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This article offers 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.

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Hand Dug Wells

The world wide popularity of hand dug wells is accounted for by the ease of construction without specialized equipment, the simplicity of water raising equipment (a bucket on a rope has worked for thousands of years), and the ability of the dug well to hold a large volume of water in storage for times of peak demand.

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. Dug wells are usually constructed during dry weather when the water level is at its lowest, both for safety (less likely wet soils cause well collapse) and to determine the necessary depth of the dug well to obtain adequate water supply. 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.

Sources for repair parts and installation instructions for hand pumps on dug wells and shallow wells are provided at our reviewers list below.

Safety warnings for dug-wells

The hazards of hand dug wells include poor sanitation (ground water and surface runoff easily enter the drinking water supply), and cave-ins during construction or injuries to tools dropped into the well during construction. We are particularly concerned about the safety hazards to children when a dug well does not have a child proof wall and/or cover.

• 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 Connecticut 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 rotting and unsafe cover over a hand-dug well. The client arrived. Her seven-year-old son leapt 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.
• Test hand dug well water regularly for potability - since these wells commonly have sanitation issues.

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Use links just below or 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.

PLUMBING TOPICS
APPLIANCE EFFICIENCY RATINGS
OIL TANKS
SEPTIC SYSTEMS
WATER PRESSURE REGULATOR ADJUST
WATER PRESSURE REPAIR GUIDE & COSTS
WATER PRESSURE LOSS DIAGNOSIS GUIDE
WATER PRESSURE & FLOW MEASUREMENT
  WATER PUMP PRESSURE CONTROL ADJUSTMENT
  WATER PUMP PRESSURE CONTROL REPAIR
  WATER PRESSURE REGULATOR ADJUST
WATER PUMPS & WELL TANKS
WATER PUMP CONTROLS & SWITCHES
WATER PUMP SHORT CYCLING
WATER PUMP TYPES & LIFE EXPECTANCY
WATER PUMP & TANK SAFETY
WATER SHUTOFF VALVE LOCATION, USE
WATER SOURCE ALTERNATIVES
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 BLADDERS & CAPTIVE AIR
WATER TANK REPLACEMENT
WATER TANK BLADDER PRESSURE ADJUSTMENT
WATER TANK PRESSURE CALCULATIONS
WATER TANK PRESSURE GAUGE
WATER TANK SIZE & VOLUME
WATER TANKS HOW THEY WORK
WATER TESTING
WATER TREATMENT EQUIPMENT CHOICES
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 CHLORINATION SHOCKING PROCEDURE
  WELL CLEARANCE DISTANCES
  WELL LIFE EXPECTANCY
  WELL PIPING CHECK VALVES
  WELL PIPING FOOT VALVES
  WELL PUMP TYPES & LIFE EXPECTANCY
  WELL PUMP PRIMING PROCEDURE

• 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.
• "Comparison of large and small diameter wells", Natural Resources Management & Environment Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Corporate Document Repository - Self-Help Wells - see http://www.fao.org/docrep/X5567E/x5567e04.htm
  
• Hand pumps for wells, product sources:
  • Dempster Industries is a contemporary manufacturer of hand pumps for shallow wells or hand dug wells. At http://www.dempsterinc.com/html/Handpump.html you can find Dempster Industries who can tell you exactly how to repair mechanical problems with your well pump. Here is the Dempster installation manual for a typical hand pump used on shallow wells or dug wells: http://www.dempsterinc.com/PDF%20FIles/Typical%20Hand%20Pump%20Installation.pdf

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