If the household is located on the birch of a lake or river, there are no big problems with water supply. Things are much more complicated when the site is far from natural water sources. It remains to extract water from the underground, and for this you need to find natural reserves that would be clean, suitable for drinking. The owners of the site make a choice between drilling a well and digging a well based on the terrain. If the aquifer is located deeper than 15 meters, then the upcoming well construction should be entrusted to specialists, but if the water is closer to the surface, then read this article about how to dig a well with your own hands. You may not find the process too complicated.
Preparatory work
Making a well yourself is not as difficult as it seems, although you will have to work hard. It is important to follow the rules regarding the construction of wells during the execution of work. Of course, no one will control whether you have done everything you need or have reacted to the work formally. But you make a well for yourself and your family members, so you yourself must be interested in ensuring that the water received is fresh and clean.
Living and dead water. Which one will be in the well you build? It all depends on how seriously you take the rules of its construction.
Groundwater: availability and suitability
No grandfather's methods will give an unambiguous answer to the question of whether there is water on your site and, if it does exist, what is its quality. Geological exploration of the site is the only reliable source of such information. If there are already capital buildings on the site, then intelligence data is available. Otherwise, it remains only to get acquainted with the closest neighbors, for whom the wells are already operating. Ask them what is the depth of their mines, ask for samples of water. Let the local SES check the water for quality.
You can find out how to properly analyze and purify water from the material: //diz-cafe.com/voda/analiz-i-ochistka-vody-iz-skvazhiny.html
Dowsers are looking for water in the ways that our grandfathers used. But even a successful source search does not guarantee water quality
Choosing a place under the well
The choice of place for a well must also be approached with all responsibility.
If the area is contaminated with waste or there is a large source of pollution nearby, then hoping to get clean water from a well is pointless
Please note the following significant factors:
- The geological situation in your area. For example, if the surroundings are swampy, you won’t be able to dig a well with drinking water, because the “top water”, which will inevitably end up in an underground source, will bring with it all the dirt on the surface.
- The presence of significant sources of pollution near. For many pollutants, the surface waterproof layer is not an obstacle. They penetrate into groundwater and poison them, making them unfit for consumption.
- Ground characteristics and terrain. The hardest thing to do is work on rocky terrain. It is problematic to make a well on the side of a mountain. Plain terrain is best for a well.
- The remoteness of the place of consumption. On the one hand, I want to place the well closer to the house in order to avoid the construction of extensive communications through which water will flow into the house. On the other hand, a well cannot be placed closer than 5 meters from the buildings. Such a neighborhood can adversely affect the foundation of the structure. Accumulated water is able to wash the soil under the building, partially destroy the "sole". Eliminating such consequences is not so simple.
There is one more limitation, according to which sewage, gutters or garbage dumps cannot be placed around a well in a 50-meter sanitary zone. Otherwise, the produced water will have a specificity unnecessary for you.
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Well digging technology
To learn how to dig a well, you first need to figure out what digging techniques do exist. Professionals practice the open and closed method of digging wells. Since the differences in these techniques are fundamental, each of them deserves a separate consideration.
Option # 1 - digging in an open way
Manual installation of aquifers on a site with dense soil is done in an open way.
The walls of such a shaft will not collapse unless left for a long time without rings. Smooth surface indicates the presence of clay in the soil
Open well digging technology consists of simple and understandable steps:
- digging a mine of a certain depth (to the aquifer) is carried out immediately from the beginning to the end, its diameter is 10-15 cm larger than that of prepared reinforced concrete rings;
- reinforced concrete rings that form the walls of the well are lowered into the formed shaft using a winch;
- rings carefully fasten to each other;
- between the walls of the shaft and the reinforced concrete structure assembled inside it, a gap is formed, which must be covered with coarse sand;
- the seams between each pair of rings are carefully sealed with a special sealing compound.
Obviously, it is the features of the soil, which allowed to maintain the shape of the walls of the shaft throughout the whole time, are crucial for choosing an open digging method.
Option # 2 - closed digging
If the composition of the soil is loose (gravel or sand), then it is problematic to perform work using the open method. The walls of the shaft will inevitably shift, crumble, etc. The work will have to be interrupted, the process itself will be delayed, it will become prohibitively labor-intensive. We'll have to dig a well in a closed way, which experts call it “in the ring” in a different way.
For a closed digging method, it is important to get started right. The rings will have to slide along the walls of the shaft under the weight of their own weight, so the size of the pit must be accurate
The schematically closed technology of digging wells can be represented in the form of the following steps:
- It is necessary to outline the location of the well, the diameter of which will correspond to the outer diameter of the reinforced concrete ring, and remove the top layer of the earth. You need to go as far as the soil allows. Typically, the depth of the pit is from 20 cm to 2 meters.
- A pit formed, inside which the first ring is placed. Further work will take place inside this ring, and subsequently in the resulting reinforced concrete structure.
- The ring under its weight drops lower, and the next ring, placed on the first, increases the weight of the structure and is mounted with the previous one.
- After the digger reaches the aquifer, the last ring of the well is established. They do not completely bury it.
- The insulation and sealing of the joints between the rings is carried out exactly the same with the open and closed method.
At the final stage, all the equipment necessary for the functioning of the well is mounted.
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When working with rings, care must be taken. Manufacturers often indicate that work should be carried out using a winch or crane. Otherwise, claims for cracks and chips will not be accepted.
Advantages and disadvantages of different digging methods
The open method is attractive primarily for its simplicity. Digging is much more convenient not surrounded by reinforced concrete. However, each of the digging methods has disadvantages and advantages. Often, when driving, you can meet a boulder. If this happened with open driving, it is easy to expand the shaft, dig an obstacle and pull it to the surface, tying it with ropes. Now imagine how complicated the task is when the digger is in the enclosed space of the ring. The problem may be unsolvable.
A boulder is one of the easily removable obstacles if digging is conducted in an open way, but try to cope with it while inside the reinforced concrete ring
Another annoyance that can happen in the process is quicksand. Quicksand is a soil saturated with water that can spread. Being in an open mine, a digger may attempt to stop the quicksand by making an elementary caisson from the tongue and groove boards. Subsequently, it is possible, filling the space between the reinforced concrete structure and the shaft with soil, to completely isolate the quicksand.
Closed penetration has one more minus. It manifests itself when a “high water” appears in the mine. It goes down together with the installed rings, after which it mixes with groundwater and spoils them. Nobody needs a dirty well. Moreover, it turns out that in this case, getting rid of the "top-end" is very problematic. You can dig another hole on the outer surface of the rings to identify the source of the "water boat". But it is not always possible to identify and isolate it even in this case.
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This is what the water in the well looks like if a high water seeps into it. To identify the source of trouble, you need, in fact, to dig another well nearby
It would seem that doubts have dissipated, and we know exactly how to dig a well in the country. Indeed, the advantages of the open method are obvious, and now let us turn to its shortcomings.
With the open digging method, the mine has to dig a larger diameter than the well being constructed. The natural solidity of the soil is inevitably violated. Between the walls of the structure of the well and the shaft, we place the soil, which differs in structure and density from what was originally here. New soil can undergo deformation, and the rings can undergo displacement relative to each other. Such movements can cause the destruction of the well.
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In no case should an open shaft be left without rings for a long time. The dried up walls begin to crumble, bringing closer the moment of collapse with each new hour
In addition, with the open method, the volume of earthwork is significantly increased. And one more thing: you have to acquire special equipment to install reinforced concrete rings. You will need a cable, hook, block, tripod and winch. The process of lowering the ring is not only difficult, but also a dangerous activity. When using a crane, it will be easier to correctly install and combine the rings, but attracting special equipment is always expensive.
If, due to inexperience, the excavator underestimated the degree of soil density, the walls of the mine can crumble, nullifying all efforts. If the mine stood in finished form without rings for more than three days, the probability of its collapse increases significantly. Naturally, when digging "into the ring" such a danger does not threaten. When rings under their own weight are immersed in the shaft, the integrity of the soil is practically not violated. No additional equipment is needed to install them, and the likelihood of injury is reduced.
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A few words about safety
One cannot dig a well. It's not even that it's physically difficult. There are dangers of a different kind. The bowels of the earth are rich in surprises. Along with water supplies, one can stumble upon an underground accumulation of gas. This can be fatal in a limited mine space. You can identify an invisible danger with a burning torch. Quickly extinguished fire indicates unacceptable gas contamination.
This digger would do well to listen to the briefing before putting on his helmet. He is clearly not in the know why he needs this remedy.
Drop of cargo on the head of the excavator is another obvious danger. Is it necessary in this situation to talk about the relevance of the use of a protective helmet?
Therefore, a well-organized digging of wells does not imply the heroic work of a lone enthusiast, but the correctly planned work of a group of like-minded people. For example, they organize forced ventilation of the mine, using for this purpose at least fans and vacuum cleaners. Alternately digging a mine and jointly installing rings is easier, and celebrating the solemn commissioning of the facility is much more fun with friends.
