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• Advice for Hand Dug Water Wells as a source of drinking water
• Types of wells and water supply systems and what to watch out for with each
• Well pump & water tank diagnosis & repair procedures

This article describes Advice for Hand Dug Water Wells and the sanitation and maintenance concerns with this water supply type. We provide advice about what to do when things go wrong. Readers of this document should also see Water Tank Types and before assuming that a water problem is due to the well itself, see Water pump and pressure tank repair diagnosis & cost an specific case which offers an example of diagnosis of loss of water pressure, loss of water, and analyzes the actual repair cost. © 2008 Daniel Friedman, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. Use links at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

Hand Dug Wells

Hand Dug Wells are usually quite shallow (it's dangerous to dig a deep hole by hand without special reinforcement as the well could collapse in on the excavator) - typically less than 25 feet deep. You might see an antique hand water pump shown at the top of this page, or even a rope and bucket for removing water from the well. But don't assume this is the only way that water is being delivered from the well. Often we find a hand dug well whose water is delivered to the building by a One Line Jet Pump.

As we show in this sketch at left, courtesy of Carson Dunlop, Usually a hand dug well is less than 20 feet deep. Dug wells have the same sanitation difficulties as springs and cisterns: they are easily contaminated by surface runoff and in some cases may have limited ability to deliver water at modern quantity and flow rates.

Hand dug wells range in depth from a few feet to as much as three meters and are used worldwide. Often the dug-well was lined with dry-laid stone.

Dug or excavated wells are the picturesque wells we see on postcards, with an above-ground wall and a bucket lowered by rope into the well.

But dug wells continue into modern use, often with the installation of either an in-building jet pump draw water from the well into the building. We weren't sure what the little cover in our photo above was hiding - a dug well, a cistern, or a modern well casing extending above ground.

Safety warnings for dug-wells

• Provide an above-ground wall around the well to prevent children and animals from falling into the well - a drowning hazard.
  
  
• Provide a safety screen over the above-ground wall to prevent children from falling in to the well
  
  
• Provide a child-safe heavy, secure cover at ground level for dug wells with no above-ground wall or for any below-ground well pit. At a Connectict home in the U.S. our clients, whose family included small children, was worried about lead paint hazards as their foremost concern. We arrived early and had already made a note of a rottting and unsafe cover over a hand-dug well. The client arrived. Her seven-year-old son lept from the family station wagon and made a beeline for the old hand pump atop the well. As he began jumping up and down, pumping the lever, we ran to him and scooped him off of the well top just before the entire rotting cover fell into the dug well. Our view was that this was an immediate and severe safety hazard next to which the lead paint problem was less pressing.
  
  
• Direct surface runoff away from the well and test the water frequently for potability and for other surface-borne water contaminants.
  
  
• Beware of hand dug well collapse hazards - do not enter a hand dug well unless you are properly trained and do not work there alone.

Technical Reviewers

Particular thanks are due to experts and also consumers who read these articles and suggest corrections, changes, and additions to the material. Content suggestions, technical corrections and content critique are invited for any of the content at our website.

• Daniel Friedman - principal author/editor of the InspectAPedia ^TM Website
• Thanks to Alan Carson and Bob Dunlop, Carson Dunlop, Associates, Toronto, for permission to use illustrations from their publication, The Illustrated Home which illustrates construction details and building components. Carson Dunlop provides home inspection education, publications, report writing materials, and home inspection services. Alan Carson is a past president of ASHI, the American Society of Home Inspectors.
• Critique, contributions wanted: Contact Us to suggest text changes and additions and, if you wish, to receive online listing and credit for that contribution.

More expert information on this topic

Use links just below or at the left of each of the pages at our website to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

PLUMBING TOPICS
OIL TANKS
SEPTIC SYSTEMS
WATER PRESSURE REPAIR GUIDE & COSTS
WATER PRESSURE LOSS DIAGNOSIS GUIDE
  WATER PUMP PRESSURE CONTROL ADJUSTMENT
  WATER PUMP PRESSURE CONTROL REPAIR
WATER PUMPS & TANKS & WELLS
WATER PUMP CONTROLS & SWITCHES
PUMP TYPES & LIFE EXPECTANCY
WATER PUMP & TANK SAFETY
WATER SUPPLY & DRAIN PIPING
WATER TANK TYPES: WATER, OIL, EXPANSION, ALL
WATER TANK LIFE EXPECTANCY
WATER TANK REPAIRS
WATER TANK AIR, HOW TO ADD
WATER TANK REPLACEMENT
WATER TANK PRESSURE CALCULATIONS
WATER TANK SIZE & VOLUME
WATER TANKS HOW THEY WORK
WATER TESTING
WELLS CISTERNS & SPRINGS
  Basement Wells
  Cisterns
  Drilled Wells - steel casings
    Drilled Well with Submersible Pump
    Shallow Well with One Line Jet Pump
    Well with Two Line Jet Pump
  Driven Point Wells
  How Much Water is In the Well?
  How to Test Well Water Quantity
  How to Get More Water From a Well
  Hand Dug Wells
  Springs as Water Supply
  Well Pits
  WATER PRESSURE LOSS
  WATER TANK TYPES
  WELL CLEARANCE DISTANCES
  WELL, PUMP, TANK LIFE EXPECTANCY
  WELL PUMP PRIMING GUIDE

Technical Reviewers

Particular thanks are due to experts and also consumers who read these articles and suggest corrections, changes, and additions to the material. Content suggestions, technical corrections and content critique are invited for any of the content at our website.

• Daniel Friedman - principal author/editor of the InspectAPedia ^TM Website
• Critique, contributions wanted: Contact Us to suggest text changes and additions and, if you wish, to receive online listing and credit for that contribution.

More expert information on this topic

More Information on Plumbing & Other Building Diagnostic Inspections and Repairs

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• Lead Testing & Correcting Contamination from Lead Water Supply Lines/Entry Mains - Lead Pipe Problems/Advice
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• When and How to Shock or Chlorinate a Well - Procedure for Shocking a Well to (temporarily or maybe longer) "Correct" Bacterial Contamination
• Water Requirements, Home & Outdoor Living
• Typical Water Tests & Fees this water test fee schedule applies when testing is combined with other onsite building inspection services
• Drinking Water testing, contamination, correction - all topics
• General water testing and corrective measure advice: contact your local health department.

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