it was on my list of possibilities

Hope the plumber gets you back in business quickly ! We're on city water here , but the cost for watering the garden is pretty high . There's been a well here since we bought the property , I just never utilized it until last summer . I don't know if it's safe for people to drink , but it's sure doing a good job of quenching my garden's thirst .

Snag wrote: ...

thanks! we have a new tank installed, but there is some issue with the well because it is not holding pressure and there are no leaks in the house. so tomorrow we'll see what the well people say if they can get out here.

at least in the meantime we can turn on the well for a while to get some toilets flushed and water for doing dishes and any watering in the gardens that might be needed. but i don't want to leave the well power on all the time because it is cycling pretty frequently.

not going to be a cheap event if they have to dig up the well line to find the leak but i'm thinking it might be right at the well itself based upon a previous event. we'll see...

songbird

Snag wrote: ...

hopefully it doesn't have too much of bad stuff in it. around here salt water is very common.

songbird

My concern is that the jerk that put my septic system in placed the tank too close to the well . I really should have the water tested , there may be a time when we need that water for household use .

We have been in this house over 45 years with a well and have dealt with everything going wrong. On one acre lots I have run a garden hose between neighbors for them or me until things get fixed. Just running hose from outlet to outlet works.

I was using a plumber for repairs replacing pressure tank a few times and pump a couple of times. Had a bad experience over four years ago when plumber replaced pump and well collapsed. We had water but pump would not go as deep as wanted and could not be taken out and plumber stuck us with big bill and no advice.

I hired well digger to straighten everything out which included digging new well, about 150 feet deep, pump and pressure tank.

If I need help in the future I will go back to the well digger and not the plumber as well digger can handle the whole system.

Frank wrote: ...

based upon my experience with the plumber i would say that they don't know what they are doing with wells and the well guy came out and fixed what they did so it works.

we do have water again and so i get to go out and water the plants that are started.

we might have had frost last night so i'm hoping the plants survived ok. i think they did, but until i get out there to look and water i won't know for sure...

songbird

Good to hear. Guess you knew what I found out it is best to get the proper people for the job.

Frank wrote: ...

it's hard to know if anyone is really good or not until you've had them do something and been able to observe them.

i shall not rant here about the plumbers but they did some things that make me very sure we won't be calling them again or recommending them to anyone else.

next week i need to get the pressure increased as watering today there was too little pressure for what i normally need to do. i'll ask the well guy first if he can stop over anytime he's in the area next time to do this since while i do understand roughly what the task entails i don't want to attempt it without either asking some questions or having him here and i can be his helper like the last few times. it's not an emergency now so we can get by until whenever. being without water in a dry spell is not something i want to have happen again if i can help it. especially with all the planting i'm going to be doing in the next few weeks.

we could really use some long soaking gentle rains.

songbird

In these parts, Big Brother outlaws wells when there is a city hookup available, even if you do not tap into it. Keep yours hidden just in case!

I suspect the guy that installed my septic system - who also happened to be the head of our water company at that time - thought he'd negated my use of the well by placing the septic tank too close . We'll see , I picked up a test sample kit to send off to the state health assn this morning . I'm already using the well to water the garden , but I'd like to know if it's safe to drink . I suspect it is , due to the orientation of the strata of the subsurface rock formations . The layers of rock and clay/sand are sloped such that effluent from my drainage field will flow away from the well site . By the time it gets 48 feet down it'll be a long way from my well .