There is a 2″ Galvanized Pipe with a 4″ PVC tube sticking out of my backyard. It is capped off but the cap is loose and i have removed it, no unusual odor comes out of it (I know, not a good idea to smell it) I am unsure of what it could be. I did tie a bolt to a string and drop it down the hole and it appears to go about 25′ down. Would this be an old water well or is there an oil tank below? I plan on building a garage next spring so I will need to determine what this is. If you have any ideas of what it may be or who I may call to figure it out I would appreciate it.
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ONE... I wouldn't call anyone...
Two if it's 25 ft down... I'd build on top of it...
Three... if i was concerned at all (and i wouldn't be... I'd cap the pipe under the slab and never think about it again)
oh yeah don't call anyone don't point it out... don't let an inspector see it... any movement from that advice could be expensive...
but thats just me... whatever is in the ground... stays in the ground...
a buddy of mine spent 50k digging up an empty rusted out old tank that was on his property... even when the soil tested fine... he was still required to pay to have the soil around the tank removed... all because he called someone somewhere to come check this "pipe i found sticking out of the ground"
do what you feel comfortable with ... just telling you what I'd do...
p
Update - It is a failed attempt at drilling a water well. I found the old homeowner and she said a long while back her husband attempted to drill a water well and about 30' in hit a rock so he quit. I'm glad it's nothing else, I will cut the pipe well below grade and cap it off. Thanks for all the input and humor.
Years ago my great uncle wanted water closer to his garden, he had a flowing well farther down the property, he thought he could hit water just a few feet down.He pounded a pipe with a point down until he hit a rock or what ever, then he would drop a stick of dynamite down to blast open the tip. 3 attempts and no water, each time he would check his well and call up the guy next door to see if he had running water, he was afraid that his blasting would disturb his well.40 years later, uncle is dead and the owner of his old farm asked me what the screed up pipes were in the back of the hog house????After a good laugh the guy decided to leave the pipes alone, "gave the farm character"!!!
A lot depends on what was previously on that property. If it was farmland then there could have been a residence or some other heated structure, and it could be a buried heating oil tank, but any other type of tank would have been above ground. And 25 feet is too deep for any normal tank, so if I had to bet I'd bet it's a well of some sort.
You might be able to get someone with a snake camera to check it out. If it's a well it should in theory be "capped" by filling it with concrete.
test well ya think???
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
"Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints"
Dunno about a test well. I couldn't quite grasp the description of a 2" pipe and a 4" one. (Are they concentric?) A test well would probably only be one pipe.
A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It's a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity. --Jimmy Carter
i like the "it's an outter"...
let's untie it and see if it will frazz like a ballon...
4" could be a casinf and the 2" a well point...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
"Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints"
it could have had a field hydrant at one time...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
"Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints"
Not that deep.
A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It's a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity. --Jimmy Carter
at 20-25' a hand pump is very plauseable...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
"Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints"
Maybe some paranoid 1960's resident burrowed down and put a bomb shelter in and then at the last moment included a pipe for ventilation.
jt8
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. -- Carl Sandburg
all that remains is to set up a perimeter staffed by live feed cameras..
a fair sized track hoe...
a nervey operator....
and simply dig up the property...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
"Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints"
My bet is it is an old water well. I've got one about that diameter . More details about your location etc might make guessing easier albeit possibly less fun.
Contrary to popular opinion, our world is not round. It is flat.
It floats inside an eggshell.
An eggshell that sits on the back of four giant elephants.
Who, in turn, rest on the back of an immense turtle.
Our world is connected to the eggshell via a very thin unbilical cord.
It reaches through the entire earth.
You have found the tip of that umbilical.
Please, for Earth's sake, do not do anything to endanger it.
Edited 10/27/2009 1:52 am by Luka
so the earths belly button is an outie, not an innie??? whouda thunk it.
Is it an innie or an outie?
A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It's a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity. --Jimmy Carter
So what's that turtle standing upon?'Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it' ~ Chinese proverb
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Hah! It's turtles all the way down!
Forrest
See, that question always draws out the village philosophers!Now we just have to wait for Mike Smith to wander by so we can ask him if he's a turtle.'Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it' ~ Chinese proverb
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"Hah! It's turtles all the way down!"Is that a Yertle reference?BruceT
It refers to the infinite regression problem in cosmology posed by the Unmoved mover paradox.
The most widely known version appears in Stephen Hawking's 1988 book A Brief History of Time, which starts:
A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever", said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"
Edited 10/28/2009 1:20 am ET by McDesign
Ah. Thanks.I read that book 20 years ago, but did not remember that passage.BruceT
Why do all the hyperlinks in your post link to the Taunton home page?BruceT
Because Taunton is the source of all knowledge.
A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It's a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity. --Jimmy Carter
It's a sea turtle and it swims in the cosmic sea...It's all fun and games, until someone puts an eye out..You are always welcome at Quittintime
Another turtle, of course. It's turtles the whole way down.
A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It's a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity. --Jimmy Carter
You forgot the ball between the two turtles. Allows them to walk around in a circle and keep the sun rising everyday.
Life is Good
Turtles have balls?
A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It's a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity. --Jimmy Carter
Only some of them.
Life is Good
No.Turtles do not reproduce.All turtles that are in existance now, have always existed...It's all fun and games, until someone puts an eye out..You are always welcome at Quittintime
So what's that turtle standing upon?
The leptonic ethers of the multi-braned multiverse, obviously <g>Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Luka - whatcha smokin' for breakfast? ;o)
This is dinner time for him!>G<
(I know, not a good idea to smell it)
And now that you've stuck your nose over it and sucked some of the swamp gas into your lungs, the resulting memory loss has left you devoid of any idea of what's under the ground there.
This is how the aliens are taking over, from their ancient underground world. First is forgetfulness, next is the illusion that the woman in your house is actually your wife.
Our community had a wellhead protection program, set on capping all abandon wells in the area.
there was a $50.00 reward for turning one in.
I would do my best to cap it, set it, and forget it!!!
Don't want someone pouring used motor oil down then neat little pipe and then you would have your great grand kids drinking 30W.
its a water well with a jet pump hookup, the foot properly still in the well
Just as likely a driven point well, with a 4"casing down to 6 to 10 feet...It's all fun and games, until someone puts an eye out..You are always welcome at Quittintime
It's a buried UFO. They were in your area in 1947, it is well documented, but the documents are all classified.
The pipe is their communications link (to their home planet? Or China?) They are waiting until they get a signal from home, then they are going to emerge from their subterrenean hideout, and when they do, they'll bust your garage all to bits.
Drop an eviction notice down the pipe. Or, if you'd prefer a little income, drop a rent bill down the pipe. Who knows, they might pay in a currency that is more valuable than USD.
< they might pay in a currency that is more valuable than USD >
Hell - probably shiny beads
Forrest
Wait. I sartre recall that Hell was other people.'Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it' ~ Chinese proverb
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LOL! I always said visiting my folks was like that - trapped in a small hot room with irritating people.
Forrest
If galvy, then likely an old wash point well. Call a local well company and see if they'l sell you a bucket of bentonite pellets. Slowly drop the pellets down the well. They will hydrate and seal up the well. Alternately, you could just mix up a bag or two of portland cement really loose, like wet oatmeal. Then slowly pour it down the well. Either method will be an adequate seal.
Put a 24" pipe wrench on it with a 6' cheater pipe and see if anything unthreads. If not, dig down a couple feet and cut or torch it off.
Then move on with your life.
with a flashlight and mirror you may be able to see the bottom if its a straight pipe. my guess you have a well but most very old hand dug wells are 3-4ft in diameter. wells were not recorded in my area until sometime about 1980. i suscribe to the thought that it stays in the ground and build over it. a slab will distribute the ground load over a large area and very unlikely to collapse.
true story.... bought a rent house and i had a well filled and it was a very big deal. had to pay a city health dept person $500 just to supervise the fill by a certified well driller. two loads of sifted soil shoveld into a tiny hole. it setteled after 2 months and the city fined me $200 for a hole in the front yard the looked like an "abandoned well had been filled in and dangerous to the public". had to get the well driller to accompany me to the hearing.
dont tell any one.....
I'm guessing it's an water well.
But, the string should have come up wet if it's a water well or oily if it's an oil well or oil tank.
if the well still has water, put a pump on it and water the grass with it
you sorry you asked yet?
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"After the laws of Physics, everything else is opinion"
-Neil deGrasse Tyson
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If Pasta and Antipasta meet is it the end of the Universe???
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according to statistical analysis, "for some time now, bears apparently have been going to the bathroom in the woods."
Every time I see this thread what I read is "Mystery pile in the backyard." And then I wonder why it's a mystery.
So your recommendation then is "Preparation H"?
Life is Good
haha! I was thinking more like a dog was involved, but you go ahead and put it on the dog. I'll stand over here and watch.