shallow well....best way to get the water?

[greenacres]

Hello. We have 2 shallow wells. One is close to the house. It has a tank and fittings and such and could be turned on to run in the house. Out here the co-op water had leaks all the time and you could be out of water for a while. The other well is at the far corner of our one acre. It is just a pipe in the ground. We would like to pump water out of it for the barn. We would like to start using the one at the house for the house and get rid of the water bill. I know we would need a bigger tank and such. We are a family of 5. Any suggestions are appreciated.

[haypoint]

I don't know what co-op water is, but most places that provide water don't allow private wells. Becides their need to get everyone on board to recoup their investment there is a real concern that private wells are a common source of ground water contamination.
If there aren't any restrictions, you'll want to clean the well and have the water tested. Your local Health Department can give you directions on those two topics. It is likely that you'll need to "shock" the well with clorine tablets.
Then you'll need to know if the flow into the well is great enough to replenish itself during peak water usage.
How shallow is it? Depending on several factors, including soil type, you may be getting surface water and wouldn't want to use that for drinking.

[RiverPines]

Get a well pump. The kind that goes on top the pipe made for shallow wells.

We are a family of for and thats what we do and our pressure tank is shot but our pump is a larger higher horse power one and keeps up just fine.

Same thing with the pump outside but build a little well house around it to keep the weather off the electric pump. Then you can pipe all the water you want to your barn.

[agmantoo]

Determine which well has the greater amount of stored water. With a weight attached to a string measure the distance to water and the total depth of the well. I would like to know the diameter of whatever goes to the water, be it metal pipe, culvert or handmade casing or raw dirt hole. Once this is known we can work toward developing a water delivery method. Do you have a budget for this project?