Building a spring house

Maverick_mg · #1 01/05/12, 03:02 PM

I have been looking all over the net for info on how to build a spring house but I'm having trouble finding out if I have the correct water source. My land has a stream on it but it's about a 1/2 mile back from the house and I was hoping to have the spring house closer then that. Is there a way to bring the water up from the ground? I think the water table is pretty high here so I should be able to find an underground stream. If you brought the water up, how would you keep it flowing? Would you pipe it back into the ground or a ditch? Any Info would be helpful

Bearfootfarm · #2 01/05/12, 03:15 PM

A "spring" flows naturally.
If your source is a "stream", you could pipe it in, then back out to the stream

Anything else will be a "well" and require a pump to maintain a flow

naturelover · #3 01/05/12, 06:02 PM

If it was me in your shoes the first thing I would do is find out exactly how high the water table is and whether or not there are any artesians on the property.

If the water level is only a few feet below the surface you could dig a wide shallow hole in the ground, put a liner in it with rocks on the bottom and let it fill with water. Then construct your spring house over that. If you're only using the water to keep things cool and won't be drinking the water it's not necessary for there to be a steady flow of moving water.

If the water table isn't high enough you might need to construct a crescent aqueduct or pipe that diverts some water from the stream to a spring house and then back out to the stream with your spring house constructed at the half-way point. You would still need to dig a hole and put a shallow cistern in the hole.

.

Maverick_mg · #4 01/05/12, 06:17 PM

The idea would be to only use it to keep things cold. I guess I'm gonna have to do some dousing and some hole digging. A lot of the spring/milk houses I've seen in the area all seem to have a concrete tub with a pipe going in one side and coming out the other. But they are all dried up now so I have no idea how they "worked" i.e where the water was coming from.

Common Tator · #5 01/05/12, 06:58 PM

I would love to have a springhouse too. I read once that you need to locate a spring, then dig back to the bedrock where the spring originates. Then build your springhouse around it. Pour the floor so that the water isn't impeded, and you have the trough through the floor to divert the water and keep your food cool. where the water leaves the springhouse you need to restrict the flow so that your trough stays full.

naturelover · #6 01/05/12, 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maverick_mg

The idea would be to only use it to keep things cold. I guess I'm gonna have to do some dousing and some hole digging. A lot of the spring/milk houses I've seen in the area all seem to have a concrete tub with a pipe going in one side and coming out the other. But they are all dried up now so I have no idea how they "worked" i.e where the water was coming from.

If you're going to do it yourself here's a little tip for you to try before you go dowsing and digging a bunch of holes to see how high the water table is. First locate any places on the property where there are natural concave depressions and hollows in the lay of the land, look especially for hollows where there is lush growth of ground cover inside the depressions. Very often hollows are created because of shallow artesians or flowing water beneath them, that water causes the ground to sink downwards.

When I find hollows like that then I do dowse them for indications of water but dowsing may tell me there's water there but not how deep down. If I get a positive for water then I take a 6 feet long piece of rebar and pound it down into the middle of the depression to a depth of 3 or 4 feet if possible then pull it straight back up and look for moisture and wet clay or dirt at the end. If it comes out dry then I move on to another hollow and try there. If it comes out wet at the end I measure the depth of it on the rebar then dig a small hole to the depth of moisture indicated by the rebar. Then I leave it for 24 hours and come back later to see if the little hole has filled in with water or if the sides of the hole have completely crumbled and fallen inwards into the hole. If either of those 2 things happens then I know that is a good place to dig a bigger, deeper bowl shaped hole.

I personally don't use concrete tubs, cisterns or plastic liners in the holes as it's been my experience that they can impede the flow of water seepage into and out of the hole and you can end up with stagnant water in the hole. I use rocks or bricks to completely line the bottom and sides of the holes so the water can seep in from bottom and all sides. Also that way, if I inadvertently hit an artesian gusher I can slow down or stop the flow of water by filling in the source of the gusher with gravel and cover it with small rocks. There's nothing more frustrating than hitting an artesian gusher under high pressure and having it overflow and create an unwanted and wasted stream.

.

RebelDigger · #7 01/05/12, 09:29 PM

At Palmer House, the Victorian we lived in before moving out here to the farm, the bathroom at one time was the spring house. In 1910, they attached it to the house with an addition, put in a floor and turned it into a bathroom.

I found a slab of rock under there. The granddaughter of the builders came to visit once, she was born and raised in the house. She told me the slab of rock was directly over a spring and the spring kept the rock cool. She said Mrs. Palmer (her grandmother) simply set her milk and whatever she wanted to stay cool on the rock (big rock about two feet square on top, sandstone). When they built the bathroom, they did not move the rock, they simply built a floor up about 18" off the ground. As best as I could tell it looked like they dug down a bit to hit the spring and placed the rock and that was it. I think the spring is still there, the rock was always cold and it was always damp under there. I also found the remnants of a terra cotta piping system coming out from under the spring house which I believe must have been some kind of drainage system to keep the spring from flooding the springhouse. Hope this helps.

Maverick_mg · #8 01/06/12, 12:26 AM

Yeah thanks guys for the information!

kudzuvine · #9 01/06/12, 07:18 AM

There was an article in either Grit or Courtryside I believe last year about spring houses. I thought I kept it but can't find for you. Basically, the water was routed through a trough, something like an "S" figure. Flowing in one end and out the other. The food was placed in the bends. So the cold water flowed around the food items and out the other end. A small house type structer was built over it. You might check their past editions. If I find it I will send to you.

**Ross** · #10 01/06/12, 07:29 AM

The old milk house here had a concrete tub beside the well. Some kind of pump (wind?) lifted water into the tub and it drained back into the well. Not very good for your well or water supply!!

Common Tator · #11 01/06/12, 08:36 AM

At this link, you can scroll down to see the springhouse setup at Daniel Boone's childhood home. The house was built over the spring. I remember reading once that they would be able to lock up the house and still have plenty of water in the house in the event of indian attack.

At the same time, Daniel's dad, Squire Boone had compassion for the indians. In winter, he would leave the front door unlocked, so the indians could come in and sleep by the fire.

http://www.galenfrysinger.com/pennsy..._homestead.htm

Gunga · #12 01/08/12, 12:42 PM

FoxFire book #4 has a great chapter on springhouses.

chickenista · #13 01/08/12, 04:12 PM

[QUOTE=Common Tator;5613845] The house was built over the spring.
QUOTE]

We lived in an old house built over a spring.
They built over the water as a matter of temperature control.
In the heat of summer the water offered a bit of coolness throughout the whole house and in the winter it stayed a fairly constant temperature down in the basement because of the running water..

If we had a whole house fan it would have been like AC in the summer.