Home Work: Day 2 of 6 (Working on the Well)

Yesterday was Day Two of my 6-day effort to jump start the house project. It was a day full of physical activity and progress, resulting in enough exhaustion at the end of the day that I couldn’t even fathom doing a blog post before bed. I guess that’s a good thing, meaning that I took full advantage of the day.

The day started with me digging out the well cap for further inspection. We knew the well wasn’t in great shape, but when the pump died in the fall, this forced the situation. Here’s me standing in the small ditch where the well cap is located. Needless to say, it was a mess and the previous owners didn’t do anything to protect the cap, so it, and some exposed electrical lines, were loosely buried.

This is what it looked like when I was done digging it out. Still a bit of a mess, but at the very least, it is important to keep the cap clean and exposed, which wasn’t done here. By burying the cap, moisture builds up around the cap which rusts the bolts on the cap. Further, if the cap isn’t properly buried, insulated, or exposed (different options) there is the potential for freeze damage. In my case, they did none of these things and the cap wasn’t deep enough to prevent freezing, so it was the worst of all situations.

Now, they did “attempt” to insulate the cap – with fiberglass insulation (seen here) and some rigid foam on top. Not only is this ineffective, but it’s worse. Fiberglass insulation is meant to remain dry – once it gets wet, it loses all insulative value and it holds the moisture tight to whatever it was meant to protect. Dumb. And the rigid foam simply rotted away under dirt and leaves. Useless.

In any case, the exposed wiring is actually legal, but undesirable, so I’ll look to correct that with the repair. And the water pipe itself seems to have maintained its integrity, even if it isn’t below the freeze line, so I’ll reuse that which prevents me from having to pay for a very expensive excavation to put in a new pipe.

My incredibly helpful neighbor Bill has been consulting me on many matters, and the well is no exception. In this case, he is helping be to actually replace the pump, rewire, and raise the cap so that the final product will last for many years – and he’s helping me save a nice chunk of change in the process. Always good to have such terrific neighbors! Here is Bill as he proves what we thought – that the bolts are useless and completely rusted over. Tomorrow he’s coming by with a torch cutter that will simply melt the bolts right out of the cap. Since the cap will be replaced, there’s no need to be delicate in this matter.

The only downside to working on this will Bill is the limited time we have together, so this project will likely take a few weeks. Goal for this week is to get the cap off, lift out the pump, inspect what we’ve got and write up the replacement plan. Installation will be 2-3 weeks later.