Anyone know what this is?

Eoghan89

Hi, bought a house few weeks ago and found this just at the back of house,was over grown in bush so engineer never seen it and I never knew it was there. I put a 18 foot 2x4 down it at weekend but I cant feel the bottom so its deeper than that, clean water in it too. Ill upload photos in few mins.

Only guess is its some sort of water harvesting as there is a 40 foot green house out back and looks like there was two at some stage. Previous owner was a commercial grower back in 70-80's. Just strange its so close to the house its approx 5 feet from back of house.

Thanks Eoghan

Bullocks

Would it be a well ?

Eoghan89

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Eoghan89

Bullocks wrote: »

Would it be a well ?

Possibly but house is connected to mains.

my3cents

You said commercial grower so there might be two three reasons for having a well.

1) Cost a commercial grower should have technically paid for mains water

2) Mains water type and quality may not have been correct for the plants that were grown, you can't water ericaceous plants like Rhododendrons with hard tap water they won't live very long.

3) Mains water pressure, probably not good enough for watering. In this case above ground storage would be the normal option on a nursery, but if you had a well problem solved with a decent pump.

Looks like a well made from concrete rings, you put a ring on the ground and from the inside dig out the soil and the ring slips down, you level it off and drop another ring on top and keep going until you hit water then you pump it out while going down as far as you need or can go. You can also cast the rings as you go with a cutting ring on the bottom, the cutting ring is concrete and shaped to slip easily into the ground as you dig. You can even do some of the work on soft soil by cutting the soil away with water under pressure and pumping out the slurry formed. All good fun, I've cleaned a few out, yours look particularly well made - pun not originally intended.

Stephenc66

Looks to be a well or water cistern made from concrete pipes, constructed as my3cents says or dig a hole with a machine stack the pipes on end and back fill around them as you go.

From the pictures it's hard to see if there are any rainwater pipes draining in to it so maybe a well as opposed to harvested rain water?

Eoghan89

Would it pose any problems to the house being so close?

There was few cracks around building which engineer said was from poor storm water drainage as the gutters just pretty much go onto the ground.

What's my options with it? Should I just fill it up and get rid or any suggestions?

Only thing I noticed about it was a hole just beside the man hole over approx 2 inch. Other than that I see no other pipes etc going to it.

The greenhouse did also have a mains tap at front of it but possible fitted after.

my3cents

The well should not be any danger to the house at all, you sometimes find wells inside the house or even walls built across them. Often with a well you have to dig where the water is and have no choice in its location.

If you mess with well and try and remove it you could easily do more damage than good. I'd keep it as it gives you a good idea of the ground water conditions and probably helps drain the ground around the house so stabilises the ground rather than weakening it. You may find if you pump it out a few times that its a good source of water, get it tested to check. If you pump it out and find a concrete bottom and it stays dry (fills slowly) its a cistern not a well.

People worry far too much about stuff that isn't a problem. I've dug a few wells like yours back out and saved a good bit on the water bill (UK).

looksee

Think I would be inclined to make absolutely sure the cover could not be removed by, say, a 12 year old, then just leave it.

Eoghan89

my3cents wrote: »

The well should not be any danger to the house at all, you sometimes find wells inside the house or even walls built across them. Often with a well you have to dig where the water is and have no choice in its location.

If you mess with well and try and remove it you could easily do more damage than good. I'd keep it as it gives you a good idea of the ground water conditions and probably helps drain the ground around the house so stabilises the ground rather than weakening it. You may find if you pump it out a few times that its a good source of water, get it tested to check. If you pump it out and find a concrete bottom and it stays dry (fills slowly) its a cistern not a well.

People worry far too much about stuff that isn't a problem. I've dug a few wells like yours back out and saved a good bit on the water bill (UK).

Good to know. Only other problem is poses me is its raised and the man hole covering it is poor. As I plan to put a drive way at rear of house I would need to at least have it so it isn't raised and fit a proper man hole.

Possibly in future I could use as source of water if these water charges last.

my3cents

Eoghan89 wrote: »

Good to know. Only other problem is poses me is its raised and the man hole covering it is poor. As I plan to put a drive way at rear of house I would need to at least have it so it isn't raised and fit a proper man hole.

Possibly in future I could use as source of water if these water charges last.

Tricky to lower the top level. You can get precast covers that take a cast iron manhole on top of them but that would add to the height even if you removed the old cover first. Only way would be to cut 6 inches off the top ring and them drop on a precast cover.

Its probably no use to you but I know how much work went into creating it which is why I say keep it.

You must get a sump pump and see if you can pump it dry, often you can with those wide wells because they take a long time to fill.

If you must fill it then do it with decent aggregate so you can dig it out later and so the fill doesn't subside. I've seen wells filled with all sorts of rubbish, they look safe for a while then they subside again leaving a dangerous whole. As soon as anyone get a whiff of you needing to fill an old well in the rubbish will turn up sure enough.

Also check around the area for streams and natural wells. Its always possible that someone took advantage of a natural spring and capped it off in which case you might never pump it dry. Work out the depth with a line and sinker then from the diameter see how much water is stored there. Most of the wells I've been down have less than 4m depth of water in them. If the water is clear a waterproof torch (or one in a couple of sealed plastic bags) weighted on a string might give reveal some more info.