Simple cleaning of wells with your own hands, without problems and almost for nothing

Wells in many suburban areas remain the only sources of water, so maintaining them is a vital necessity. The whole point is that the maintenance of a water source requires costs: both physical and material. It is clear that zealous owners are trying to save money, so cleaning the well with their own hands is a very relevant topic now. We will discuss how to do this as simply, inexpensively and without the involvement of third-party specialists.

Why you don't have to wait to clean your well

Is it necessary to wait for a critical situation, when the water starts to become cloudy, even worse - to turn green and its amount will decrease sharply? Any experienced host will tell you unequivocally that it is not worth it. And even if you have made every effort to conserve the well and protect it from any external influence, there is no guarantee that the source of life-giving moisture will work normally. Practice shows that it is impossible to achieve complete tightness: rainwater, street dust, leaf fall, insects and even rodents, not to mention snakes, one way or another find their way to water. And all this is organic matter, which actively decomposes in a humid environment, releasing substances that are unpleasant and dangerous to humans.

PHOTO: b17.ru

If you do not take care of the well, the water eventually acquires an unpleasant musty smell and taste. Such water cannot be used for drinking, even when boiled it will not get better, and you should not check this for yourself.

When it's time to clean the well

There are critical signs that indicate the immediate need for preventive work on the water source:

• the water level dropped sharply in the mine;
• clay deposits appeared on the walls of the well, penetrating with perched water;
• the water mirror has traces of floating debris;
• the water from the well became cloudy, its taste and smell changed.

Any of these signs signals that you do not need to use this water, but you should immediately start cleaning the well. But, as already mentioned, this critical situation should not be expected, and preventive work on the water source should be carried out at least a couple of times a year.

PHOTO: kolodozei.ru

These two months, May and September, are also beneficial in that the groundwater level drops at this time in spring, and does not rise to critical levels in autumn yet.

Attention! Any work in the well must be secured. Optimally, this should be done by 3 people, so that the two at the top can drag the third of their shafts. In no case should you go down into the well alone!

Causes of well pollution and how to avoid them

The source of water (well) is also a source, that it is constantly updated with new water. So if the well is not used for a long time, it will begin to silt due to stagnation. If there are seasonal breaks in your schedule for visiting a suburban area, it is better to remove all equipment from the well, because due to silting, you may simply not be able to get it later.

There are other problems that can cause water in the well to deteriorate.

PHOTO: fotoparus.com

A tight cover ensures that dust and dirt do not get inside the well either during wind or during heavy rain. In addition, the open access of the sun to the water surface inevitably causes the reproduction of blue-green algae.

The lack of a seal from melt water around the well is another reason for damage to the contents of the well. To avoid this, an impenetrable ring of clay at least a meter thick is made around the well. Usually this is the same clay that is extracted when digging a mine.

Seasonal soil movements can damage the seams in the shaft rings. Through them, groundwater will begin to penetrate into the well and, along with it, dirt. All these cracks must be carefully repaired.

PHOTO: mosakvstroy.rf

Cleaning the well by hand: how it's done

The algorithm for manual or mechanical cleaning directly depends on what the walls of the well shaft are made of. It is easiest to clean plastic, porous materials are more difficult to clean: wood, concrete, brick.

Preventive cleaning

Preventive work in the well does not require direct lowering into the shaft. It is enough to completely pump out the water and use a pole with a stiff brush at the end to scrape the walls, and then treat them with a solution of bleach (150 grams per 10 liters of water).

Another option is to fill the well with water and pour a pre-mixed solution of bleach into it with the expectation of 1 ring of about 280 grams. After pouring the disinfectant liquid, the well is tightly closed so that the chlorine does not evaporate, and left out of sunlight for the night or for 10-12 hours. After that, the water is pumped out and the well is washed repeatedly, removing water until the smell of bleach disappears.

PHOTO: valles.ru

Instead of bleach for preventive cleaning, you can use "Whiteness" and manganese (only diluted). Potassium permanganate is inferior in its effectiveness to chlorine-containing products.

What do you need for manual cleaning

Remember that cleaning the well should be done with only two partners. For work, you will need a strong safety cable, a long rope ladder, a bucket on a cable, mechanical cleaning products (scraper, brush, spatula, sponge).

PHOTO: skolodez.ru

How to pump water from a well

If we are not talking about preventive, but about major cleaning, then you should not pump out all the water at once, this is done gradually, as the cleaner sinks to the bottom. Thus, the cleaned debris will be removed from the mine along with the water.

It is unlikely that it will be possible to completely drain the well, because it is fed by groundwater. It is necessary to pour out the pumped water as far as possible from the mine, so that it, together with the top water, does not return back, now with mud.

Important point! In the depths of the mine, gases dangerous to humans can accumulate. You won’t even have time to blink when you get poisoned and may even lose consciousness, and it’s not a fact that your partners will be able to pull you out in time and provide assistance. To be sure of safety, before carrying out work, an empty bucket in a lit candle is lowered into the well. If the candle goes out, there is a dangerous gas inside. First you need to ventilate the mine and be sure to work in a chemical protection mask or gas mask.

How to manually clean the walls of the mine

The walls of the well are cleaned with a scraper or a metal brush, removing deposits and the top layer of loose material. It is important not to overdo it and not damage the integrity of the surface.

PHOTO: kolodcy58.ru

After the stage of mechanical cleaning of the walls, they are taken for the bottom of the well. All the dirt is collected and raised with buckets along with silt. To simplify the work, a bucket with a long handle is useful. This is the dirtiest and most dangerous part of the procedure, because it is at the very bottom that dangerous gases accumulate. Be extremely careful and use protective equipment, as well as control your condition and feelings.

When the cleaning has reached the gravel backfill of the bottom of the well, the gravel is lifted out and washed. It's easier to change the gravel pad to a new one.

How to strengthen and seal the seams in the mine

When cleaning the walls, pay attention to the seams between the rings of the well. If they are separated, they are pulled together with staples, 5-6 pieces for each ring for the upper rings and 3 for the lower ones.

Slots less than 5 cm are sealed with hydraulic seals of the "Waterplug" or "Hydrostop" type on a metal stack. Larger gaps are first laid with bricks and then also covered with a water seal.

PHOTO: stroitelstvo-gid.ru

Sealing the rings, especially if there is a quicksand nearby, is in principle better from the outside, but technically it is too difficult to work manually and without special equipment.

During a major cleaning of the well, it is desirable to additionally treat the already clean walls with waterproofing. For this purpose, emulsions based on epoxy resin or polyurethane are used. This waterproofing dries for at least 2 days, all this time you will have to control that the water level in the mine does not rise.

At the end of cleaning, the walls of the well are disinfected with a chlorine solution or potassium permanganate.

After, as already mentioned, the well is filled with water and pumped out 1-2 times a day until the smell of disinfection disappears.

How to clean a well with a drainage pump

Cleaning the well with a drainage pump is a simplified option, which, of course, does not give the same effect as manual work.

To remove deposits on the walls of the well, it is necessary to make sure that the drainage sucks in dirty water not only directly below it. To do this, the pump is not lowered to the very bottom, but approximately at a level a meter from the bottom, the outlet pipe is directed to the side inside the well so that the flow of water knocks dirt off the walls.

PHOTO: klimat-56.ru

How to clean a well with a vibration pump

Many people use vibration pumps, but not everyone knows that this device can also clean the well.

There are two effective ways to do this. The first requires two vibration pumps. One is lowered into the well and the hose from it is sent to a large tank. The second pump is installed in this tank and, in turn, its hose is sent to the well. First, the lower pump is started (it fills the tank) and then the upper one is turned on. The flow of water from the upper pump will intensively raise sand and silt particles, the lower pump will suck them up and send them to the tank, where heavy elements will settle to the bottom. After you have driven the contents of the well several times in this way, you need to completely pump out water from it, and let it be filled with new water from an underground source.

PHOTO: shtory-deco.ru

Since the water will not flow back, periodically you need to interrupt and wait for the replenishment of the level. This method is more labor-intensive and troublesome.

Is it possible to clean the well with a motor pump

In principle, this is possible. In order to solve this problem, it will be necessary to make a wooden "raft" with a diameter less than the ring of the well, fix a motor pump on it with braces and slowly lower it as the water is pumped out.

Previously, the walls of the well are scraped off the silt with the help of a device made of a pole and a brush, and the dregs are raised using the methods described above. As you slowly pump the muddy water out of the well with the pump, the bulk of the dirt will also be gone.

Methods and means of disinfection of wells

The task of disinfectants is to destroy pathogenic microorganisms in the water and on the walls of the well. As already mentioned, chlorine is the best disinfectant. We have already said above how to disinfect with bleach powder, but if you don’t have lime at hand, but there is the usual “Whiteness”, then it is spent at the rate of 1 liter per 1 well ring. The solution is diluted with water, the walls of the shaft are cleaned with a brush on a pole and then the water is pumped out until the specific smell disappears.

PHOTO: penzavzglyad.ru

Iodine is used as an emergency measure to clean the well in the country, but this method is criticized as it can make the water unusable for a long time. For disinfection, diluted iodine is poured at the rate of 15 drops per 1 ring.

For the disinfection of wells, there are special chlorine-based tablets on sale - Aquatabs, Ecobreeze, Septolit. Consumption - an average of 4 tablets per well, they must first be dissolved in a bucket of warm water. This solution is used to irrigate the walls of a previously pumped out well. Half an hour after treatment, the walls are washed with plain water, which also needs to be pumped out. Another way to use tablets is to pour the solution into a full well, leave it sealed overnight, and then repeatedly pump it out.

The safest and most advanced way to disinfect water in a well is to treat it with an ultraviolet filter. For this purpose, you can build a do-it-yourself installation, as in this video:

In order for you to encounter the problem of dirty water in the well as rarely as possible in the future, it is worth considering the simplest preventive measures:

• do not leave the well without a lid;
• do not bring the sewerage system closer than 20 meters to the mine;
• monitor the tightness of the mine;
• periodically carry out disinfection of water for preventive purposes.

These simple rules plus regular cleaning will provide you with clean drinking water on your own site.

And how do you clean the well and what difficulties did you encounter? Share your experience in the comments!