A Private Well and Garden Feature

A traditional wishing well synonymous of a bygone era has the dual purpose of being both an excellent private water supply and an enchanting feature in your garden. Of course most wells in fact do not have a wishing well top, but instead a conventional inspection cover and as the pump is silent you would be completely oblivious to the existence of a working well. Nowadays the pump is fully automatic with the resulting flow and pressure being as good as or better than the mains.

Certainly the majority of rural and older properties have a well or at sometime will have had a well as their only means of a water supply.  There are even instances where clients have suddenly discovered the existence of a well whilst carrying out structural refurbishments in the home or garden buried beneath a patio or kitchen floor. 

Most domestic supplies do not require an Abstraction Licence as incredibly up to 20 cubic metres (4,400 gallons) of water can be legally abstracted per day from an above or below ground water source, however in excess of this amount you will almost certainly require a licence. For further detailed information please download the following Abstraction Licence Guide Please don't be daunted by this process we are always here to help and would be more than willing to process and submit the application on your behalf for a small fee.

Just to put things into perspective it has been calculated that the average water usage per person per day is approximately 160 litres (40 gallons). This does not include garden irrigation, but even taking into account normal garden irrigation it is highly unlikely that an Abstraction Licence will be required.

In order to successfully sink a well, we must first establish the exact location and pinpoint this on our hydrogeological maps. Then with the aid of our comprehensive well and borehole records we will endeavour to obtain information of surrounding properties with private water supplies. Often this is a good indication of the depth and strata we are likely to encounter, however consideration must always be given to varying ground stratum and geological formations. It is for this reason that we are unable to guarantee exact depths, quantity and water quality. Thankfully valuable hydrogeological records compiled over the years have greatly reduced the risk of an unsuccessful well. In fact to date (touch wood) we have not sunk a dry well.

First descent into exposed well

 A well construction dependent upon the depth required and ground conditions can take up to two weeks to complete, as all digging and sinking is carried out by hand as traditionally would have been done many years ago. We at ECP Group have fully trained engineers, with specialised equipment and insurance to work down wells to a depth of 30m (100ft). Well sinking and cleaning is an extremely dangerous venture which if carried out by untrained persons can have devastating and fatal consequences.

In addition to sinking new wells we also undertake the refurbishment of old redundant wells putting them back into use. Often these wells have the original domed top with small manhole entrance, which in some instances needs to be removed when deepening the well. Silt and debris is then removed from the well which will have accumulated over the years either naturally or deliberately (it's amazing the things we have unearthed over the years but unfortunately never a stash of money).

Once the well sinking or refurbishment has successfully been completed, the well is then test pumped to establish the yield. A suitably sized submersible well pump link to pumps is then installed to abstract the water from its source, automatically increasing the pressure and flow as good as or better than mains supply. Finally water samples are taken for analysis determining what water treatment equipment is required if any. Link to Water Treatment

As with boreholes, it is essential that care is taken to eliminate the likelihood of surface drainage into the ground water, together with the ingress of rodents, slugs, snails and possible effluent contaminating the water supply.

For further detailed information please call or email us we will be only too pleased to assist you.

ECP Group Water, Pump, Well, Borehole & Irrigation engineers.  01473 400101

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