Valveman]

I've had to repair a few wells that got hit by trucks, tractors, discs, etc.

Never a fun job. Especially when your guys were out working on one well, and ran over the perfectly good neighbors well.

 

[ThirdGenPump]

I've had a number of people hit well heads with plows and such. The steel certainly is breakable but it takes some real effort. Normally they just shatter the well caps. A few they did major damage to the well by breaking the seal into the bedrock.

Least fun is our well heads are set 18 inches above grade. It makes it a great height to puncture a fuel tank on a truck. Those sites result in years of DEP oversight.

 

[Craigpump]

Check state laws, for example here in CT it is against code to use PVC to extend the well casing.

 

[Smooky]

I am having a hard time believing that someone would pour concrete in the casing to make a well seal. My thought is that well was abandoned by filling it up with concrete and a new well was drilled. I think there is another well and you have not found it yet.

 

[Craigpump]

I am having a hard time believing that someone would pour concrete in the casing to make a well seal. My thought is that well was abandoned by filling it up with concrete and a new well was drilled. I think there is another well and you have not found it yet.

You'd like to think that, but we've seen it a few times. Peoples attitudes were very different 3-4 decades ago.

 

[PumpMd]

This is a steel surface casing that got hit

 

[Craigpump]

I had one job where a girl hit the casing with daddies Lexus. I don't know what the car looked like, but it tore the casing at the pitless. A few hours of excavation, cutting and welding solved the problem.

 

[productofdesign]

I am having a hard time believing that someone would pour concrete in the casing to make a well seal.

Thanks all for your comments.

As it turns out, I knocked the remaining concrete cap to bits, and found a legitimate bolted cap on top, underneath it all.

I shocked the well today, and if we are negative on bacteria in several days, we'll push forward on extending the casing for long-term sanitation.

While shocking it, it became clear that the water level in the pipe is only maybe 10-15' ft below the cap height (judging by the time for hose water to make contact) - it's certainly a shallow well.

Someone mentioned that since its an old true 6'' casing, that I could get a 7' casing at 6 5/8'' diameter and beat it over this casing without welding it. I think we'd want to weld it while it's accessible, but that was an interesting thought.

I unscrewed each of the four bolts and luckily the bottom metal ring w/in the casing didn't fall into the well. Apparently those bolts pull it up against a rubber gasket.

 

[ThirdGenPump]

In my area the water level is frequently within 20ft of the surface. It doesn't mean it is a shallow well it could still be hundreds of feet deep.

Given it's an older well it's unlikely to be exceptionally deep. While you have it open you can drop a weight and string drop to measure it. With a single pipe there isn't much for it to get caught on.

They may have put concrete on it because they were having issues with ground water getting in. I wouldn't do anything that isn't a water tight seal

In my area they used a lot of oil pipe early on. It measures 6.5" id. This certainly causes confusion. I had a well we went to pull with pvc drop pipe. Pulled up about 10ft the stopped. Turns out the last installer lost a 6inch seal and rather than recovering it pulled the pvc up through it and put a 6.5inch seal in top. The well had a 2ft static level so we couldn't see anything, took a little while to figure it out. The we dropped the pipe through the lost seal and fished a few hooks through it. It came out with the strength of an excavator.

To extend up 6.5" we just weld a 6" coupling to it.

 

[Craigpump]

Just beat some casing over the existing pipe? Sounds a lot like some of the illegal well extensions we see here from time to time, green PVC drain pipe with Furnco couplings, 6" belled end PVC pushed over the cut end of the casing. Neither method is approved mind you......

 

[Boycedrilling]

Yeah, there's lots of ways to do it wrong, but only a few to do it right. Keep in mind what's right in one state might be wrong in another state. In my state casing can be joined by glueing (PVC) or threading or welding, that's it.

 

[PumpMd]

Good pictures you posted on here craigpump.

We have our welder guy come out after we dig it up. Then he matches the same size steel pipe to it and he welds it up.

For PVC, we use a coupling or the belled end off the well casing pipe.

 

[Craigpump]

Thanks!

It's amazing how much easier it is to sell a casing extension when you tell people you're going to weld rather than use a compression fitting.