Well Houses

[AlbertC]

I need to build a well house for my well. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to approach this?

The problem I am having with this is how to make the house so that it can be removed if the well needs service. I have seen some very nice houses on the internet but many of them seem to be permanent (concrete floor, etc) and I wonder how can you make repairs for example a broken pipe under the concrete floor. Also, if the pump needs to be pulled out wouldn't the roof need to be removed?

Thanks for any info

 

[KWentling]

Well should be located outside of the house and a pitiless adapter used to run the line into a well house or into the house itself. I have a modified concrete septic tank as a well house below ground level as we can get -30 or colder temperatures here.

 

[Peter 315]

I just have a wishing well over mine,That I can remove to change the well pump

 

[gsganzer]

Well should be located outside of the house and a pitiless adapter used to run the line into a well house or into the house itself. I have a modified concrete septic tank as a well house below ground level as we can get -30 or colder temperatures here.

^^This^^
Put the well outside the well house, assuming the well house is going to contain your pressure tank, disconnect, pump controls etc.

Otherwise, put the tank, controls etc. in your basement (if applicable)

 

[square1]

The roof on the well house at the cabin is a flat sloped roof hinged on the high side. To work on the contents the roof gets tipped up and propped open. I have changed pumps which means leaning over a ~waist high wall. It is a little tough on the back. House has been there since the 1940s, never had cause to work on anything beneath the concrete floor in the 8 years I've been there.

 

[Turbys_1700]

My dad had a small brick well house built for our system back in 57 when he built his house. It was an old bored well. The well did indeed sit outside the house. To put in a light bulb for winter we had to remove the roof of the brick well house. Pretty easy to do. With our mild winters here that was all that was needed to keep the pump and return pressure line from freezing. Everything else was in the ground.

 

[LouNY]

Around here when well houses where common most of them where dug down so as to be 5-6 feet down about a foot above grade,
the earth temperature would eliminate most of the freeze problems, the well house would contain the pressure tank and controls,
the pump if a jet pump, if a submersible pump the pitless adapter if one was used. The increase in submersible pumps and the reliability
of the pitless adapter was the reason for the decline in well houses as the controls and pressure tanks moved to the basement. Also much deeper wells
and the change from shallow dug to deep drilled.

 

[fishheadbob]

Don't know how cold it gets wherever you might be, here's what I have.
It can get to -30 F here. My drilled well has a submersible pump at the end of 50 feet of plastic flexible piping. Every 10 or 20 years when the pump dies it's pretty easy to disconnect the wires and pitless adapter to pull the pump up by hand for service or replacement. The pipes for 300 feet to the house are below the frost line. There are different grades of piping, the drop pipe is a bit heavier than the pipe to the house. There are 300 feet of 10-3 UF wire plus 50 feet of drop cable to provide electric to the pump. Pressure switch and bladder tank are in the basement. Important to have some poly rope from the pump to a good tie off at the top of the well in case the unthinkable happens and the pump, cable, and drop pipe all break loose and the pump sinks.

My barn has a shallow dug well maybe 18 feet. Shallow well jet pump is in an insulated box in the barn. 100 watt bulb for heat, maybe 70 feet of the lighter plastic pipe from the well to the barn. No pitless adapter, just a foot valve at the bottom of the well. If the foot valve ever goes i would have to do some disconnecting where the drop pipe meets the lateral pipe to the barn to get at the foot valve.
Close to 40 years on both wells without any serious problems other than some pump repair or replacement every decade or two.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Depends on how fancy you want to get. Ours is just a lift off cover that has a shingled "roof" and is insulated. Nothing fancy, but you can lift off the entire thing if needed.



This is about the best pic of it that I can find (left side of pic-obviously).

 

[turnkey4099]

Having worked on severawl wells I can agree with several of the above. Do not put the pressure tank in a well house if there is any way at all to squeeze it into a basement or house. That puts all the maintenence things right there where you can get at them. Pitless adapter on the well, pipe into house. No well house needed, just a cap on the well casing. That, of course, assumes a submersible pump. If a shallow well pump on top of the well you are pretty well stuck with a well house but the tank and controls can still be in the house.

 

[AlbertC]

Having worked on severawl wells I can agree with several of the above. Do not put the pressure tank in a well house if there is any way at all to squeeze it into a basement or house. That puts all the maintenence things right there where you can get at them. Pitless adapter on the well, pipe into house. No well house needed, just a cap on the well casing. That, of course, assumes a submersible pump. If a shallow well pump on top of the well you are pretty well stuck with a well house but the tank and controls can still be in the house.

Maybe I should have been more specific. The well is used for irrigation only. The house is on county water. Well is 300 ft from house. There are pvc piping from the well casing to the pressure tank , thus the need for a well house to keep the pipes and tank from freezing.

 

[TheGoose]

Will this be in freezing weather?

I am a water well professional. You can put a "whirly bird" style vent directly over the well. I can get a 5T hook and weight through the opening for the whirly bird (with the whirly bird removed of course) and get all the pump, pipe, and wire out that way. If you do not want to install a vent like that I've seen some with a hatch that can be opened or some that the whole roof comes off in one piece ( I use a pump hoist to lift the roof off).

More often than not there is no way to get the roof open and I end up cutting a hole in the roof.

 

[buickanddeere]

I need to build a well house for my well. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to approach this?

The problem I am having with this is how to make the house so that it can be removed if the well needs service. I have seen some very nice houses on the internet but many of them seem to be permanent (concrete floor, etc) and I wonder how can you make repairs for example a broken pipe under the concrete floor. Also, if the pump needs to be pulled out wouldn't the roof need to be removed?

Thanks for any info

Why a well house outside ? A shallow well pump has the pump and pressure tank in the house basement . A deep well system has the pump down the well and the pressure tank in the house . Pipework is all buried below the frost line .

 

[D2Cat]

I have a well at my farm. It's 25' deep, so it's a shallow well pump. The well has a steel plate over the concrete slab and has a hand pump mounted there.

I took an old chest freezer I got at the salvage yard and cut a hole in bottom of one end for the suction pipe to come up in. Cut the opposite bottom end of the freezer for conduit for elec, and PVC water line output. There is enough room in the freezer for the pump and the horizontal tank. The freezer is mounted on one side of the well top with the hole drilled through the steep plate just under the freezer.

We often get freezing weather with some snow. The freezer has one layer of celotex laid on the ground before the plumbing was installed. It's set level and anchored with some rebar driven in the ground and some pipe hanging strap attached.

In 5 years have never had a problem with cold temperatures causing any problems. This well provides water for an automatic waterer for cattle. Service is easy, just open the lid!!

 

[Valveman]

With a good pump control like a CSV, you won't need a very large well house. This system only needs a 4.5 gallon size tank, so everything will fit inside a 14X14X24 area. You can just put a wishing well, an igloo dog house, or a fake rock over the well and all controls.

 

[dmccarty]

I built a "temporary" well house to cover our pressure tank and well when we built the house. After a decade or so, I bought a big fake rock to fit over the insulated box I built to fit over the well, tank, and plumbing. Works well with some CFLs running.

I did not want the fake rock but I could not figure out how to build a moveable well house that I liked. I know of some really nice well houses and they have not had problems working on the well equipment but I ended up with a big fake rock.

Later,
Dan

 

[Beltzington]

I need to build a well house for my well. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to approach this? Thanks for any info

I went through this decision process and started to build a removable wishing well style cover and ended up building a 6' by 8' shed. As mentioned before the coldest outside temp and where you are going to put the pressure tank really drive your decision. Since the pressure tank or switch do not have to be located next to the well head I decided to build a remotely located shed for the tank and better protection and access to the electrical. Additionally, installing a booster pump or filtration system in the future will be much easier. Both the pump drop pipe and electricity can be buried and out of the wx and if the casing is exposed in can be covered with a small fake rock or bucket and surrounded by bushes or flowers.

As a side-note if the well is only use for heavy irrigation a pressure tank is not likely going to keep your pump from cycling very often unless you have a big tank or very high GPM flow. It may make more since to just turn the pump on when you are irrigating and off when you are done and forget the tank.
Keep in mind whatever you decide nature will adapt, I now have to deal with wasps in the shed and within 2-days of covering the well casing fire ants moved in and shorted out the pressure switch. Attached is an article with allot of good information, I found most state extension websites cover this topic. Good Luck.

 

[skipmarcy]

I simply poured a small slab around my well cap and built a 2x4 framed house from scrap materials from building my house (metal roof & siding). Used 1/2" concrete anchors to bolt the floorplate of the pumphouse to the slab and insulated it with R13 fiberglas and made a couple of doors for easy access. My bladder tank & all is inside. If I ever had to pull the submerged pump I remove 4, 1/2" nuts & washers from the anchors, run a rope or chain thru the 2 doors and pick it right up and away with the FEL on my tractor. My system has never frozen even in single digit temps. I have a 100w floodlite bulb in there I use when it gets 10 degrees or below. I also have a receptacle in there and pigtail made up to hook one of my generators in to power the well if necessary.

 

[daybreak1998]

Howdy,
Your profile does not list where you are?

What area do you need this well house?

It depends on the ground, water table, locations, electricity, and usage. Instead of a well house, I like to have it all in the ground. The well casing, pitless adapter is about 15 feet away.

Here in Northern Virginia we get are share of cold. I never wanted to deal with a power loss no heat issue for water. For a ag well, I put in a modified cistern tank. I had the top opening as a 32" round, and placed 2 x 2.5" conduit pieces in the upper sides. I also added a 5" floor drain, and 2 x 3" couplers to add on the top, for cross air flow ventilation.

Totally buried below grade by 12". Electric runs into unit by 1 conduit, and poly water in the other conduit. Pressure tank, pump control, and 1/4 turn shut off valves, and poly water pipe the other side going out.

No issue with freezing. No need for heat, light bulb running, and with the air flow vents, doesn't get all moldy stinky.