I have an abandoned well on my property, and it was supposed to be dry but it is wet. How do we get this well up and running for irrigating? City water is very expensive here. Folks with big yards and gardens report $150 during the summer and fall. I have 2/3 acre lot.

The well has water at 34 feet and the shaft kept going to 75 feet when we ran out of string. Hubby went to hardware store to get longer string to see if we can find out how deep the well is.

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Mrs.Spud: Idaho Mom

A local welldriller might be able to tell you what you need to do. Around here, it's just a matter of hooking up a pump to it, but be sure to put a check valve on the pipe to make sure no water is able to go back down the pipe into your well.

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Real women don't have hot flashes -- we have power surges!

Wow, that's a really good well. I'm not sure where the water comes from in ID, but here in FL it comes from an aquifer, kind of like a giant underground lake. So each well here is like one more straw going into a bowl of water. If somebody spits down their straw it goes into the bowl. Sorry, that's kind of gross. But if everybody's straw has a valve on it so water can only go up, but not come back down, the bowl of water stays clean!

The term groundwater is kind of misleading. It sounds like the water is dirty, but really it isn't. It's actually cleaner than surface water, because it's not open to the air and isn't contaminated by animals and birds and people and plants.

Sorry to go so long..this is one of those few things I'm familiar with, having lived with water treatment operators since I was 5.

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Real women don't have hot flashes -- we have power surges!

I kinda figgered it would be a bad idea to talk with the city about it. I think once we figure out how to get the water out-with the backflow thing, we will plumb it outside, to maybe 2 hosebibs and thats IT. We would make it so we could take it all apart back to how it was when we bought this place, iffen we decide to sell the house. The abandonded well is inside my outside laundry/store room. clearly visible to us when we bought it but it was supposed to be dry.

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Mrs.Spud: Idaho Mom

Mrs Spud, you have a wonderful setup, the potential for a handpump during power outages will keep you in the wet, , and it sounds like freezing won't be an issue either, or protecting it from that anyway. All your plumbing can be done with CPVC or copper, each is pretty easy, I favor copper always for supply plumbing, and just a few components will set you up, I'd recommend schedule 100 pvc for the long run down to the water-typical for wells- then, may I suggest a variable speed pump, it will adjust pressure based on demand, cost is not too bad, but it's like having constant city pressure regardless of how many taps are open. Electrical use is more efficient because of this and no need for a pressure tank(yay), so take the time to figure this out, you could run a small ad for a plumber to do a side job, or call some in the area and find out if they'll come and do a side job. The backflow valve is real common, they are necessary for sump pump disharge lines, again check the hardware/home improvment store.

Keep us posted on this, sounds like a fun project, you could cut your water bill for washing clothes with a bypass valve .

Since you realized water at 34 of a 340 ft well, may I recommend a draw-down test, get a pump-a sumppump will do, cheap to rent- run a 100'x3/4" hose into the well and to the intake of the pump, then a short hose, 10'x3/4" to the outfeed of the pump, you are looking for 7-9 gallons per minute for at LEAST 5minutes without sputtering. A simple measurement method is; have a measured 5-gal bucket and a watch with a second hand, when the bucket is full, time it, how much time to get 5gals, this works better if you can have 2-3 buckets lined up, two thirty gallon trash cans with a plastic bag as a sealed liner would work fine too, then you time 60gal in 5minutes equals 12 gal/min, which would be great, but 7-9gal/min will suffice. Pump size, a 1/4 hp will work, but a 1/2hp will be better and won't work as hard. If you perform this test and get sputtering, then you know to add another 100' hose and repeat the test, now, the rented pump may not be able to draw that water up that far or it may collapse the hose, testing the cheap and dirty way has it's frustrations. Something else you can do is find out who the previous owners were and ask them what the output of the well was when it was in use. OR Call and ask a well company if a test can be done on a well of your description, a phone call will keep you anonymous.

My fingers are starting to cramp, let us know where this goes, I am hitting tilt on my knowledge base regarding this though.

also. . . (btw your getting some really good input here from alot of smart people it seems!) You DONT need a licensed guy to do any work. You are a homeowner. . . and you are able to pull any permit to work on any bit of whatever inside your residence. Its only if you f up that your butt gets fried If your deep in the city, and have a fear of getting caught. . i would at least investigate with your city town hall, what permit you would need and what testing/approval you need as well. also they are a great information source as to what you can/cannot do legally, as you are (or should be) concerned with when you go to sell the house.

the BIGGEST thing which EVERYONE here has posted on, put a backflow preventer on this system! It is a must! Last thing u want is chemicals from lawn fertilizer to go back into your water without being filtered/used by your lawn & contaminate the water table in earth. I would stress this is a must

GL with this project, and fyi if it were me. . i would just put a 3 way valve on either side of your meter socket (water that is) so you can bypass for sprinkling. . . WOOPS did i say that?

You can buy hose bibs that have built in backflow prevention, the term for this is vacuum breaker, they have been required in new construction for a number of years, so now you have two points of backflow protection available.

A well pump supplier in the area should be able to help you set this up with the appropriate components, it behooves you to ask about a variable speed pump.

let me tell you what we did. There are two pipes already in the well. So we capped off one with a quick connect for the air compressor, and the other we put a spigot and valve. We hooked up the air compressor and the hose and blew air into the one pipe and water came out the other.

However, it didn't last long. So, we need to take out the pipes I guess and try the submersible pump.

with that kind of pump do you need a pressure tank?

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Mrs.Spud: Idaho Mom

A variable speed/pressure well pump does not require a pressure tank since the pump runs on demand when it senses any change in the line. This could also be wired using an appliance plug and you putting the required outlet nearby, easy disconnect. This probably would not require any permitting as its temporary, seasonal useage, and not part of any other household system, just make sure the electrical is GFCI protected if the pump turns out to run on 120v or is grounded if on 220v , for safety. If you have an electric stove or dryer, you should be able to mimic the wiring if the pump requires 220v.

Thanks for the info Woodchuck. You all are a great source of information. And here I thought all I could find out from this website would be plant related. You all are great!! I actually had my well set up by a Well drilling co. and they did me right. I have no reduction in water pressure and it is just as pure tasting as can be. I rented a property not too far away from where I am now and the water had a lot of Iron in it and had a bad after taste. I am so glad that my water does not have that problem. Take care....