A question about a well and possibly wood burning stove.

[Vernitta]

We are looking into buying a house with some property, but have a question that I'm hoping someone here can help with.

They said the well is under the house. That seems odd to me.

Also, It looks to me like they installed a wood burning stove in the fire place and put stones around it. Is that ok?

[GrannyG]

Looks like a fireplace insert to me.....we have one at our old house...was safer than the open fireplace that was there in the beginning......
I have never heard of a well under the house....how would you replace pump or pipe ?

[Jim-mi]

Fire place insert...........usually much better than an open fire place.

In yester-year they did that often . . . . house over well . . . no freeze problems.
But for you it means a very old well....
The well point---might---be near plugged up . . .
Service . . . . ???
It might be way too shallow to meet 'todays' codes...
Would it pass an inspection for a mortgage . .???
Odds are you will need a new well . . .before long .. . . .$$$$$$$

Hate to sound so negative . . but that is the reality as I see it....

A very serious issue to be discussed with real -estate agent.

Will they take $5000 off the price for you to have a new well put in . . ??
Will they put in a well before they sell . . .??

[Vernitta]

This is an HUD home. It comes as-is.

[joebill]

How deep is the water table? Most under-house wells I have seen were in shallow water areas, not much money to redrill or re-drive....Joe

[Brighton]

I once lived in a house in the northern part of the US, they drilled and put in the well first, then built the house around it, never had to worry about it freezing up!!

[Vernitta]

Can we expect the fireplace insert to sufficiently keep a 1900 sq ft house warm or should we install a wood burning stove?

They inspected the water pressure and said it was fine so I don't think it is something we need to worry about. I've just never heard of it being under the house.

[nebula5]

Our well is inside a lower garage (which was built after the well was put in.) It is a fairly deep well 150+ feet with a submersible pump. We have had to "pull the pump" a few times for replacement over the last 22 years. It is a major project, but doable as we can pull the somewhat flexible pipe out into the yard.

[Vernitta]

By the way, the house is in Brighton, MO.

[Brighton]

Originally Posted by Vernitta

Can we expect the fireplace insert to sufficiently keep a 1900 sq ft house warm or should we install a wood burning stove?

Is the house all on the same level, one story, it might, that room will be really warm and other rooms away from it will be colder the farther you get away. Is there no other alternative heat source, furnace, electric baseboard heaters??

[Rustaholic]

Have them show you where it is.

I have an old well in a well pit.
I would NOT deal with a well pit cover like the bad one that was there when I bought the property so I built a cute little A-frame shed over the well pit.
I bought the property in 1976 and built the house in 1977. Spring of 1978 the guy that hand drove the well stopped by and handed me the original manual for the Sears deep well jet pump and the date driven and depth of well was written on the back of it. I truly do Thank my Lord God Almighty that they installed a Sears pump. You just can't hardly beat Sears when you need parts years later. January of 2010 I did a complete rebuild of the puimp with a new motor, new bushings, seals, gaskets and the impellers.
I do have a second one of those pumps now and I am going to soon do a completer rebuild of that one just in case they do stop carrying the parts.

One of my sweet wife's uncles lives close to us and his pump is in his basement but his goes out through the basement wall and has a pitless adapter in the front yard buried.

I like mine better because every time his kicks on it is too loud in the house for me. I just go inside the shed in the back yard and close the door. Then I open the trap door in the floor and go down the steel ladder I installed. It is all welded pipe. January 2010 I had a bad staff infection climbing up my right leg but we do what we have to do.

[arabian knight]

Originally Posted by Brighton

Is the house all on the same level, one story, it might, that room will be really warm and other rooms away from it will be colder the farther you get away. Is there no other alternative heat source, furnace, electric baseboard heaters??

I agree that is a pretty big house and a file place in one room it is going to be hard to circulate heat through many of the rooms at the far end.

[Vernitta]

We haven't seen the house in person yet nor a floor plan. We are in California. It looks like the fire place is at one end of the house, based on the pictures. There is central heat and a/c. We would rather have a wood burning stove. We will probably just end up installing one.

[Jim-mi]

Here in Michigan those shallow wells have been illegal for a long long time.
So if the well has problems I don't think a plumber / well guy could legally work on a very out dated well .. . . . 'permits' would require a deep well = $$$

Driving a new well point with that limited overhead in the basement would be difficult.

[kasilofhome]

My neighbor's well is in the basement of the two story house. It is just under the closet in the laundry room---the laundry room closet floor is a trap door. So--it is great for them--- it does not freeze and easy access and space for pipe to be pulled and unscrewed and another lenght pulled up.

I did get to watch for a bit when they replace something on it --and was really quite impressed with how much quicker it was as one person was in the basement and pull it up and another was in the laundry room facing the closet holding the pipe while the third was unscrewing and laying the free pipe on the tarp on the floor. Pretty slick compared to what we went thur one stormy minus forty winter (dark-Alaskan afternoon).

[ET1 SS]

Wells freezing? ? ?

I live in Maine. Here the expected frost line is 4 foot deep. Anything in the ground down to 4 foot below grade is expected to freeze in winter. A well casing sunk to 20 foot, 40 foot, 100 foot can not freeze because it is below the frost line. A submersible pump down in the well can not freeze.

Shallow wells less than 20 foot deep are not unusual around here. The same goes for outhouses.

[haypoint]

With an under the house well you can easily pull the drop pipe out of the well with someone in the basement, someone in an upper closet and someone unscrewing the sections. But that is just the drop pipe, the part than extends into the well. Driving a new well under the house is ny on to impossible.

Drilled or driven wells don't freeze. Dug wells will. I know a guy with a dug well. In winter he uses two ropes. One hooked to a pail to pull up the water and the other has a car rim tied to it to break the ice.

Good to have either a submersible pump (pump and motor inside a 4 inch or larger well) or a pitless adapter and the pump in the basement.

[Sawmill Jim]

Here i have seen the tank under the house and the well head outside and buried . But to some not in the know they would still say the well was under the house . So what is their definition of well under the house could be something to explore

[Helena]

We have an old farmhouse with the well under our bedroom in a 2 story house. What I believe happened is they built onto the house from the orginal 150 year old house over the well after it was drilled. Ours is 250' and yes we have had to also pull the flexible pipe out to fix the foot value one time..out the back door and down the road with it !! But, never have had a problem since or hopefully forever.I wouldn't be afraid of the well..have the water checked for health reasons of course, for any house you buy even if it is at your own expense. The fireplace insert..see what it is exactly..Maybe some do it yourself job and how safe..Maybe think of taking it out and looking at the work. Safety..always first..with any wood fire. Good Luck !!

[katlupe]

We have a shallow well and have never had a problem with it. So far we have been using a pitcher pump and carrying water inside. This year, we are piping it into the house. Of course, NY has plenty of rain and it has never gone dry or anything like that.

I have been in houses in this area that had wells underneath and they had a pitcher pump right on the sink in the kitchen.