My Victorian well is over-filling and flooding my cellar. The problem is that the well has an overflow pipe that can no longer keep up with inflow after heavy rain.
The local drainage man knows the area well and thinks the overflow pipe travels approx 200m to a small man-made lake in the grounds of a nearby property. My house was the farm house for a large victorian estate which has since been broken up. The overflow pipe has most likely silted-up or has collapsed. The overflow is about 10' depth from ground level. The well is just outside my back door.
Just a few inches above the overflow is an inlet pipe which appears to head towards one corner of the house (where the cellar is located). I've calculated that this inlet pipe is about 6" below the floor level of the cellar.
After a series of incredibly heavy rainstorms this weekend the cellar ended up with 2" of water. I checked the well and the water level was easily 2 feet about the inlet pipe. My assumption is that water has backed-up along this pipe and found its way up through the cellar floor.
The level in the well is dropping back slowly so yesterday I dropped a powerful submersible in and got the level back down. However, the thing that most suprised me was the rate at which water was coming in via the inlet pipe - it was gushing in and the pump was barely keeping up. Normally the inlet simply drips slowly... so obviously the rain fall on the weekend was quickly routed to the well.
What neither I nor the local drainage expert know is where exactly the inlet pipe is coming from. The pipe is easily 9 feet below ground level. Is it simply a drainage pipe that comes from the cellar? Could it be connected to an extensive series of drains that feed the well? Does anyone have any experience of Victorian drainage and/or could offer an opinion?
If I could find some way of 'disconnecting' or restricting the inlet I may be able to keep the levels in equilibrium - as I don't think I have any way of repairing the overflow. All help and advice greatly appreciated!
Alan.
The local drainage man knows the area well and thinks the overflow pipe travels approx 200m to a small man-made lake in the grounds of a nearby property. My house was the farm house for a large victorian estate which has since been broken up. The overflow pipe has most likely silted-up or has collapsed. The overflow is about 10' depth from ground level. The well is just outside my back door.
Just a few inches above the overflow is an inlet pipe which appears to head towards one corner of the house (where the cellar is located). I've calculated that this inlet pipe is about 6" below the floor level of the cellar.
After a series of incredibly heavy rainstorms this weekend the cellar ended up with 2" of water. I checked the well and the water level was easily 2 feet about the inlet pipe. My assumption is that water has backed-up along this pipe and found its way up through the cellar floor.
The level in the well is dropping back slowly so yesterday I dropped a powerful submersible in and got the level back down. However, the thing that most suprised me was the rate at which water was coming in via the inlet pipe - it was gushing in and the pump was barely keeping up. Normally the inlet simply drips slowly... so obviously the rain fall on the weekend was quickly routed to the well.
What neither I nor the local drainage expert know is where exactly the inlet pipe is coming from. The pipe is easily 9 feet below ground level. Is it simply a drainage pipe that comes from the cellar? Could it be connected to an extensive series of drains that feed the well? Does anyone have any experience of Victorian drainage and/or could offer an opinion?
If I could find some way of 'disconnecting' or restricting the inlet I may be able to keep the levels in equilibrium - as I don't think I have any way of repairing the overflow. All help and advice greatly appreciated!
Alan.
:shock: ) sometimes it is possible to flush out a pipe with a running hose or similar.