GMC girl

GMC girl

Finally got it to go. Hope they are of some use

Peter_in_Hungary

Ok, it looks like a fairly standard construction brick lined well - except that on one side about 10 courses down it would appear that the side has fallen in ! That will need attention because without the compete circle of bricks the well, at that point will be unstable and could be subject to further collapse. In addition to the danger of further collapse earth will get washed into the well and will eventually block it up. (if it has not already done so)

An interesting pipe disappearing into the depths, along with what appears to be an electric cable. That implies a pump down there at some time (or still there?)

Ask your neighbour (the one who said it was not drinking water) if he knows anything about the well - like when it was last used, what for and does he know anything about the collapse etc.. Any information you can get will help on the decision making.

What is the diameter of the well? If it is a size that you can put a concrete ring(s) in (having dug down to good structure) then the repair may not be too outrageous. Sample prices of well rings = 70cm dia 8500fts, 80cm dia. 10,000fts and 100cm dia. 13,000. All 75cm high and +AFA

If you repair it then I would suggest that it would need cleaning to remove the earth that has fallen in.

Do a flow test to see what you have got now as part of the decision process about the way forward, (along with talking to the neighbour and anyone else who may know anything (previous owners?))

Out of interest how deep is the water that is currently in the well?

GMC girl

Thanks Peter, it was last used last year & there was some sort of electric pump which they used to water the garden etc. Tibor didn't know anything about the collapse when he had a look the day we opened it up.

Will have to measure the diameter & the depth of the water as we haven't done that yet.

Will try & get the previous owner to come & try to explain as his the brother in law of next door.

Certainly seems like worth getting it repaired, if only for the summer water.

Peter_in_Hungary

Now you are finding out a bit more about the well its looking a bit better. The fact that it was use last year is good, that there may be a pump down there - better. Try to find out what sort of pump is there - if it is there. (See my opinion above about types of pumps) See if you can hook it up and get it pumping. Use an ELCB inline in the power line for your protection. If it works then it will be easy to work out the flow.

Carrot_Cruncher

Thank you for the useful advice. I had concerns about what impact they may have on the well and the immediate vicinity, but didn't think of the resonance beyond that.

Pilis Nemzeti Park Fella

Right I was looking for this thread. So our well is 22m to the top of the water, how do I know the real depth of the well?

This was at the height of summer when I measured it a couple of years ago.

We'd only use the water for the garden. It's a dug well a lot more than 75cm wide, probably twice that, a man could go originally down and dig very easily I'd have thought.

So I'd need a submersible pump. How do you reckon I'd get that set up, not having that sort of skills. And what might a ballpark cost be for everything? No electricity supply near but no problem having an arrangement where electricity would only be connected thru extension cables when water needed, ie don't think about cost of electrics.

Peter_in_Hungary

Use a weighted string/tape measure and drop it to the bottom of the well and measure the distance, then do the same to the top of the water and subtract one from the other, measure the diameter of the well and from this calculate the amount of water in the well (volume of a cylinder, o level maths or get google to do it). This will give you the 'reserve' water quantity. What is important with a well if the amount of water that flows into the well (l/min) when you start drawing water out. For watering you need about 1000 l/hour (approximately a 1/2" tap worth) and this should be supplied at a pressure of 2 - 3 bar, this will give you good use of a hose pipe or a sprinkler - but not both at the same time. If your well does not supply 1000 l/hour then you will run out of water once you have used your reserve and will have to wait until the well fills up. You won't be able to use all of the reserve because pumps can't take all the water, but on the other hand as soon as you take some water out the well will start filling. You measure the flow of a well by drawing out a known amount of water, which will lower the water level and time how long it takes to refill. Knowing all of this will tell you if it is worth the effort of installing a pump to water the garden or whether the well needs cleaning to improve the flow. e.g if the well has a reserve capacity of 1500 lts. and takes a day to recover then you could run a sprinkler for 1 hour + per day. On the other hand if there is only 2 - 300 lts. reserve capacity and it still takes a day to recover then it probably isn't worth the expense of a pump without doing some maintenance on the well and that is not guaranteed to improve the flow. Of course you could also be in the happy situation of being able to draw 1000 lts/hour continuously without any appreciable drop in water level. It all depends upon the particular well and as a general rule the output of a well will improve (a bit) with use.

When looking at pumps (loads of options on the internet search öntözés buvar sivatu ) to run a hose pipe or sprinkler you need a flow of about 1000 lts/hour and a pressure of 2 bar at the hose/sprinkler (otherwise the water will dribble out) If your well is 22m to the water then this adds another 2.2 bar pressure needed so to get a decent sprinkler or hose pipe use you need a pump that delivers 1000 lts/hour at 4 bar. (1 bar = 10m height) Pumps are usually defined by their max. output, which drops as the pressure increases up to the maximum designed pressure when the flow will be virtually nil, so you need to look at the output table for the particular pump rather than the headline figures in the advert. Lots of pumps have a built in float switch which turns the pump of in the event of no water. I would recommend this type. The cheap membrane pumps will give the output and pressure but the vibrations can damage the water flows in wells. They are fine for rainwater cisterns but not good for wells. I can't advise on price because I haven't bought this type of pump for ages (my wells are bore holes).

Pilis Nemzeti Park Fella

Cheers Peter. I'm heading over to Velence To area this morning but will get it measured tomorrow I guess. Quite curious now. I probably could have saved some money over the years but until a couple of years ago I had made it unusable by concreting a thick layer over the top (an iron cover) because I had an irrational fear one of my kids would end up down there! Cracked that off a couple of years ago now they're older, so worth investigating.

We installed a kerti csap (garden tap) this year to save a load of money in any case - the water is about half price (I think my wife said HUF 600/ cubic metre) vs household water as you don't have to pay the sewerage element.

Jack_Russells4ever

Another concern about wells, especially shallow wells should be proximity to septic systems and live stock. I have a brick lined shallow well about 15 meters deep. sadly it is within 10 meters of the septic system. I have not had the water tested but I would not use it for anything other than watering the garden. Thankfully, my village has a good water supply company.