Well - Freeze Prevention

[tasher]

Hi everyone,

I've been trolling the forums for a long time and thank you everyone for the very beneficial and informative things people share.

Last night my wife and I made the decision to sell our suburban property and move to our country property (80 acres) and convert the 24 x 24' garage to a living space until we have cash to buy supplies to build a bigger home. We're excited - as I've seen a lot of you share the same experience. It also brings up a lot of questions I'm searching for. So my question:

I'm digging my own well. The water table is 18' deep. I am going to have the power company run electricity from the road to a new 200amp load center in the garage. I will hook the well pressure tank/pump up to electricity. I'm digging the well 150' from the garage. Do I run the well pipe under the frost line to the garage to the pump/tank so it stays heated? Or do I build a separate pump house on top of the well and some how heat that? We're in MN.

Thanks for your thoughts - I'm open to books and resources too. I'm just ignorant to this.

[chromdome35]

Are you going to drill a shallow well, or are you going to hand dig a well aka old school dug well? Can't tell exactly from the wording in your post.

[rambler]

All sorts of different things are done, but the best is to keep everything with water in it below the frost line or in the basement of your house which is most likely to always have some heat, or be noticed if the power goes out.

Anything else is just begging for problems.....

We have an 8 foot deep pit where the well is, and the pressure tank is in the pit, using water keeps 50 degree water coming into the pit, and half the pit is below the frost line, so the tank never freezes. All water lines are 5 feet deep in the ground.

I'm in mn also.

Such shallow wells are not allowed in my county, we have a submersible pump 240 or so feet deep.

Doesn't a shallow pump need to be about near the top,of the shallow well?

The pressure tank can be a ways away, but sometimes that gives a little trouble too, you might need a small expansion tank by the pump to take up vibrations if you have the pressure switch so far away.

The 8 foot deep pit by the well was a pain for dad to dig, but that was in 1971, and man has it been trouble free ever since......

Paul

[tasher]

I'm 'jetting' it with clean water delivered in tanks. Using a trash pump to jet the hole down. Yes it will be a 'shallow well' with the pump above.

That is a very interesting solution digging a well pit 8' down and having your tank and pump there. I never considered that. Thanks.

[joebill]

The neatest rig I ever saw was tank with one end cut out set into the well pit, then a hatch on top. Ladder welded to the side to get down to the wellhead. Never any risk of freezing....joe

[Gray Wolf]

Wells that shallow are not normally allowed. Or healthy. Groundwater is easily contaminated so keep drainfield, garage, driveways etc as far away as you can.

[fishhead]

In MN the property owner can install their own well but please read up and follow the directions on sealing well if you are going to jet it in because if you don't you'll risk leaving a passage down to the aquifer that could contaminate yours and everyone elses well.

You can put the well in and run the line into the house where you can set up the pump and air tank. It doesn't matter to the pump whether it's over the well or in the house. My well is outside and the pipe runs through the basement wall to the pump that sits in the basement.

At the shallow depth to your aquifer you can also drive it down by hand without that much trouble.

[rambler]

Here is a handbook of wells from Minnesota.

Many counties have more rules, these are listed at the end.

You can make your own well on your own property, but it needs permit and recording before you start.

This handbook has some good info for anyone interested in private wells and how they work, you can ignore the MN law portions if you are in a different state.

You will notice there are many, many more regulations they reference, Minnesota takes wells very seruiously....

http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/e...n/handbook.pdf

The distance chart on page 9 is very valuable, it see what you need to stay away from, and how far. Livestock yard, septic, fuel storeage, etc....

--->Paul