It is good when a country house has a centralized water supply, and if it is not? In this case, digging a well will be the best way out. But before you start building a well, you should know that you will use ground water, so it should be placed away from landfills, at a distance of at least 28-30 m (90-100 ft) from the source of contamination.
Also, find out how deep the ground water is in your area. It is not enough just to talk to the neighbors about the hydraulic situation, it is better to invite specialists. Believe me, the cost of professional consultation of hydrologists will pay off handsomely.
In general, there are 3 layers of water: perch water, underground water, and artesian water. First, the surface layer, which is rarely used for water production, is not clean, and its amount is highly dependent on precipitation. The second layer is suitable for construction,but the water is not under pressure, so it will stand in the well at the same depth as it lies. Usually, in such wells, a pump is installed to supply water to the top. The deepest layer is artesian water under pressure, and when the layer penetrates, it begins to erupt on its own and even gushes. But you can only get to it with the help of special equipment, sometimes these layers lie hundreds of meters deep into the earth.
The best time to create a well is late autumn, because the water sinks to the maximum depth, which allows you to dig a deep shaft that always has water.
So, you have decided on a place to build a well and are ready to hire craftsmen. Take your time. First, decide which well you need.
Drilling the well at the cottage
Drilling wells are more durable than mining wells, and are much safer from an environmental point of view. Drilling wells are usually built on land where ground water is close to the surface. As the name suggests, well drilling is created by drilling wells. Special drilling with a drill bit, the so-called drill spoon, is rotated until it is filled with earth, then it is lifted, emptied and continued drilling. Thanks to this method of drilling, the well can be very narrow.
In the opening of the reinforcing metal or asbestos-cement pipe with a diameter of 15 cm (5.9 inches) and on top of it, a safety device against debris, a water lifting mechanism and a canopy (can be decorative) are installed. Such wells are no deeper than 20 m (65 ft).
Mine well in the cottage
If there are hard rocks above the aquifer that prevent drilling, you will have to make mine wells. The excavated well is excavated by conventional methods, the soil is removed from it in buckets or tubs on a rope, so the shaft is wide enough, 80-120 cm (2.6-3.9 feet), the maximum depth for it is 20-25 m (65-80 ft), and the deeper it is, the less likely it is to pollute the well water. A shallow well can be dug independently, using simple tools: bayonet shovels, crowbars and special containers for digging up the earth (bucket). But in order to deepen the well for a long distance, special equipment is required. At the bottom of the pit, a layer of pebbles and gravel 30-50 cm (1-1. 6 ft) high is poured to filter the water.
In order for the well to serve you for many years, you need to properly secure it with a wall. There are several ways.
Wooden frame
For the construction of a well made of logs, dumps with a diameter of 10-15 cm (3.9-5.9 inch) or trick boards are best suited. The technology of building the walls of the mine is as follows: first, dig a shallow well at the height of logs or boards, and then install a ready-made frame in it. Then dig out the ground under the frame, slightly drowning and gradually lowering it, then install the second, third, etc. on the first frame, until they reach the ground water layer. And the crowns of the frame are not scattered, they are firmly attached to the vertical board.
Concreting
Inside the well, a form is placed, laid along the perimeter with metal reinforcement, which is filled with concrete mortar. It is recommended to add broken bricks, pebbles or gravel to the solution. After 2-3 days, when the first layer of the formwork hardens well, they begin to build and wash the next layers. So gradually strengthen the walls of the well.
The concrete rings
In recent years, reinforced concrete rings are increasingly used in the construction of wells. This method allows you to deepen the well to any desired distance. The method is quite simple: first, dig a small pit under the well the size of one or 2 concrete rings and install the ring in the pit. After using special equipment to break the soil at the bottom, the already installed concrete rings are lowered to make room for the next ones. The rings are securely fastened together with a strong metal hardware.
Thus, there is a gradual deepening of the mine, and when the well reaches the water table, the installation of the rings ends, moving on to the next stage of work – cementing the gaps between the rings. Then the bottom of the well is filled with gravel to a height of 50-70 cm (1.6-2.3 feet). When this stage is passed, it remains only to install the cover and build a beautiful canopy. Usually, a pit with a radius of 1.5 m (5 ft) is dug around such wells) m and 1 m (3 ft) deep and filled with clay. This is necessary in order to avoid the ingress of contaminated water from the surface into the mine pit.
Brick or Stone Walls
You can strengthen the walls of the well with a brick or stone, but this method will not allow you to build a mine, you just need to prepare the well of the desired depth. In addition, these wells are no deeper than 7 meters (23 ft), and brick or stone is used to strengthen the walls only on clay and / or loamy soils. The work itself is simple: along the circumference of the well, brick or masonry is made using cement-sand mortar.
There is a small caveat here: when performing masonry at the bottom of a well, add as little water as possible to the cement mixture so that you can use the usual decorative forms of the well on top of the pit. To fix the mixture, it is recommended to use a high-quality cement composition.
But no matter how your well is built, so that it successfully fits into the landscape design, it is advisable to decorate it. That’s where there is truly a huge scope for imagination! You can build a well in the country house “arrowhead”, draw a hinged roof in the Arabic style, decorate the hanging pillars with carvings (if they are wooden) or ornamental paintings.
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