Hand dug wells....

[smstonypoint]

I may be wrong but I don't think SC has a law requiring old wells to be covered or filled. Anybody know for sure?? Would that be the DHEC people??

Correct. Here's a link that will allow you to download the DHEC regs. Based on a quick scan, the regulations have sections on drilled and bored wells. I didn't see anything on dug wells, but that's not to say they aren't covered.


SC DHEC Residential Wells

Steve

 

[chrisott]

My Father-in-Law (God rest his soul) used to tell me that as a kid he would be lowered down the hand dug well on a rope to scoop some more sand out of the bottom of the well. He was always afraid of the lower layer of rocks giving way and trapping him. This probably was in the early 1930's and the well was dug in the 1700's when the farm was started.

 

[Lloyd_E]

My cabin property has a hand dug well that my cousin's husband re-dug to 13 feet. It has lots of water... not drinkable though...

The well is from the original farm house of early 1800's. About 25 feet back is the old house foundation which I will explore this spring/summer.

 

[Shmudda]

I have a hand dug well that was used until 1996 for potable water on my property. My grandfather dug it in the 1930's. It is about 5' in diameter and 25" deep and lined with sandstone. I have been in it a few times in my life fixing the suction pipe for the pump. Not really something I enjoyed doing! My grandfather found about a dozen water wells in his life time, all with either the peach or willow limb. Whats interesting is all these wells are still in use today and NONE have ever run dry! I personally have fiddled with the dowsing method and I can actually get it to work, wish I could have had my pap see that, he would have been very proud! Peach or Willow limbs are the ticket!!

Anyways, the hand dug well is only about 25' from the house and has never run dry. Today though we use a drilled well not far from the hand dug well.

All I can say is my hat is off to those old birds in the early 1900's. They knew the value of a dollar, and wasn't afraid to work for it either! They did what they had to do to survive, plain and simple.

Craig

 

[beeforty]

Looking at your picture brought to mind a recent "Dirty Jobs" episode I happen to catch.. He was filling Mine hole that looked just like your well. Only instead of filling them they used a 2 part foam on a tarp and made a plug for the hole. Then kept adding foam until it was about 6-8 deep then filled the top with dirt. One of the dangers of old well or mines is bad air that you need to watch out for if you are thinking of going in. Sure makes you glad we have all our modern devices, I sure don't know any one who would think of trying anything like that.

 

[nue2farm]

I remember my Dad digging a well back in the mid forties. He dug around a pipe well that had quit working. He followed the pipe down about 30 feet or so, cutting it off as necessary, he would run a long piece of wire in to the 3/4 inch or 1 inch pipe ever so often. When water came out it was good to go. That well was still in use in the 80's and would still be good water if any one lived in the ole home place.

 

[The Dougster]

In most States, there are well defined rules and regulations regarding abandoned wells, drilled or hand dug.. they are dangerous on many points as has been pointed out. Kids love these things!
If you have one on your property, it wise to refinish around the well to prevent animals and kids from falling into the well. Make certain there is no possibility of surface water from entering the well, which is a major cause of pollution.
Nobody needs to hear a sermon on this. Common sense dictates what should be done.

 

[JB4310]

Nobody needs to hear a sermon on this. Common sense dictates what should be done.

At least something better than an old car door

 

[Verticaltrx]

I can attest to needing a good cover on a dug well. A few years ago my mother was mowing near the house with her Grasshopper zero-turn mower. There had been a small depression in the yard for a while and we thought nothing of it. I get a call that the mower was stuck and she needed some help getting it out. I arrived there and the tail-wheel of the mower had fallen into this sink hole which turned out to be an abandoned well. Took the boom on the back of the tractor to lift it out. The well had been covered with some 1" thick oak boards many years ago and then covered with about 12" of dirt. Not sure how long ago this was, but we have owned the farm since '82, and it must have been before that. I excavated out around the top of the well and made a 6" thick reinforced concrete cover with a lifting ring on it(in case we ever wanted to open it back up.) Set it in place an back filled with some top soil and called it done.

The well was about 3-4' in diameter, 30' deep and lined with stone. It's only about 10' away from the drilled well which currently serves the house (which is only 60' deep.)

 

[Jay4200]

Hey - he asked for pics! Kay...

Here is my dug well (roughly 24' deep) - its at the end of the trench. I ripped out the old shallow well jet pump system and replaced it with a deep well pump. (what a PITA)

Here I am, down the well - the ladder is suspended from my tractor's bucket with Ancra straps...not the safest method in the whole world, I'll admit, but it worked and I'm still alive:

And this is what it looks like all pressure-washed, filled up, and with the new deep-well pump installed:

All done:

Wicked. The water is plentiful and clean, and now I have 60 PSI! (only had one fitting explode) Tastes good too.

JayC

 

[Carykong]

If ya have an old hand dug well that still has year round water but is,of course, a safety hazard. Drop a 4" pipe to the bottom with holes drilled into the sides. Fill the old well with gravel,the gravel will allow the water to percolate into the pipe which is your new well liner for a 3" uptake. Great application for irrigation. Hate to see an old well go to waste.

 

[pwl]

I have an old hand dug well on a piece of property I bought. I always wondered how they were dug. I ran into an old timer that told me that a horse pulling a scoop would go bach and forth making a furrow in a u shape into the ground. When adequate water was struck, the stone would be layed up and backfilled placed back around the outside. That seemed reasonable to me.

 

[JB4310]

I have an old hand dug well on a piece of property I bought. I always wondered how they were dug. I ran into an old timer that told me that a horse pulling a scoop would go bach and forth making a furrow in a u shape into the ground. When adequate water was struck, the stone would be layed up and backfilled placed back around the outside. That seemed reasonable to me.

That would be a deep furrow, not that I have any better explanation but I doubt that would work except for a very shallow well.
Now you got me thinking how they were done, have to search it a little when I get a chance.

That's why I would never fill one in, they were a work of marvel that helped sustain life for generations, and could again in a survival situation. I would make some type of fool proof safety cover for sure.

JB.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

I don't mind filling them in if they are a hazard where kids might get into them. At my parent's property Grandpa had dug a few wells over the years. I remember one of them being uncovered more or less the building had collapsed in on it. We knew enough to stay away from it or risk getting our rear ends whacked with the belt. There are also many old coal mines in our area. Every so often the old wood shoring will collapse in on them. They have opened up under houses and decks around here occasionally..Some of them old boys back then were tough old birds.
If I get the chance I will try to snap a picture of the well at my Dad's

 

[nue2farm]

My Dad used a shovel to dig our well. Dug out a circle as large as he wanted the well to be. When the well got to deep to throw the dirt out (about 7 or 8 ft) he had a home made windlass set up over the hole with a rope and a bucket. Mom and I would wind the bucket up and dump it. Dad would get home from work and get down there and dig for a few hours every day until the well was finished. He used the rope to climb into and out of the hole, braceing his back against one side and walk and pull himself up. I think the well was about 4 feet diameter. Years later he had 3 or 4 8 feet long "tile" liners put into the well.

Sure was glad to get that well working. We no longer had to carry water from a spring about 100 yards back in the woods every day. Have fun and stay safe......

 

[jake98]

I wouldn't be able to bring myself to fill one in either. It would seem like a crime against antiquity. I like the idea of filling one with gravel and a pipe-casing though, if it was to be used for domestic water.
My property is at the top of a hill, in an area where all the wells are very slow producing. Everybody fights with them around here, hydro-fracking, screwing up their neighbors' wells, etc. I put a 500 gal tank in the basement and feed it slowly with a stock watering float valve, and use a second pump for the supply, problem solved.

For my future garden watering (if I live long enough) I'm thinking of digging one with my back-hoe. The JD410 goes 14' deep. The ground here is a layer of brown clay to about 5' and then hard grey clay. Everywhere I've dug, a sheet of water runs over the hard layer. It's like water everywhere, except where you need it.. at the top of the hill, so it must be artesian. The ditch around my shop runs till late summer every year.
So I'm thinking of putting a pre-cast tank or two down in a hole and burying it in gravel for a watering well. Totally illegal, I suppose, but what isn't these days. (this is where feel compelled to start talking politics..)

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I have three wells on my property. Two were put in by hand, but they're not a dug well. Our water table is so high that a perforated pipe driven into the ground will give water. There is a special drive point that goes on the end of the pipe.

I have one well in the basement of my house. I've capped it off since the previous owner was compelled to have a cased culinary well in order to sell the place. The other well is my irrigation well that I use every summer.

 

[cr1ga]

One more picture. We had a visitor and everyone likes to draw a pail of water. One time is fun but I couldn't imagine doing it every day. If you look to the bottom right you will see where the pump took care of the everyday chore.