Are you buying a home with a dug well? Dug wells are not as effective, and are considered an older style well. Then you may want to consider the following information to know what you can expect.
Traditionally, a dug well will be holes made with a simple shovel or backhoe. In years gone by, you would keep digging until the water exceeded the bailing rate of the digger beneath the groundwater table. Then, stones, tiles, and bricks were used to case the well so that it wouldn’t collapse; a cap of wood, concrete, or stone was also used.
Typically, dug wells will be quite shallow compared to others because digging deep can be a bit of a struggle. At thirty feet deep at most, there is a high risk of contamination. Therefore, certain features will be required to prevent contamination from occurring. Once again, let’s take a look at some key features of this design;
To the top of the well and the outside of the casing, a sealant should be used such as cement grout or bentonite clay. Furthermore, a casing should be used around the well with a material that is watertight such as pre-cast concrete.
In order to prevent any water from pooling next to the head of the well, the land should slope away in all directions. If water pools, there is a risk of contamination and structural damage in the long term.
Using a concrete cap and curb standing around one foot from the ground, the well will need to be covered.
Finally, the pump should ideally not be in a pit alongside the well. Instead, you could place it in your home or in a separate building.
Since dug wells are shallow, they are vulnerable to contamination from any activity that takes place on the land that surrounds it. Although dug wells are somewhat traditional and old-school, they were normally constructed when drilling wasn’t available or affordable.
If you are still using one of these old systems today for drinking water, you will need to ensure that it remains properly sealed and covered. Sometimes, the ground water table drops during a drought because it goes dry and this is another problem of having a shallow well.
