[chrismahon]

Despite our hosepipe being enclosed in scaffold pipe and buried in the communal driveway for over 20 years without issue (easement established) our new neighbour has deliberately dug down to it and sealed it off under his section of the driveway. Presumably by crushing the scaffold pipe with a sledge hammer! This leaves our Orchard without a water supply.
 
Not an issue at the moment, as the chickens only consume 10 litres of water a day and we can easily carry that down during our 15 -40 trips a day. But if we started growing again it would be a problem. I have always been reluctant to use tap water because the Chlorine affects the taste of the fruit. Strawberries and raspberries lose their flavour completely. We could collect rainwater but it has always run out in a drought and is subject to vandalism. Like leaving the tap on overnight.
 
Have enquired into the cost of a borehole (£5K minimum) but it seems over the top for our requirements as we only have half an acre and we don't need pure water for drinking. Problem is our 'smallholding' is too small to make that cost feasible. Anyway we are going onto metered water which costs nearly £2 per cubic metre -99p to get it and 90p to dispose of it as it is considered domestic usage and mainly goes back down the drain.
 
We are on a sand and gravel bed with extraction sites all around us. At highest water table the level is into the cellar, so about 4 feet below ground level. I am advised lowest river level puts the water table at 17 feet below ground level.
 
I understand that the traditional wells were constructed by digging a 6 foot hole, placing a metal or wooden ring at the bottom and then bricking up the well walls on top of that ring to 3 feet above the surface. The hole was then firmly filled back to ground level and more courses added to the well whilst someone removed material from the bottom of the well inside. This caused the well to sink vertically under its own weight and the process continued until water was reached. When the well ran dry the process was continued until after 50 years or so a well of sufficient depth to never run dry had been established.
 
Now I am thinking of repeating this process, because the two wells on site can't be found easily and have probably been backfilled with building rubble and will be unsafe after 200 years. But I thought of using precast concrete rings instead of bricks. The standard 900mm x 500mm deep ones
 cost £80 each. I would need 14 probably so £1120 plus many skips to remove the spoil. But if I can get 600mm (I am small so could still dig in that) the cost may drop quite a bit, so less than £1000.
 
Problems. Will sufficient water get through as I will need to mortar the joints to keep it all straight? How do you breathe down there? I can get down with a winch and get soil out in a bucket with the same do you think? Has anyone experience of this sort of work? Perhaps if I porous brick the starter section on a ring then add concrete rings on top?
 
When we used to water the 'lawn' for the sheep grazing and also to keep the fruit trees going (soil is only 12" deep) we put 20,000 litres on in a weekend. But the rules changed and not being on a meter we can't use a sprinkler and anyway that's £40 for water in two days. It still wasn't enough water and the Chlorine killed the taste of the Cherries.
 
What does everyone think? Any other ideas (forget legal, it will be too expensive even when we win -that's the civil law for you)?

[robert waddell]

neighbours eh     the concrete rings are not very strong you will need a fair weight to get them to slip down   the segments  would need to be bolted together inside the rings just to keep them from separating and straight this is the method they used to construct the forth rail bridge but on a larger scale   if he cut your water of he will dob you in for making the well and extracting the water
there is a special sealant you can get for sealing the rings when used in a sewer to stop the water getting in and the s**t out it is so strong it will lift two segments plus the concrete base   you will need a teleporter or jcb to lift these rings you will need the steps that fit in them unless they come fitted as standard get deeper ones than 500mm   but it will work ventilation is more of a problem in tunnels  rather than shafts

[lachlanandmarcus]

does the ability to get pure water from the borehole for the smallholding and for you (instead of paying for the metered stuff) not make the borehole worthwhile?
not saying that's def the way to go, our only water supply is a well but we have nice neighbours and no shortage of rain....:-)

[Fowlman]

You will need a gas monitor after a certain depth.


Would it be possible to create a dew pond with your soil ?

[chrismahon]

Don't know what a 'dew pond' is Fowlman but our soil is extremely well draining as it is sandy. Heavy rain for days then a day later it's dry.
 
The problem is reversed if we put the borehole in the Orchard Lachlanandmarcus, we can't use the hosepipe to get the water back to the house as it is separated from the Orchard by a 50 metre driveway with houses either side of it. We own all the driveway except this one small piece where the pipe was crushed. Annoyingly it looks as though it was conveyed by a slip of the pen. The Conveyance makes no mention of it as being sold nor our or another neighbours grant of access over it (since rectified) but the red line around the plot on the accompanying map includes it so Land Registry have included it.
 
I didn't think you needed a licence for extraction of less than 40 cubic metres per day Robert? I was hoping all the rings would all stay stacked up under their own weight like the brick wells do. I also wanted smaller rings so they could be manhandled into position, just with a manual winch maybe.
 
Have also thought that if I extract too fast the water coming up at the bottom will liquify the sand and gravel under the edges of the base ring and the whole thing will slip into it -like quicksand! After all the old wells were emptied by bucket, not a 1 litre per second pump.

[deepinthewoods]

the well plan sounds feasible, but wouldnt you be better tackling the problem at source, ie making your land more water retentive.
dewponds an excellent idea,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dew_pond

[chrismahon]

Our half acre plot is too small and completely flat Deepinthewoods. Worth noting for the future though.

[bazzais]

Dont get a meter installed unless you have too - and dig a new pipe under a bit of track you do own.  Hosepipe bans do not cover the watering of foodstuff as far as I know.

[doganjo]

Find a good water diviner and a tame digger and driver, you might find a spring - I did.  12 feet down, latest test was 638 gallons an hour flow rate. Oh and it was a coiled plastic tube we used that expanded when dropped into the hole.  We put a flat concrete lid on it with a plastic top in the middle with a padlock on it and stock proof fencing round it.  Dropped  submersible pump down and took the alkathene pipe to the house.

[FiB]

ventilation is more of a problem in tunnels  rather than shafts

HIya Chris if you do go down this route , reiterate someone elses post re gas testing (ie please do it!).  The above's not true - lots of things can happen in a well to deplete the oxygen or result in a generally hazardous atmosphere, and wells and sumps are still regular killers so please keep safe

[oor wullie]

My first thought was 'lucky you, only £5k for a borehole'.  I have just been given an estimate (based on my neighbours costs) of £12k plus an insulated building to go over it plus filters (it's for our domestic supply).  Makes me think that capturing a spring or digging a well would be a good idea.

Not having done it myself (yet) but I was thinking along similar lines to yourself for how to sink the well.  A couple of things I thought about;
Obviously you want to dig it at the driest time of year as you will struggle to dig much when you are digging underwater.
When backfilling around the concrete rings you might have to experiment how tight to pack it to get the right balance of the concrete sinking down at a managable rate.
Ideally the joints between the lower concrete rings should not be sealed (to let water in) but the upper ones should be (to stop surface water getting into the well).
You may want to consider drilling small holes in the bottom section to ensure water can get in.
You may consider putting a layer of sand it the bottom of the well to act as a filter.
You might be able to fit in a 600mm pipe but can you dig?  I am not much more than skin and bones and although I could easily fit I doubt I could do much with a spade or even get down on my knees to dig with my hands in a 600mm space.
As others have said, if you are digging more than a couple of meters take precautions.  A gas detector (carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphide are the 2 main concerns in a confined space, both will kill you).  Don't go in without someone else on the surface (you will probably need them anyway to empty the buckets of dirt you send up).  Ideally you will be tied to a rope and they will have a way to pull you out if anything goes wrong - no matter how small you are and big they are that will involve a winch.

Sounds like a fun project though

Tim

[chrismahon]

I agree Tim that 600mm is a bit tight and rather claustrophobic. But I could climb out of it without a rope. I'll see if I can get 750's. The water is only for the garden so I didn't want to mortar it at all -just depends how securely the rings sit on each other. It's all sand and gravel from 1 metre down anyway so easy digging, just a large volume.
 
As Carbon Dioxide sinks, perhaps in the old days a large bucket would lift it out when say a quarter full of sand only. Yes -that aspect worries me.

[chrismahon]

Went to the Staffordshire Show yesterday and decided to chat to the otherwise unoccupied people on the Wyatts (water and well engineers from Whitchurch) stand. They estimated a 50 metre domestic bore hole with everything to be £10,000 typically.
 
So we discussed the grit tolerance of pumps, the design, the potential head, spoil disposal (very expensive to take off site) and the alternatives for just watering the garden in our case. Suggested the concrete rings and they agreed that's the way to go but that rapid extraction may liquify the base and cause the rings to drop. They suggested pumping slowly overnight to holding tanks and then rapidly during the day from them. That would also allow grit to drop out of suspension. They also suggested drilling the lower rings to get more water through the sides and I later thought that cutting grooves across the mating faces of the rings would help also.
 
So looks like this method has promise. Just need to source slightly larger rings.

[Moleskins]

Many years ago I dug a large 'grave' sized hole at the bottom of my parents garden, we filled it partly with rubble then put the soil back on top. It acted as a soak away.
Looking back we were damm lucky the sides didn't cave in on us, it took ages and looked like an old mine works as we had to have a barrel with a hose running to a drain to take away the water which seeped in as we worked.
I think you should look for other options, especially as you have sandy soil, this will definitely be likely to fall in bury you!
PS It was really hard work and I was very much younger and fitter then.