Homeowner Forum / Construction / July 2006

iron  turns your toilet/ sink/ bathtub brown. it tastes icky. you can add a
water softener & purifier to cure it. not a clue what all that would cost ,
probably a couple grand.

Talk to your neighbors that have a well. It's really a matter of how much. A
water softner will remove small amounts, but you will have to put up with
the rest.

We used to have iron from our well (previous house). Every fixture in the
house turned dark brown, it stunk, and the water tasted like a rusty pipe.
It you have a lot of iron, and use a water softner, the iron will stop up
the resin bed on the softner.

I would have been willing to pay some pretty big bucks for city water ! (To
start with, I had a $10K well).

--
Hershel

In most areas you won't have a choice. Once a municipal water system is
available you can't drill a well.

Since you have a road/driveway, why not trench down the side of it and bury
the waterline there? I'd go 12" below frost line or at least 3~4' deep. As
long as there's no leaks in the line, you 'shouldn't' have a problem with
tree roots. As far as treating the water from a well, I believe you'd have
to go to a reverse osmosis system to have good water.
Add $$$$$ for a whole house system. Frankly, I'd find it hard to believe you
could punch a well and treat the water cheaper then you could run the line
from the street.
Dan

Thanks everybody for all the good input. Seems that I have some homework to
do. Also, I said "city water" but it is actually county (Henry county, GA),
and we are zoned RA if that makes any difference.

If anyone is interested, here is a link to some pictures of the project. We
are actually getting the gravel driveway finished up this weekend and
getting rid of most of the stumps and wood. Some to be buried, some
chipped/mulched and some will be cut up for firewood. So I don't have pics
of the finished product yet but I will soon.
http://philt.myphotoalbum.com/albums.php

It would be foolish to drill a well where town water is available.
Only someone who has never lived in a place where they had well water, would
consider it.
Hook to the town water.

along with iron, the water often contains sulphur as well.
had a place once with this problem (sold it).  Toilets, etc would be brown
and smelly within hours of cleaning.

George gave you the correct answer. You will have no choice in that you
*will be required* to hook on.
And there's often a hefty charge to do so in many parts of the country. (In
dryer parts of the country, it's around $6,000 for water/sewer connect.)

Even with municipal water you may still find you need conditioning to remove
hard water ions, (water softeners are only good at removing small amounts of
clear-water iron, red-water iron almost always requires a special iron
filter, as well-as a water softener.)

You could still have a well for landscaping if you wanted, but you would not
be permitted to use the water as potable if municipal water is available.

As far as the service line is required, I would go with plastic (PEX or
CPVC, PEX is less expensive), and oversize it (you will thank yourself
later.)
Tree roots should not a problem. You will probably need a licensed plumber
to make the municipal connection.

Dennis

Most of the people have talked about water quality problems
and that is something you have to take into account not only
for yourself but also for resale.

I guess eventualy no matter where you live you will endup on
county sewers and water .

Most water lines are now ABS material Flexable pipe and
it is burried with a trencher. Same with Gas Lines.

a metal arm comes off the machien and pulls the line down
under the ground and they can do about 5 feet a minute maybe
in clear fill.

its not a difficult thing to have done it just takes a while
having that stream to cross will be more problems.
maybe a mini backho might be needed.

Putting in a well isnt a bad idea
even if you find that the water is not so great for drinking
you can build your plumbing system so that the toilet flushing
and hose bibs for outside water is on the well and drinking
and washing is on the county system.

So If you have the money for the well then install it.
but expect the break even point to start out arround 10 years.

You might also consider a catchment or Cistern

this is where you connect your rain water downspouts to a large
10,000 gallon Plastic Tank or constructed Concrete tank.

You can then use that water for drinking or just arround the house.

It is not a difficult system to install you just have to plan for the
location of the cistern and also feed your gutter downspouts
from the front of the house to the back of the house on an angle
along the sides of the house.

the cost of the tank is the most expensive thing $1500
and the pump
which you can get for about $75

then you have free water to water the gardens as much as you want.

bob
www.yourepair.com