Well, Well, Well – Running Water!

After a drawn out project with the help of my neighbor, the new well pump is now functioning. (And, by, “help of my neighbor,” I mean that he pretty much did the entire project with me assisting as he needed!) Here’s the final assembly of the well cap that Bill built for me, and the water pipe exposed in the pit before bringing this up to grade. Bill put a layer of drainage stone in the pit to assure that rain water in the winter can get down below the water pipe to help prevent freezing. Sadly, there are other parts of the pipe that aren’t as well protected, so there is the “weakest link” to consider. Hopefully, over time, I can dig up and properly reseat and insulate the rest of the pipe in the crawl space.

The rest of the project is now up to me, and requires a few minor, and a few major, steps. First, I put soil around the pipe to assure that no shifting drainage stone could puncture the water pipe. Then I placed a cut PVC section over the pipe to create a small air pocket for insulation and, also, to protect the pipe from punctures. Then I added more drainage stone and smaller particulate over the PVC raising the level up a bit further. Finally I’ll put back in the dirt/soil/rocks that were shoveled out to begin the project, but as there was a bit of a ditch here already, that won’t completely fill the hole – and now with a proper cap, I will raise this mostly up to grade.

As far as the well is concerned, that should do it for now. The pressure switch and tank ma need some attention, but this is relatively minor.

Plumbing, and actually functional running water, is another story entirely. When we turned on the pump, the plumbing was more like a sprinkler due to all the new leaks that came up over the summer. This was pretty much expected, so we cut off the existing plumbing and added a new spigot where I can run water from the tank to various needs through a few temporary hacks. More on those when I next get to work on this, but at least the big project is complete!

From an infrastructure point of view, I’ve now got brand new or updated:

1. Septic
2. Electrical
3. Well Water

Framing and new plumbing are next and the framing project is probably the single largest project before anything else can be done.