ecojon

Hello there

I am looking for a property to buy and have noticed that a number have been vacant for some time.

The water source is a well more often than not. And from the pictures I've seen, many are uncovered and have deposit build up.

Has anyone had experience of well rehabilitation? I would be interested to know the costs and details of any contractors. Also, testing water quality from the well.

Rural Hungary

Hi and welcome to the BE forums. I would check any wells carefully as apparently, from what I have been told, there is a problem with heavy metal contamination in the area you are looking.

Also, if buying an adobe property, have it looked at carefully as some are hiding a myriad of faults.

Peter_in_Hungary

Hi Ecojon
I don't know what experience or knowledge about wells you have so I will assume not much, apologies if you are an expert.
There are very few dug wells that could be considered suitable for potable water. A dug well is as it sounds, dug by hand and lined with a non water tight lining. These are the ones you will have seen open at the top and usually about 750mm diameter. Even if you close the top contamination can still get in through the sides due to the construction methods. They also only go down to the first level water and so can be prone to drying up or reduced flow during times of low rainfall.

Although dug wells can be usually used for watering the veggies and the washing machine, for security of quality and supply a bore hole would be needed, these can be sealed properly and will go down to the 2nd or third level water.

If you are planning any sort of self sufficiency then you should be looking at 2 - 3 months water capability without rain and any largish kitchen garden could need 2 - 3000 ltrs a day when its 30 deg.+. There are very few dug wells that can cope with this supply. We have had a wet spring so any capacity test (by pumping out and timing the recovery to full level) won't tell you what will happen after a dry spring and then 10 weeks of no rain the summer.

Water pumps can be very demanding on off grid power so a good battery set up and an inverter will be needed to cope with the current load.

All in all I wouldn't want a property where the only water was a dug well.

ecojon

Hi Peter

I hear what your saying and agree. I would hope that finding a contractor is not so difficult with there being so many wells in Hungary.

I would like to drill a 4" bore hole around 120ft deep. And I have sourced a pump that only draws 250w providing 3700l/h at this depth.

Just need a half decent contractor!

Peter_in_Hungary

Jászszentandrás is too far for the people I know, (bottom end of the Balaton). There are lots of wells in Hungary, but most of them are dug wells. Usually the contractors who deal with dug wells won't (can't) do bore holes and those that do bore holes don't want to do dug wells.

I would suggest finding some people in your area who have bore holes and ask them for their experiences. Best to find Hungarians to compare prices that way you stand a chance of avoiding the 'foreigner surcharge'

Bore holes are usually charged by the meter drilled and make sure you get a quote for what is included in the 'meter price'

I learnt a lot of (technical) Hungarian during the process of getting our first bore hole drilled. (120m (approx 400ft) deep)

ecojon

I have found a company called VIKUV (vikuv.hu) which is based in Cegled and is pretty close. Going to contact them now and request a quote as there site is in English.

How do you know how deep to go? …I suppose this company may have drilled wells in this area before and know the lowest elevation of the water table.

By the way, did you get a local price on your well project/adventure? If you could let me know your costs per meter I'd appreciate it. I would have a benchmark then when exploring costs with contractors.

I am looking forward to getting a few projects completed to learn the language. I did this in Nepal several years ago. Don't know the language and pay foreigner tax. Learn the lingo and pay local prices. It will probably be the same in Hungary where I can hold a decent conversation about building before I can talk about the weather!

Me and my wife are setting off on the bicycles next week. We should be around your area scouting for land in about a month. Fancy sharing a beer or three?

Pollypaprika

This may be easier said than done In my experience it doesn't quite work like that in Hungary. You will pay a higher price than the locals...until you are a local...and even then...you won't...not really.

Peter_in_Hungary

The drillers have geological maps that give them a clue about the expected depth, however you never know until you start, or rather finish drilling. Our drillers expected to get water at about 80m but found 40m of clay that was unexpected. I have 2 bore holes, 500m apart, the deep one is on the third level at 120m the other is at 30m on the second level. The deep bore hole did not have enough water at the second level so we had to go down to the third level.

There is no point in giving the price of our bore holes as they were almost 20 years ago. I spoke to a friend (a Hungarian) who had a bore hole drilled about 5 years ago and he was quoted 3400HUF for soil or sand up to 16000HUF for stone/rock. This was a one man firm and the bore hole was done without paperwork!

Reference the beer, we are in the Tapolca area so give me a PM when you are in the area.

fidobsa

I would also be interested in hearing from anyone who has treated well water or filtered it. My new place in Croatia has well water which is piped to the house and shared with several other properties. I don't pay for the water but pay 25 Euros per year for the electricity for pumping it. The water contains a lot of iron and stains the kettle, cups etc. brown. I have seen simple cartridge filters in OBI and other shops but was not sure if these are suitable for removing the iron particles?
There is an option to connect to mains water and I would certainly do that if the supply proves unreliable but I would like to try the well system for a while.

llareggub

We had a bore hole drilled when we moved in 6 years ago bot cannot remember the price of it I'm afraid, but remember the depth being around 57m.

Did a quick Google search and you have a chap in Jászszentandrás, no idea how you will get on with the Lingo though, most of our local towns have a Kútfúrás so you should have no problems sourcing one locally. Our local tradesmen don't like traveling too far

If you find yourself in the Kunhegyes, Tiszafured area shout up and we'll meet you for a pint or two

http://profikutfuras.hu/kutfuras/jas...aszszentandras

Peter_in_Hungary

So your new place has well water, do you mean a dug well or a bore hole? I don't like wells for drinking water, they're too prone to contamination. Our deep bore hole has high iron content in the water so we had an iron filter fitted. Its a cylinder about 4ft tall and about 9" dia. with a gizmo on the top that counts the m3 and a clock. When it gets to the set number of m3 (5 for us) it back flushes the filter at the next 02.00 am. Works well however its 20 years old without a name on it but it came through CWG Hungary Víztechnikai Kft We were told by the water authorities that iron in the water is no problem (apparently it passes straight through) but can stain things brown. Our water no longer stains things but can turn some tea black if you add mineral drops (e.g. Béres Csepp)

fidobsa

I don't know what it is as it's not on my land and I've not seen it. I did find what I thought was a well on my place but it turned out to be an underground silo for animal feed. It could be a bore hole, as they say it never dries up and there is quite intensive market gardening going on in the area. From what you say it looks like the the cartridge filters would be inadequate or uneconomic (the cartridges may need frequent replacement).

Peter_in_Hungary

If it never dries up and there is high usage then this is good news, the more wells / boreholes are used the better flow they produce. An unused well will stagnate and fail as the water channels slowly collapse. If others are using the well, including market garden operations from the same well then I would go with the well until events dictate otherwise. Regarding the iron content, what do the neighbours do about it? put up with it I suspect, you could 'go native' and do the same. I don't think the cartridge filters would be cost effective, but then my filter wasn't cheap, but over 20 years.........

fidobsa

I asked on a plumbing forum and someone suggested a magnetic device like this:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/adey-magna...equestid=30130

mcm1

This is a subject I do have experience in so I hope it helps.

The magnaclean suggested by the plumbers is of no use whatsoever for what you want to do, it is purely for a sealed system installation such as central heating in your home.
Depending on your water usage then cartridge filters might work for you, I have them fitted to 2 wells but these are used for car washing and general outside use, they consist of 3 pods each 20" tall with different cartridges in each pod.
The apparatus Peter has described is the best system but of course the most expensive to purchase. Once filled with the correct media it lasts forever so long as it is regularly backflushed. There are various models depending on your usage. I would fit one with an electonic backflush rather than manual or depending on flow through, the downside to this is that you shouldnt turn the water supply off if leaving the property for any long length of time.

Before you decide what to do it is essential to have a few readings of your own tap water. You will need pH and DO (dissolved oxygen) readings. There are simple cheap test kits on the market that will do, expect to pay around £20 total. Your local chemist might be worth atry as well but I personally dont rely on their readings, they are checking for bacterias really. They do give other test results but most are worthless after a couple of hours of the sample water being drawn.