Driving a hand pump well at a remote off grid Wilderness Camp

[Music] how's it going everybody my name is Dave Whipple and you're watching pusher Attica last week Brook and I built an outhouse on our off-grid property in the remote backcountry of northern Michigan this week we're gonna put in a well stay tuned here some of the things you're gonna need to do your own well first off you're gonna need pipe now this is pipe that's inch and a quarter this pipe is rated to be used as drive pipe to actually be driven into the ground in making shallow wells now you're also gonna need joint compound this is basically a sealant that is gonna seal the threads of your pipe to a pipe coupler you're also gonna need a sand point this has a hard point on one end and a filter screen that lets the water seep into your well we're gonna start out by digging a hole as deep as we can with a set of post hole diggers over the years they've done a lot of plumbing but no well this is an absolute first for Brooke and I [Music] so to supervise Brooke and I and walk us through this process is our friend Scott will get about four and a half to five feet deep we'll get it as deep as we can with a posthole digger and then stir it right on now the way Scott's explained it to us is that the deeper you get with the hole that easier it's going to be to get the well started not only is it going to help ensure that the well goes in straight up and down but you also have a three foot point on the end of your well and you have a five foot stick of player so that's eight feet without this really deep hole in the ground to start your well you would have to be eight foot above the ground to start driving well which would be pretty much impossible so Brooke and I on Scott are taking turns with the post hole diggers getting down as deep as we can hopefully we won't hit any tree roots so far so good [Music] we have a bucket of water she's gonna drop the singing handle it's soaked just let it soak the leathers up so they'll swell and then they'll both work a lot better and it just saves a little time later on hold and watering or by hand trying to load up so good smell awesome now that our holes duct we can hook our Sandpoint to our first section of pipe we'll start driving and we'll connect the two together the sand point to the first section of pipe with a heavy-duty drive coupler and when it comes to pipe dope this is the really important part you want to take your pipe don't work it right into the threads not haphazard get it right down into the bottom of the threads and make sure it's it's completely coated all the way around the plate everywhere that there's a thread now that we've got our first stick plate and we've got our pipe coupler threaded on we can thread it onto the sand point once we've doped up the sand point threads good at that point we tighten the two together as much as we can sure it is a blessing to have an experienced well guy around here that's done it before Scots keeping us on the straight and narrow so we don't make any major mistakes the dry pipe and drive couplings are tough and they can take it so make sure they're as tight as you can get them stuff it all in the hole now the drive coupling that I'm putting on right now is going to be the one that takes all the abuse and it's going to get beat on with Scotts homemade well driver which I'm guessing weighs probably 75 80 pounds here you can see us putting in that fake homemade well driver do you want to make sure that that coupler at the top is good and tight you're going to be using it over and over and over and it's going to take all the abuse in that big heavy well driver once we start driving that well Scott is gonna check it for plumb you can do quite a bit to keep that well plumb when you first get started once you get it down there are ways you can't do so much and once it's down there a long ways you can't do anything at all so it's best to get it as straight as you possibly can when you first get started lunchtime yet we're very lucky in the fact that the the ground here is is all Sam and as you can see if your watch well Brook is thriving as well it's dropping down with every hit every stroke and that well driver is bringing that well plate closer down to the ground could be a lot harder to do we're pretty happy with the way this is driving [Music] once we pull that driver we'll take off that and sacrificial coupler that is beat silly with the driver and then we'll dope up the threads on the existing pipe that's in the ground put a fresh drive coupler on it put a fresh section of pipe on and start the process over this is about as deep as you want to go because you need that space to work so you can put the new coupling on and get it good and tight get a crescent wrench on the pipe from lo it and at that point we'll load up up another five-foot stick on top get everything as tight as we possibly can and then start that five foot driving process again to get that next section of pipe below your own level now some plumbing fittings can't take a ton of torque and they'll break but that's not the case with well pipe and drive couplings get them as tight as you possibly can also make sure when you're doping those pipe bends that all that dope has worked into the threads so it's right down into the very bottom of the groove of the threads themselves and covering all the area and it goes without saying you want to use a joint compound that's non-toxic and is rated for water now we slide the driver into a fresh section of pipe stand it up load it into the new coupler all doped up ready to go we get it tight you can see Scott is bracing against the lower crescent wrench with his foot to lock it into position and up there at the top we're using that original drive coupler that's going to get ruined during the process of driving now we're all set up to drive another section of plate Brooke brought over a stump to stand on and it's a little precarious getting started but the driving is going really easy you can see each time that that weight is thrown down it drops that pipe a pretty good distance it's kind of a hit and miss thing drive it or well anywhere I suppose but right here in this area you can see that it's really dropping fast in this soft sand but as you'll notice here in a second where Brooke is driving she hits a section of hard pan and there were probably two or three years maybe even four sections extremely hard pan sand and when we hit those areas it seemed to take I don't know seem to go from about an inch a drive to maybe next another eighth or a quarter of an inch took a little bit to punch through but once we got punched through that hard pan on driving started to get easier again [Music] please exciting no I haven't feeling it we're not quite there I don't know why [Music] were should be five feet deeper net that's a fantastic feeling to know that you've struck water you know what's down there now you just gotta settle the well in to the height that you want it ideally what you want if you have a three-foot Sand Point you want to be a foot above the sand point where the water level starts that way if the water drops about a foot or so your sand point is still underneath the water and you don't start sucking in air [Music] Scott's doing the math here to figure out how deep the point has to be to make sure it's completely submerged under at least a foot of water down in the aquifer if you can drive the very top of your screen point to at least a foot below the water level and yet have enough pipe sticking out above the ground that the well pump itself sits at a comfortable level you've pretty much hit it right on the hip that's what we're doing right now is trying to figure out how big of a pipe we need for that last section and it looks like a 5-footer is gonna do just about perfect [Music] going anywhere are you hitting it yeah I thought you were just warming up I'll pony warm thank you luckily we didn't run into any more hard pan and the driving went pretty fast Brooks just wrapping up here on the last few strokes and it looks like we're right about down to that perfect height to set the well pump on I'll take out that big homemade driver and we'll double-check the distance down to the water itself and also to the bottom of the sand point looks good close to 90 degree dude alright there's your water over 1 foot 2 foot 3 foot now your point is completely in the water four foot couple inches you're good you've got about 14 or 15 inches of water above the top of your screen point now it's time to dope up that last section of pipe and put our well on a well pump should be ready to use it's been sitting in that bucket of water for a couple hours and the leathers should be good and so now we'll spin that pump on the top pipe get it as tight as we can get it by hand and prime it up we should have water that's probably [Music] [Music] certainly an amazing thing to have your own water source we'd like to say a special thanks to our friend Scott for coming along and guiding us through the process he's done it lots of times and it was great to have somebody along with experience to help us avoid the pitfalls clearing up [Music]

Channel: Bushradical

Views: 1,146,348

Keywords: Hand pump well, off grid well, DIY well, pitcher pump well, off grid, cabin, homestead, putting in a well by hand, driving a well, well water

Id: Vm422bfrjws

Length: 11min 43sec (703 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 23 2020