Replies

1. 
   Piffin | Oct 29, 2008 08:19pm | #1

   see what records are on file at town office or building dept. an upgrade to the system should have been permitted and recorded.

   other than that, find out who pumps it and how often.

   Then there is possibility of hiring one of the soils engineers in the area who designs new wast water systems to evaluate it for you.

   Well - pop the cap and see if depth and flow rate are recorded - stamped into the inside of the lid. This practice may not have been used back when that was drilled.
   Is it a submersible pump?

   You can find depth by dropping a plumb bob on a string. That won't tell you too much other than how deep it is really. You can hire a guy to send a camera down to see what shape the casing walls are in.

   Most important would be to send off for a water test for lead, coliform, other bacteria, manganese, sulphur and iron and radon. Test kits are available everywhere. Take the aerator off the faucet where you will sample from, let it run for a few minutes and turn it off. Use a torch or spritz lisol on it to kill whatever, then let it run again for a minute, then take the sample. Do this immediately before the mailman comes and get it sent off. samples more than a couple days old may not be accurate.

   Check in the crawl or cellar for signs of rust stains, leaky fittings, recent repairs etc. What kind and condition of pressure tank? When turning on the water, does the pump kick in and out soon and often?

    

    

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1. 
   cic317 | Oct 29, 2008 08:30pm | #2

   Thanks for the reply,
   The well is original 1968, no raised head has a large flat rock covering the head or pump, the pressure tank appears to be original, any advice to check if it almost dead? How about checking well flow? any way to measure?
   Thanks

1. 
   john7g | Oct 29, 2008 08:57pm | #4

   County Health Department (or whoever permits wells) may have records on the well and septic if they kept records back then.  Inspections after pumping the septic are supposed to be reported here.  Water pressure tanks aren't that big of a deal labor-wise or cost-wise to to change.   

   Well flow check is easy, fill a 5 gallon bucket & count how many times you fill it in a minute.  Simple math, however this is checking the flow through the system and any restrictions between the tap and the well will affect it. 

   Water quality tests are free at our local ag extensions, maybe yours too. 

   Getting the septic tank pumped generally isn't that expensive.

1. 
   Piffin | Oct 29, 2008 11:14pm | #5

   John, that test is very limited in that it only tells you want you can get out of the 'system' in a minute. The only accurate way of determining the well flow rate is by the well driller when he sinks the mutha. I have seen a couple in excess of 80GPM. Try pushing THAT through a one inch pipe!
   LOL 

    

   Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

1. 
   john7g | Oct 30, 2008 01:09am | #6

   thought that's what I put in there with the words after however. 

2. 
   gfretwell | Oct 29, 2008 08:42pm | #3

   One way to find out about wells is to talk to the neighbors. They can usually tell you how deep the water is and how reliable it is. In Vt you probably end up in a mountain spring with "bottle quality" water. Personally I would just plan on buying a new pump in a few years. You may not have to but budget for it. Inspect all the above ground hardware, just to get an idea of it's general condition. The pump switch and pressure tank are probably the only parts you will see. 5 years is about all you can depend on a pressure tank lasting around here but some do better.
   Have the septic tank pumped and inspected. A lot of places actually make this a requirement on the transfer of property so it may already have been done. Guys who do this all day long are usually the best judge of what you have and what you can expect locally. The perk rate (speed it dissipates wastewater) may be the most important factor.
   I have been on well/septic for 25 years and once I got all my well hardware inside this has been fairly trouble free. In Florida they usually just have it out in the weather and that is the formula for trouble.