Quite often, in a well recently regularly supplying clean water, the liquid acquires an unpleasant taste and smell, it develops a color, indicating the presence of impurities. You cannot use such water for drinking and culinary purposes. In addition, the increased amount of impurities can spoil plumbing fixtures, household appliances, and quickly render filter cartridges unusable. Do you need to repair wells in the country with your own hands - in each case, you can decide after careful inspection of the structure , but cleaning and eliminating the causes of pollution are always required. There can be several reasons for the appearance of dirt.
If in the first two cases you can limit yourself to cleaning and sanitizing the structure, in the latter you will have to think about how to repair the well.
You will also need a drainage pump for the dirty water to pump it out. We described how to choose it in another article.
Regular cleaning of the well is the key to its long functioning and the presence of water in it without impurities and pollution. How to carry it out, there is information here.
1. Before proceeding to any other work, the mine will need to be freed from water. Since it is impossible to stop the arrival of the liquid during cleaning or repairs, it will be necessary to pump out (using a pump) several times:
2. By cleaning the walls, you not only eliminate water polluting organic matter (deposits removed from the surface with a brush should be removed from the mine), but also prepare the surfaces for inspection.
3. The cleaned walls are carefully examined: the integrity of the structure itself, the coating, the joints of the elements is checked (often do-it-yourself repair of a well from concrete rings is required when they are displaced relative to each other and cracks form). The detected violations are eliminated.
4. Bottom cleaning most often consists in removing deposits and replacing the filter layer. The easiest way is to use a bucket on a rope and a shovel. More experienced homeowners often use a grapple for this purpose.
How the repair of wells with your own hands will be carried out depends on the design of the structure and, first of all, on the material from which it is made.
Important: All repair work is carried out in special clothing, with insurance and a partner.
Do-it-yourself wooden well repair can without exaggeration be attributed to the most difficult. He will require the device and use of auxiliary facilities:
The main reason for the repair of wooden structures is the putrefactive processes that occur in wood under the influence of water. In this case, organic pollution is not the organic matter brought into the well from the outside, but its own walls. There is only one way to eliminate this phenomenon - replace rotting logs with new ones .
The procedure is performed in a specific sequence.
In order to decide how to repair the well with your own hands in this case, you should assess the degree of damage.
After draining the concrete well, the degree of destruction is assessed.
How to repair a well of concrete rings when they are displaced? In this case, it is impossible to do without lifting equipment - the structure will have to be partially dismantled and reassembled according to all the rules, restoring the geometry, ensuring the strength of the seams and the tightness of the mine as a whole.
Important: To avoid re-displacement, the rings are fastened together with special brackets.
Repair of brick wells is technically simpler than the rest. When cracks appear in the brick or erosion of the joints by groundwater, a brick of the damaged area is selected, and a new one is laid in its place using mortar. After the joints have hardened, the plaster layer and waterproofing are restored.
Insufficient water levels can make it difficult to lift fluid to the surface, whether it is done manually or with pumping equipment. There are two reasons for the decline in levels:
In the first case, most likely, the error will be noticeable immediately, and the only way out is to move the well to a new location.
Before moving the well, you can try to increase its depth.
VIDEO A private well makes it possible to be independent from city services and receive water in the right quantity and of good quality around the clock. Cleaning and repairing wells are mandatory activities that must be carried out regularly to maintain the source in working order and maintain the quality of drinking water.
Mandatory maintenance is required not only by mines to obtain water, but also by sewage systems, which are responsible for the removal of wastewater, their accumulation and disposal.
The process of plastering small cracks in a mine.
Each house, to ensure normal living conditions and comfort, has a water supply and sewerage system, each of these systems has its own wells and periodically needs maintenance and cleaning. Repair and cleaning of the well is carried out at regular intervals, which are set depending on the type of soil, the intensity of use of the building.
Much depends on the material used during construction, as well as on compliance with the construction rules themselves and the quality of the work performed. If a poor-quality material was used during the construction, the type of soil was not taken into account and the technology was not followed, then the source mine will constantly fail and require repair work.
All repair work can be roughly divided into two types:
scheduled maintenance; unscheduled work. So now in more detail:
Scheduled repair work is carried out at a certain period of time to maintain proper water quality, timely detection and elimination of minor faults or damage. It is worth noting that any major accident does not happen by chance, it is always preceded by a number of minor malfunctions and if they are left unattended and not eliminated in time, their combination leads to major breakdowns.
Scheduled repairs include:
cleaning the mine from build-ups and deposits;
Mine contaminated with sediment.
cleaning or replacing the bottom filter;
disinfection with special solutions;
pumping water after repairs and prolonged downtime;
sealing small cracks in the walls of the mine.
major malfunctions that have arisen as a result of improper operation of the source, extraneous mechanical influences or violation of construction technology.
Unscheduled work includes:
elimination of displacement of concrete rings;
replacement of damaged rings in the head of the well;
deepening of the well with a sharp decrease in the water level or clogging of the filter.
When arranging sewerage and water supply systems, wells made of reinforced concrete rings or plastic are most often used. Plastic wells practically do not need repair work, since they are a monolithic shaft made of a material that is durable and resistant to mechanical stress.
Shafts made of concrete rings are also used in both systems, therefore, the repair of sewer wells is practically no different from the repair of water pipes, since they have the same faults.
Sealing of seams with bitumen-gasoline solution.
Works on sealing the joint seams between reinforced concrete rings are the most common type of minor breakdowns and are easily removable, so anyone can do such a well repair with their own hands, without having special skills, but observing elementary safety rules.
Ring cracks appear as a result of soil shrinkage and displacement. This is the normal behavior of the soil in different seasons. To eliminate cracks, you can use ordinary cement mortar mixed with ordinary PVC glue.
You can use ready-made mixtures for sealing, but their price will be much higher than the components for cement mortar.
To seal cracks at the joints of the slabs, you will need:
putty knife;
cement mortar;
metal brush;
hammer.
Sealing the inside of the shaft.
Tip: Before filling the crack, you must first tap it with a hammer to remove the old putty and remove loose elements. After that, clean the place with a metal brush, remove dust as much as possible and cover with a solution using a spatula. Try to push the mortar as much as possible deep into the crack.
If large cracks are found, through which the soil and top water penetrate, then the repair of the well from concrete rings in such cases is carried out from the outside of the mine.To do this, a hole is dug from the side of the crack to the required depth, the seam is processed from the outside and the hole is buried back.
It is important to remember that from the outside, after covering the seam with cement mortar, you can additionally coat the seam with bitumen mastic for better waterproofing. If large cracks between concrete rings are not eliminated in time, this will lead not only to water pollution, but also to displacement of the rings.
Repair: displacement of the rings in the well is a rather complicated operation that requires partial disassembly of the entire shaft of the well. Displacement usually occurs as a result of ground movement, if during the construction of the mine the rings were not fixed to each other or a cushion of sand and rubble was not installed around the walls of the mine.
Dismantling was carried out when the concrete rings were displaced.
The technology for repairing wells in such cases provides for the dismantling of all concrete rings over the point of displacement, their re-installation in the desired place and fastening together with special metal brackets. A layer of coarse gravel is additionally laid along the outer part of the mine, which softens the pressure of the soil on the mine when it moves.
Deepening also applies to repair work. With incorrect initial calculations of the depth of the well or as a result of a number of other reasons, the water level in the source may significantly decrease or disappear altogether. In such cases, measures will be required to deepen the mine, where repair rings for the well are used.
For your information! Rings are called repair rings, the outer diameter of which is slightly less than the inner diameter of the already installed rings. The repair rings for the wells are lowered to the bottom of the mine, placed on top of each other and deepening is carried out according to the same principle as the well itself was built, where all the concrete rings sink under their own weight as they deepen (see photo).
Deepening the mine with repair rings.
Carrying out work on deepening, it will not work to use the already installed rings, since after time has elapsed, they are tightly clamped by the soil as a result of small seasonal movements. Do not try to lower the installed concrete products by force, this can lead to significant damage and, as a result, more complex repairs will be required with partial disassembly of the well, which will inevitably entail additional financial costs.
Before you repair a well with your own hands, you need to clearly assess your capabilities, the availability of special knowledge and the necessary tools. In many cases, carrying out any work on your own can not only harm the source itself, but also harm your health. Therefore, if you doubt your own abilities, it is better to seek help from a specialized company and hire a team of qualified workers.
Scheduled cleaning of the sewer shaft.
The repair of a sewer well is not much different from similar troubleshooting work in fresh water sources, where the same concrete rings are used for the construction of the mine and the head.
The difference is that these wells perform different functions, but the technical device is almost the same for all and the types of malfunctions are the same.
For any work in deep mines, there is a special safety instruction, which provides for the availability of personal protective equipment and safety elements, as well as certain rules for the use and composition of building material used in the implementation of repair work.
In order for the cleaning and deepening of the well to go smoothly, be sure to watch the video in this article.
VIDEO
Having their own well on the site gives the homeowner the opportunity to receive clean water in the required volume, regardless of the central city water supply.The maintenance of the well involves its periodic maintenance and repair, which we will talk about in this article.
You will learn how wells are repaired, cleaned and deepened. A list of works on the maintenance of drinking and sewerage wells will be considered, as well as step-by-step instructions for their implementation will be given.
The service life of a drinking well is directly influenced by such factors as the quality of the building materials used and compliance with the requirements of construction technology. Also important factors determining the durability of the source are the type of soil and its mobility, in the presence of which even a structure equipped in strict accordance with technology can deform and become unusable.
Well repair can be conditionally divided into two types - planned and capital. The purpose of the planned repairs is to maintain the required water quality (cleaning), as well as to repair minor damage to the structure. Scheduled maintenance cannot be neglected, since no serious breakdown can happen by accident - it will be preceded by small accumulating malfunctions, eliminating which you will lose major problems in the future.
Scheduled well repair consists of the following operations:
cleaning the walls of concrete rings from formations and growths;
cleaning the bottom filter, if necessary - replacing it completely;
sealing with a solution of cracking on the walls;
disinfection of water.
Concrete ring well
The need for capital repairs most often arises when external factors are exposed to the source. The list of works of this group includes:
elimination of displacement rings;
replacement of a damaged head;
rigid fixation of the rings to each other;
deepening of the bottom (the need for which arises when the flow rate of the source is reduced).
Wells of sewage and water supply systems, depending on the materials of manufacture, are divided into plastic and reinforced concrete. Plastic structures practically do not need repair, since they have a monolithic shaft, which does not undergo displacement of individual elements, and no plaque forms on its walls. The repair of a well made of concrete rings is more varied, since problems with prefabricated structures can arise an order of magnitude more. Let's consider ways to eliminate the main ones.
Loss of sealing between ring joints is the most common problem in precast concrete mines. The reason for the formation of cracks at the joints is seasonal heaving and soil shifts that occur during freezing and thawing of the soil.
Repairing joints is quite simple, and you can do it yourself without any prior experience in such work. Cracks are filled with a mixture of M300-M400 cement and PVA glue. If the financial issue is secondary, then you can use ready-made store mixes. From the tools you need a spatula, trowel, hammer and wire brush.
Before starting the filling, it is necessary to remove crumbling concrete particles from the crack; this can be done by knocking it with a hammer. Further, the damaged area is cleaned with a metal clear, the crack is filled with a solution of glue and cement with a spatula and the putty is leveled with a spatula.
If a large crack is found through which groundwater penetrates into the well, you will need to use special fast-setting cement to prepare the putty mixture. At the same time, a sand-cement mortar is usually needed here, and not a sand-based mixture. After hardening, the filled crack can be additionally treated with penetrating waterproofing.
Displaced rings are a rather serious problem, which cannot be repaired with your own hands. Here it will be necessary to disassemble the entire shaft of the well over the deformed section, which is impossible without the involvement of lifting equipment.
In most cases, displacement also occurs due to soil displacements; the situation can be further aggravated by a high GWL (groundwater level), which washes away the soil in contact with the rings. Note that the displacement is most often subjected to well shafts, in which the elements are not rigidly fixed to each other. Wells without sand and gravel covering the mine are also in the high-risk group.
Digging and leveling the well
The repair algorithm in this case consists in the sequential dismantling of all rings over the place of displacement, their re-installation with rigid fixation with steel brackets. In especially mobile soil, it is necessary to dig out a mine and fill a layer of gravel 20 cm thick around it.
Most often, it is necessary to deepen the wells, during the arrangement of which the depth of the source was incorrectly calculated. The reason may also be a decrease in the level of the aquifer, due to which the water in the well can completely disappear.
Deepening of the shaft is carried out using special repair rings with a smaller diameter than the main part of the structure. Initially, with the help of pumps, the source is drained and cleaned of sludge, which makes it possible to work at its bottom. Further, the required number of rings is lowered to the bottom of the mine and stacked on top of each other, after which standard deepening work is carried out - soil is sequentially dug out from under the rings, as a result of which they sink under their own weight.
Deepening the well with additional rings
You cannot try to make a deepening of an existing mine by digging in the soil under it, since the old rings have been tightly clamped by the soil during operation, and their excavation can cause deformation of the entire structure.
VIDEO Repair of sewer wells made of concrete rings practically does not differ from the technology we have considered for eliminating defects in water sources, since the structural arrangement of their mines is largely identical. Separately, it is worth considering only the installation of a sewer hatch, which is installed on inspection and inspection wells.
The upper part of the manhole consists of a floor slab, a concrete neck and a hatch, which can be removable (fixed with screws) or folding (mounted on hinges).
Plastic manholes
Recently, the use of plastic hatches has become widespread, which are resistant to corrosion and are less attractive to scrap metal collectors than metal hatches. It is the technology of installing a plastic hatch that we will consider:
A floor slab is mounted on the upper ring of the shaft using crane technology.
The mouth of the well, which is supplied with the hatch, is fixed on the opening of the ceiling with the help of a sand-cement mortar. The neck around the circumference must be evenly covered with a solution to its entire height, leveling it with a trowel.
A plastic hatch is mounted in the landing grooves on the neck and tightened with screws.
If the shaft overlap has already been installed, and you are just changing the old metal hatch, you will not need to use crane equipment, since the plastic hatches are lightweight and you can easily install them with your own hands.
The Abyssinian well, also known as the needle-well, is a perforated plastic pipe (up to 70 mm in diameter) with a cone-shaped tip, buried 10-15 meters into the ground. Water intake from such a source is carried out using surface-type pumps, since the insufficient diameter of the pipe does not allow the use of submersible units.
During the operation of the Abyssinian well, a source located in a sandy aquifer becomes clogged with silt, which leads to a decrease in its flow rate and a deterioration in water quality.The most effective way to clean an Abyssinian source is to pump it with a drain pump.
Flushing the Abyssinian well
The need to use a drainage pump is due to the ability of such a technique to work with highly polluted water. The cleaning technology is quite simple - an intake hose is lowered into the casing and the sludge accumulated in it is pumped out. Do not forget to prepare a reservoir for the dirt that the pump will pull out, as there will be a lot of it.
After removing silt from the pipe, it is necessary to start cleaning the filtering section of the Abyssinian well, which may be clogged with soil. This will require special equipment - an airlift, which can be replaced with a powerful air compressor. The essence of the technology is to supply a high-pressure air stream (10-15 Bar) inside the well, due to which sand and silt will be pushed out of the filter openings.
Repair of wells with plastic rings and other methods
Repair of wells with plastic rings
The well located on your personal plot can become unusable over time. There can be many reasons for this misfortune: first of all, these are ground movements and the insufficient quality of the materials used in the construction of the well. But modern industry has long mastered the production of structures that will faithfully serve you for many decades and can successfully replace damaged materials. One of the popular well repair methods is the use of plastic rings.
The well located on the site of a country house is an excellent source of clean drinking water. But, at the same time, it is also a complex engineering and technical structure, a structure consisting of many component parts. As a rule, the components of such devices tend to wear out, which can lead to the inoperability of the entire structure.
Cloudy water in a well is one of the most common problems indicating a need for repair.
The most common problems faced by well owners are the following:
The well is filled with muddy, dirty water
Foreign impurities enter the well through the diverging seams of the walls.
The well dries up, it drastically reduces the amount of available water.
The well shaft can completely collapse.
Let's see how you can cope with these problems with the use of modern building materials and equipment.
As a rule, this problem occurs in wells, the walls of which are formed from reinforced concrete rings. If several seams between such rings lose their tightness, then groundwater begins to flow into the well, which has not been sufficiently purified. Soil particles seeping through broken joints can settle at the bottom of the well and raise the level of its bottom, preventing the flow of clean water.
Gaps between well rings
The most effective way to repair such damage to wells is to use plastic rings. They are formed from a tube with two layers and a spiral structure. This design has increased rigidity to withstand loads in the horizontal direction. The plastic rings are connected to each other using a threaded connection, which ensures reliable tightness.
In order to repair the well using plastic rings, the following measures must be taken:
At the preparatory stage, the upper part of the well frame, the so-called house, is dismantled.
Water is pumped out of the well; if necessary, the inner surface of the well is cleaned and disinfected.
The well bottom is being cleaned, sludge and dirt are removed from it.
The pre-connected plastic rings are installed in the cleaned and prepared well shaft.In order to ensure the complete tightness of the threaded connection, it is pre-treated with a silicone-based sealant. A sealant can also be applied over the joint.
Plastic ring inside the well
Plastic rings installed in the well
After such a repair, the well is filled with water exclusively through the bottom, after water purification. This excludes the ingress of untreated groundwater available at a shallow depth into it.
Other types of damage can occur in wells composed of concrete rings. Let's see how you can fix them.
If you find damage on the concrete ring, then it can simply be repaired with a cement-sand mortar.
When installing new rings, try to connect them together in order to prevent possible movement. The easiest way to do this is with ordinary wire threaded through the transport loops. Then the wire is twisted.
In your well, one of the rings may move relative to the others. You may be able to correct this flaw. To do this, you will have to dig in a well and, with an effort, restore the position of the rings relative to each other. In any case, after repairs associated with the movement of reinforced concrete rings relative to each other, you will need to carry out waterproofing work on the joints. After fixing the rings relative to each other, fill the free outer space with sand or soil.
We repair a dry well
In a number of localities, the groundwater level has a pronounced long-term cycle. The duration of such a cycle can reach several tens of years, as a result of which, after a while, your well may suddenly become dry. A lowering of the water level in the well can also become an alarm signal. This issue is solved by deepening the well shaft, and the use of plastic rings to strengthen the walls will ensure the purity of the water in the well.
To deepen a dry well, the following activities are carried out:
At the preparatory stage, we dismantle the well house and pump out water from it.
We conduct a visual inspection of the condition of the well, if necessary, we clean it and carry out disinfection measures.
We completely remove the bottom filter of the old well.
We lower the plastic ring to the cleaned bottom. We dig the soil under it and remove the earth from the well shaft.
Under the influence of gravity, the ring will gradually lower.
After sampling a sufficient amount of land, we assemble the entire shaft from plastic rings.
In the presence of sufficiently strong walls of the well charge, formed from reinforced concrete rings, you can limit yourself to installing 1-2 articulated plastic rings. In order to exclude the ingress of dirt from the gap between the plastic and concrete rings, a concrete mixture is poured.
A new bottom filter is poured at the bottom of the well, and the necessary infrastructure is mounted on top.
A damaged wooden well can also be found on your site. Unfortunately, the service life of such structures is not very long and you may need to repair it.
An old dilapidated wooden well can also be repaired using suitable sized plastic rings. It is necessary that their outer diameter fits into the frame of a well, which is usually square in cross section. The process of repairing an old wooden well is almost completely similar to the restoration of a well from reinforced concrete rings with split seams.
The gaps between the rings of a reinforced concrete well can also form due to the natural wear and tear of the concrete edges of the structure. To solve this problem, additional waterproofing can be carried out. In principle, discrepancies up to 10 centimeters wide are subject to this type of repair.
In order to close the gap formed, soil and debris are selected from it to a depth of about 10 centimeters. Clay is compacted tightly into the resulting space. After drying, a layer of concrete mortar can be applied over the clay, and after it dries, liquid waterproofing can be applied.
Some time after the start of operation, the well may become silted. This may be evidenced by the deteriorating water quality, the appearance of a sandy sediment, and the loss of transparency by water. So it's time to clean the well.
Pump - serves as an excellent tool for pumping water from a well
Before cleaning, the well is drained, water is pumped out of it. If necessary, disinfection measures are taken. Carefully remove any moss or lichens from the inside of the well walls. To disinfect and protect wooden walls, they can be coated with limestone solution or bleach.
If necessary, replace the bottom filter bed. The thickness of such a filtering layer consisting of pebbles and quartz sand should be at least 10 centimeters.
For enhanced cleaning and disinfection of the well, about half a kilogram of bleach is poured to its bottom. Thirty minutes later, the resulting solution is pumped out or scooped out.
Wells need to be cleaned regularly. This is especially true in cases where the well is not used for a long time. As a result, the water in it can stagnate. In this case, it must be cleaned every five years and sanitized before each season of use.
If the well is used constantly, then it can be sanitized once a year.
As you can see, when using modern materials, repairing a well seems to be a fairly simple matter that can be performed even by people with minimal technical skills. Modern household chemicals and hygiene products will allow you to more effectively sanitize well structures, so that the water in them will always be clean and tasty.
Plastic rings installed in the well
Plastic ring inside the well
Gaps between well rings
Video (click to play).
Cloudy water in a well is one of the most common problems indicating a need for repair.
