[Paul and Caroline]

Hi everyone

Further to our last topic we are making progress in our pre-purchase research and have noted a lot of smallholdings have private water supplies (as opposed to mains water).

Are we worrying too much about the possibilities of freezing, contamination or diversion (by someone or something upstream of the supply) or are these very real issues?

Anybody have any anecdotes they wouldn't mind sharing?

Paul and Caroline

[john and helen]

we are looking at a bore hole, this will have the water filtering through the rocks
as for freezing, you should be able to insulate anything above ground, not needing to worry to much about below ground level

[shygirl]

iv let the private water thing put me off buying a place in the past, though it was a b&b so would have been a commercial kitchen with a private water supply and i thought that would end up costing alot at some point.
a friend who had a private supply on a farm had spent £20k, fixing and re-fixing his water, only to still have a dodgy supply of red water, and had to buy in drinking water, and run short for livestock in the summer - relying on water butts etc

we have mains and i think i would really worry about water safety - mainly after reading some old highland journals about children that died from dodgy water on their farm. im sure there are safety checks etc, but i personally would worry.

on the plus side, many farmers round here pay approx £2k pa for metered water.
interestingly our washing machine has broken down twice in the last 6 mths due to the lime (?) scottish water have started adding to the supply - apparently its to neutralise the acids 

[jaykay]

My water comes from a  beck - so does everyone's round here, you can see that the original 11 farms in the dale were built on becks.

I wouldn't change it. In fact, it's one thing that puts me off buying somewhere else, having to drink mains water again.

My water comes through a string filter (for sticks, fish and mud) and a UV filter, for bacteria. It changes colour depending on how much it's rained, and can look quite brown after heavy rain. It always tastes good, no chlorine, aluminium sulphate, fluoride - which have their own various health issues.

A couple of the newer houses (ie newer than 1650s  ) have had boreholes drilled, cos they are not on reliable becks. My beck has run low once, but has never run dry.

[Bionic]

I have a private water supply. We had a problem when we moved in, no water after the first day. It turned out the holding tank was cracked and the water was leaking out. New tank fitted (which previous owners paid for) and we haven't had a problem since.


We have been her just over 2 years now and no other problems. no water bills either 


Mains water now tastes horrible in comparison.

[henchard]

Private water supplies come in many types from springs to boreholes. Ours comes from a spring, is collected in a chamber before being piped down to holding tanks behind the house. From here it drops into the pump house with a UV filter and ph correction unit.

Before moving I got a local water engineer to measure the flow rate to the storage tanks (measured in the summer) to ensure that there would be enough water in summer. It was boderline so the vendor dug another collection chamber near the spring and connected the two together. When remeasured the flow was better.

The UV filter and ph correction unit need replacing/filling with correction medium ever 12 months or so. The pipe from the spring to the tanks recently blocked up with sediment (after the heavy rain in Jan/Feb?) and had to be cleared through with an air compressor.

So there will be on going maintenance and problems.

Each area tends to have one or two good local water engineers who know exactly what is what and it may be worth paying one to look/test any system prior to buying which is what I did. A property without water is useless.

[smithycraft]

We get our water from a well next to the house.  Had a survey done before we moved in and they said it wasn't fit to drink, however, we managed well enough for 9 years by boiling it.  We did however have a filter fitted when my hair turned green.

Last year we had another survey done and obtained a grant from the local council.  We now have a very expensive all singing all dancing filtration system so our water is finally drinkable from the tap, although it is still discoloured due to the high amount of peat in the area we live.

We used to have a very noisy water pump in the lounge that would start up every time there was something interesting on the telly but now that is outside.

In the past, we have been without running water for weeks at a time when the pipe into the water filter (the one to stop the green hair) was frozen.  We now have a small heater to prevent that happening.

We have never run dry, but the people who lived here before us did.  To be honest we don't use that much domestic water and have rain barrels everywhere to collect water for the polytunnel and the animals.

Personally, I prefer having a private water supply, despite the problems and especially when we get our council tax bill and there are no water rates.

[AndynJ]

If I apologise at the start maybe I won't get told off when I move into preach or rant mode.

Water from a borehole near a river or stream should be very reliable as it will extract from at least 40 feet down so very little issue of contamination from dead sheep or similar.
We over the years have had 2 boreholes I personally would not drink the water, as an example if you had a B&B therefore supplying others with your water then you have to have it microbiology tested a minimum of monthly if you supply more than 7 units you need to test weekly, therefore in reality it needs testing  regularly.
A borehole with holding tank that scares me, wow that sounds like a breeding ground pm me I will give you or anyone a list of the potential hazards about non chemical dosed water in a holding tank.
Water course extraction, for land is great, in England you are still metered for abstraction, no idea about Scotland.

It depends on how many animals you have v's cropped land, if you have lots of animals a borehole may suit you better, if you have crops then abstraction may well suit you better.
 

[lilfeeb]

We have a private water supply which we share with the cottage next door and because it used to be a holiday cottage, it was regularly tested and is very clean. Our water is lovely. It comes from a borehole as does all the mains water round here, so there would be no benefits to us from being on mains and huge costs to link our property to the mains supply for the same water. the only difference is ours tastes better because there are no chemicals in it.

A new pipe about a mile long would be required to connect us to the mains through farmland owned by someone else and although you can get some help with costs in terms of a grant it wouldn't anywhere near cover it.

[AndynJ]

I reckon moonshine tastes better than factory produced vodka but I bet it's more harmful in the long run 

[Ina]

interestingly our washing machine has broken down twice in the last 6 mths due to the lime (?) scottish water have started adding to the supply - apparently its to neutralise the acids 

What the heck...? Do they get money from the detergent industry? That's always been the plus up here - soft water! I shall have to investigate... Had not heard about it before.

Anyway: the only problems I have heard about from friends with private water supply is problems with neighbours who are on the same source. So see what the neighbours are like before you decide.

[Treud na Mara]

We had friends who were buying a croft which had water supplied by an underground spring. However they noticed that across the main road and uphill, so upstream, there was a forestry plantation that would likely be harvested in the following couple of years. They went ahead and bought the property, rebuilt the house etc. but also had a borehole dug going deeper than the spring as advised by a local water engineer. 18 months later the hillside was clear felled disrupting all the local underground springs and lo all their neighbours ran out of water. So local water engineer's advice was invaluable. Not a cheap option but certainly safeguarded against a problem.

[tizaala]

We have a spring fed private supply , Chrystal clear water totally untreated or filtered , the run is : spring to holding tank , submersible pump to pressure vessel , then to another tank above the house, then gravity feed to to house and stables, saves a lot of money, and  even the newts get out to go to the toilet, We can't stand the taste of mains tap water now.

[suziequeue]

I agree with Tiz. Wouldn't change it now.


We have a well, a stream and numerous water butts. The animals tend to get their water from the water butts, the polytunnel gets water extracted from the stream and we get well water which goes through an ultraviolet thing. We also have a rainwater capture tank for toilet flush, dishwasher and washing machine and a septic tank thingy which needs emptying every so often. Not sure how it all works but OH knows.


We haven't had any problems at all but I am interested to read about B&B as that's something that we have had vague thoughts about doing here once I retire (only 10 years to go YAY!!!)


One thing I have noticed is that - despite the fact that I am living in Wales - I have become much more aware of trying to conserve/bank water. Every outbuilding has some sort of arrangement which ends in a water butt.


I am sure that water will become a much more precious commodity in future - even in this country.


I cannot imagine having to pay to water my polytunnel. That drinks masses. I water it for about an hour every other day

[Marches Farmer]

I have a cousin living in Bermuda.  All buildings have a flat roof to collect rainwater and they must be repainted every year.  Water goes into a tank below the house and if you run short you can buy water that's from the roofs of libraries, schools and so on.