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Erins#1Mom
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# Posted: 17 Aug 2011 08:52pm
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Guys,
Thanks for the advice. TH, not sure if bored or hand dug. We did hit water at app. 25 feet and after (don't laugh) rocks into bucket got down to app 40 ft. I hadn't even thought that it could be rain water in well but this is definitely possible. My mom has a generator I could use but what type of pump would I then need. Not sure if this is worth it but a water meter at the highway is $1500.00 not counting water line. Wellwater may cost me as much or more in the end. Wished ya'll or "Holmes on homes" could make a house call.
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trollbridge
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# Posted: 17 Aug 2011 10:19pm
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Quoting: Erins#1Mom It does make me wonder if it's worth it.
Hi Erins#1Mom,
Keep your chin up and stay strong. In our experience the beginning of fulfilling our dream was frequently one step forward, two steps back. Many times we felt like throwing our hands up in the air. Many people probably wondered why we were even bothering with wanting "the whole cabin thing", but we felt like we really needed to do this for ourselves, after-all it was our dream. Once you start actually building your cabin things will likely calm down, and it will get more enjoyable with less obstacles to overcome.
Good luck with the well-hopefully it is not just rainwater down there!
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PA_Bound
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# Posted: 17 Aug 2011 10:44pm
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One question, before I comment- How far is your cabin site off the road (I'm trying to get an idea of how long that water line would have to be)?
Regarding the well, assuming the water in your well is *not* rainwater I have some concerns about the amount of water you have there. From your earlier posts discussing septic I'm also assuming you plan to plumb your cabin with running water for toilet, sink and/or bath. If your well is only ~40' deep, unless you have a very high yield in that well (that rate at which the well refills), that is not very much water for the draw you may have. As an example, if you hit water at 25' and have a well depth of 40' that means there is only 15' of water in your well. A well pump is typically positioned a few feet off the bottom (cuts down on sediment being sucked into the pump), so lets take 5' off for that (a deeper well would probably have the pump 20' of more off the bottom). That leaves you 10 feet of accessible water, at 1.6 gallons/foot (approx. amount for a 6" well casing). That means you only have 16 gallons of accessible water. If you have a huge yield that may be good enough for a small cabin, but I'll bet even the smallest electric pumps would pump that dry quickly.
If that was truly all the water you had to work with, I'm sure there are ways to make it work (I'm sure there are others with cabins on this forum that may not even have that much water to work with). But this is where your testing comes back around. But this time add a well yield test to your tests for water quality- which basically requires that you pump the well down some, then measure how fast it refills.
If you weren't planning to plumb your cabin, you could probably set a hand pump on that well just to have some place to draw water and that may work just fine. But then you have to carry the bucket back to the cabin, and that may not be what you have in mind (although this is very similar to what my cabin will likely end up with- with a modern twist).
There are more details to discuss here, but without more information on your lot and how you plan to use the water I may just be rambling on.
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Anonymous
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# Posted: 18 Aug 2011 08:07am
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A quote on propane appliances,lights and a professional (read no explosions) propane company to hook it up=appx 7 grand. Building a cabin is not cheap. Sometimes I wish I had just put a trailer on the property. I am about 80 grand in with about another 60 to go. It's log( we used our logs) and when done will be about 1750 sq feet. This will be our only home in retirement built so that even as we age we can live there comfortably. So with that in mind. Hooking up to a city water line would be the best thing to do. Digging a well is expensive with no guarantee of water.
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PA_Bound
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# Posted: 18 Aug 2011 09:24am
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Anonymous... you and I are kind of thinking along the same lines, hence my question about how far off the road the cabin site is.
Erins#1Mom... if the existing well is unworkable and you end up having to either hook up to city water or drill a new well, I would explore the city water option first. In my opinion (and you know what they say about opinions... everybody has one), if you can access city water for less than $5K, I would recommend that option. A professionally drilled well with pump is going to be in that same price range, and with city water you don't have to worry about yields, pumps, pressure tanks, water quality issues, etc. If city water is going to much more than $5K, then I would consult a local well driller before making the decision. While, as noted above, there are no guarantees (just ask me about that! :-( ), a professional local well driller can give you an educated guess based on neighboring wells about how deep you have to go, what the quality will likely be, and an estimate of the cost. With that information, weigh your options and make a decision.
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Erins#1Mom
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# Posted: 19 Aug 2011 05:21pm
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PA Bound,
Your advice is right on the money. The cabin site is closer to the road than to the well. The cost of digging deeper will be more that the meter and line from the road. However, I do think I will place a hand pump on the well. Plant berry bushes of some sort and use the water from the well for those.
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PA_Bound
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# Posted: 19 Aug 2011 08:55pm
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That's a good idea. Pulling that water out, even if only for watering plants, will allow the well to refresh and that will actually make it healthier. There's a bunch of hand pumps that will do this job marvelously.
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Just
Member
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# Posted: 19 Aug 2011 09:02pm
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i would put a pump on the well and try it.. who needs a 50 $ bill every month ! If the water is still at 25 ft. after a week you will need a 2 line jet pump, but if at has come up to less than 20 ft. you could use a singal line shallow well pump,, check the leval again next time you go ..a complete shallow well pumping system is less than 500 $ one time not 50$ a month for ever!!
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