Contaminated water

[Penners]

A neighbour also had the water tested - by a hospital for about £20.

I also had my water tested by a hospital - for free.

Fortunately the results came back negative.

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: Oh, Penners.

I don't know the arrangement of the system, or how the suspected dodgy valve would let rainwater into the well. From the previous post ISTR that the well is hand-dug and is only about 7m deep. I would think it more likely that the discolouration is due to ground water getting into the well.

Thank you very much for your interest Aidan but you misread my original post (you weren't the first - it's OK - I know it's not that memorable!) I said the valve malfuctioning has caused rainwater to be pumped into our well water tank in the attic, from whence it is piped to our drinking taps. There's nothing wrong with the well.

RE the well, I'd suggest that you fill it in. It is in the middle of the building and has permeable dry stone walls of dubious strength. If it collapses it will take the building with it. I'd think you could probably drop a well casing in before back-filling it so you'd still have a water supply from it without the risk. It's been there for XXX years, so I wouldn't be immediately concerned but it's something you might bear in mind regarding your long term water strategy.

Nooooooooooooo!!!! I love that well, it's the soul of the house.

The long term water strategy has perplexed and alarmed us, but I now think we've just adjusted to a new kind of mellowness about the whole dirty arrangement! OK, sometimes we might run out - but it won't be often. When the rainwater tank gets really low baths become a bit pointless they're so filthy. These things used to bother me, now they don't. We could spend a small fortune on a borehole (which we don't have), or we could just make do with what we have.

 

[Flyfisher]

Nice sentiments Joce - your house has clearly found a wonderfully well-adjusted new owner!

 

[JoceAndChris]

a wonderfully well-adjusted new owner!

??? :lol:

But I think we are beginning to suit one another very well: I've learned to bathe in mud, to be very frugal with water when necessary, to handle giant spiders and burn the Laura Ashley catalogues in blazing holly fires. And I think the house has given me the happiest year of my life - despite all the moaning I do on here, which I must say you all very patiently put up with - and thanks for all the help and support in getting me to this point too.

 

[robgil]

a wonderfully well-adjusted new owner!

burn the Laura Ashley catalogues in blazing holly fires.

thats just made my day that has.

 

[Penners]

I think the house has given me the happiest year of my life.

Wow - that's great! I confess that some of your posts have led me to believe the opposite. Not because you've moaned, but because your problems sometimes just sound insoluble.

However, it sounds as though you've wisely adopted the Rita Rudner approach to life (my favourite aphorism):

"I never get lost. I just change where I want to be."

 

[Flyfisher]

Yep, peace of mind is all in the, er, mind.

 

[Aidan]

Thank you very much for your interest Aidan but you misread my original post (you weren't the first - it's OK - I know it's not that memorable!) I said the valve malfuctioning has caused rainwater to be pumped into our well water tank in the attic, from whence it is piped to our drinking taps. There's nothing wrong with the well.

I had understood the post, but my reply was nonsense; asenior moment, I fear. I think the discolouration would be more likely to originate from the ground/well, rather than the rain-water.

You would rebuild or re-inforce a retaining wall if it was of dubious stability. The well is a cylindrical retaining wall but no-one in their right mind is going to try to inspect it. I think it's a no-brainer.

 

[JoceAndChris]

"I never get lost. I just change where I want to be."

That's deep blud, deeep. Yeah, we've murked it here now, it's wel sick. (this is how the children talk nowadays, I quite like it.)

You would rebuild or re-inforce a retaining wall if it was of dubious stability. The well is a cylindrical retaining wall but no-one in their right mind is going to try to inspect it. I think it's a no-brainer.

Yo cussed my well man! Even tho u mite fink it looks bad it's propa gud!

Seriously though, Aidan, your post alarms me a little. Are you saying a well isn't a safe structure? :? What's this stuff about it collapsing and dragging the house down with it? When? Why?

 

[Flyfisher]

Perhaps you should have your water tested again Joce - something has, like, gone wrong with your typing, innit. :wink:

 

[Aidan]

Seriously though, Aidan, your post alarms me a little. Are you saying a well isn't a safe structure? :? What's this stuff about it collapsing and dragging the house down with it? When? Why?

It's a hole, an excavation. Trenches/excavations regularly collapse, usually when the hole is too deep and no shoring is fitted. They will undermine a building if the collapse takes the soil from under the foundations. I was told of one such collapse; a stable trench left open and unshored over the week-end, heavy rain, building partly in the trench on Monday (not me, honest!).

The question is whether the well walls are structurally sound. No-one is going to go down the well to inspect the walls. You might be able to look at them from some CCTV arrangement. If you were to a pay a surveyor for their opinion, I suspect they wouldn't take a risk on their indemnity insurance but would recommend filling it in.

ISTR someone posted on here that they'd had the district surveyor insist an internal well was filled in during alteration work and he stood and watched whilst it was filled in.

 

[Moo]

Would it be possible to shore up the walls with some of those immense concrete cylinders one sometimes sees on building sites? Then nobody would have to go down into the well- they (the cylinders, I mean) could simply be lowered in.

 

[JoceAndChris]

It's fascinating to read that Aidan - though alarming -it's not something I'd ever though about before.

I have no reason to think that there's anything wrong with the well, the discoloration came from rainwater contamination with plumbing going wrong; I know you don't believe me but if I was clever enough to draw diagrams you would. Anyway it's all clear again now, the valve is fixed and we're drinking it.

The well water was tested two years ago and found to be fine.

The well is on the edge of the house, if it collapsed I suppose it might damage the scullery and the lean- to perspex roof; I can't imagine it would drag in the building to its right much?

It's kind of hard for me to worry about this - a bit like you telling me my legs might suddenly drop off, and I'd better have them chopped off first. :?

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Seriously though, Aidan, your post alarms me a little. Are you saying a well isn't a safe structure? :? What's this stuff about it collapsing and dragging the house down with it? When? Why?

A little after half-past three in the afternoon, a week next Thursday, Joce. I'd go shopping that afternoon if I were you. :shock:

 

[JoceAndChris]

I think I'd best go shopping every afternoon, just to make sure.