Building a well: searching for water, location, choice of type, technology of work. Construction of a well in a well Collapse of a tent in a well
A well is not just a means of water supply in places with undeveloped infrastructure. And not only the decoration of the household (see fig.), a fashionable symbol of the owner’s prestige. Well water supply can be compared to some extent with stove heating: this ancient means of improvement today reveals potential that few people thought about before. Digging and equipping a well with your own hands is a serious task, requiring considerable knowledge, work and effort, but it’s worth it.
Development of many ancillary industries - from breeding crayfish for sale and greenhouse farming to independent production
Appearance of modern wells
The development of many auxiliary crafts - from breeding crayfish for sale and greenhouse farming to independent production of paving slabs and ceramic products - can make a family prosperous and confidently looking to the future. The only thing missing is... water. The water supply system does have it, but at current prices (and they won’t get any cheaper), the profitability can’t be calculated. A well in a dacha or personal plot will provide sufficient quantities of water of suitable quality and free of charge; in the worst case, subject to a one-time annual tax on environmental management in an acceptable amount. It is not expected to increase for private homeowners in the foreseeable future.
At the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries. In Russia, experiments were carried out on the domestication of broad-toed crayfish. It turned out that a crayfish farm of just 3-4 2x2.5 m pools that don’t freeze to the bottom gives a profitability of more than 200%, and this despite the cheap food of that time in general and despite the fact that crayfish were then sold not individually, as now, but by weight. If shell water was combined with
In our area there are 2 types of crayfish: broad-clawed and narrow-clawed. Broad-fingered - large, thick, fleshy and very tasty. Its meat is not inferior to Kamchatka crab, Biscay lobsters and Cuban lobsters; By the way, “lobster”, which comes from English, is a collective trade name for all large sea crayfish, even mantis crayfish, although they are not decapods at all. “Marne crayfish, large as lobsters,” with which the jailer in A. Dumas’s novel “Ten Years Later” seduced the Iron Mask, who had fallen into despair, are precisely the broad-fingered ones. And narrow-fingered ones in comparison with them are flabby little things, see fig. on right.
It’s already been 200 years since narrow-fingered crayfish are replacing broad-fingered crayfish everywhere; only a few populations remained of the latter. The reason, as it turned out in recent years... is crayfish sex. Sedate and self-respecting wide-fingered ones recognize only their ladies, and narrow-fingered libertine thugs brazenly attack everyone. Such copulation does not produce fertilized eggs; The cowberry lays non-viable eggs. By the next breeding cycle, she again has a greater chance of running into not a worthy gentleman, but an immoral, narrow-fingered rogue. Meanwhile, narrow-fingered “demimonde ladies” are multiplying as if nothing had happened: wide-fingered gentlemen let them pass by on the side, and there are enough hyperactive narrow-fingered machos for both.
At the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries. In Russia, experiments were carried out on the domestication of broad-toed crayfish. It turned out that a crayfish farm of just 3-4 2x2.5 m pools that don’t freeze to the bottom gives a profitability of more than 200%, and this despite the cheap food of that time in general and despite the fact that crayfish were then sold not individually, as now, but by weight. If the shell farm was combined with a greenhouse, marketable products could be obtained all year round.
Water underground
But let's get back to the wells. For now - to the water that they are able to provide. “I’ll drink from the crane’s water of life” is nothing more than a poetic image in the imagination of the author-city dweller. The villagers knew long before this song was written that the crane is used to water the vegetable garden and water the livestock, and that living drinking water must be taken deeper than it can be scooped. To find out whether it is worth building a well in accessible places, we need to solve 3 problems:
Knowing all this, let’s decide how to make a well with the least amount of labor and money and safely. The last one comes first, because Digging a well is, in principle, no different from digging a pit, sinking a well or a mine shaft, with all the surprises inherent in mining work.
Quality
The quality of groundwater is determined by its origin and the inextricably linked time of migration from open sources to the aquifer. Water that migrates from atmospheric precipitation or a reservoir to the place of its collection in less than 2-3 years is clearly unsuitable for drinking by people and domestic animals without filtration, boiling and disinfection, because may contain active pathogens or their spores and cysts, plus the entire current bouquet of local ecology.
With a migration time of more than 5 years, groundwater, as a rule, no longer contains viable organic matter, but salts of heavy metals and other harmful mineral impurities remain for a long time. The suitability of such water for drinking is determined by laboratory analysis at local consumer control authorities and must be confirmed annually. Waters that have migrated for more than 30-40 years are, as a rule, already quite clean; their suitability for drinking is determined either once or at intervals of 3-10 years.
Verkhovodka
The fastest to form and closest to the surface is perched water - porous rocks saturated with water, underlying relatively less permeable rocks; There are no completely waterproof rocks. The period of migration of free moisture into the perched water is from 1 wet season to 5 years. The quality of water varies greatly from place to place and throughout the year: from cloudy greenish slurry to drinkable.
Verkhodka, in turn, is divided into 2 types: atmospheric and interstitial. The first, as the name implies, is formed directly by precipitation, and the second by the seepage of water from reservoirs. Interstitial perched water lies very shallow, but in terms of water quality it is definitely suitable only for irrigation, and even then depending on the local ecology. If there is a chemical or metallurgical production within a radius of up to 3.5 km, you don’t have to think about interstitial waters: the concentration of harmful impurities in them will be several times higher than in the feeding reservoir. The quality of water from atmospheric perch highly depends on the location of the well, see below.
Groundwater
Outside the mountains, the perched water is most often underlain by loams, fissured and porous. Infiltration, or vadose, groundwater is formed in them. The migration time of water into the vadose formation is at least 5 years, so its quality is stable and most often good or better. If the well is properly located, most tests of vadose water indicate that it is suitable for drinking.
In fractured rocks, condensation waters can also form, resulting from the settling of moisture vapor. The quality of condensation groundwater is usually not inferior to artesian water (see below), but can be found only 3-4 m from the ground surface. This may happen in the following cases:
The bad news is that unauthorized exploitation of artesian aquifers is prohibited by law. Therefore, you will have to work hard to legitimize the source, register ownership of it and capture it according to all the rules, i.e. equip for water collection.
The good thing is that artesian water is a valuable mineral. If it is found close to the surface, then the site will most likely be purchased for industrial exploitation, and the proceeds will provide you with money for life. It is also possible to organize your own highly profitable water trading enterprise.
Quantity
Is there enough water in the well? In the USSR, for Moscow and Leningrad, the water consumption rate was 800 liters per day per person; for Gorky, Sverdlovsk and Novosibirsk – 600, and for other regions that do not suffer from moisture deficiency – 400 l*person/day. Now, when calculating water supply systems in different countries, depending on local conditions, the consumption rate is set at 150-400 l*person/day. Based on physiological needs, in the worst case the supply here is almost double, so a well with a debit of 300 l/day will in most cases provide a family with water.
Non-professionals will be able to go through a self-dug well to the high water or on a hill to the ground condensate, see below; vadose waters of good quality lie, as a rule, deeper than 10 m. More or less accurately, the flow rate of a well is calculated based on geological research and test drilling, but for the indicated cases in Central Russia it can be approximately estimated as follows:
Distribution of precipitation in the Russian Federation
Note:
Where should the well be?
Peresechenka
Distribution of precipitation in the Russian Federation
Note: If the reader knows the current (we emphasize modern) amount of precipitation during the warm season at his place of residence, then he needs to divide by 100 and 140, respectively. The coefficients given in the list are quite rough, because... take into account spring surface water runoff, which depends on many factors and varies greatly from year to year.
Where should the well be?
In this section we will consider two typical cases: one for Central Russia with rugged terrain, the second, flat, for places hugging it like a crescent from the Rostov region. through the Volga region and approximately to Arkhangelsk. Siberia, flat or elevated, refers to one or the other, except for the swampy West Siberian Lowland and the permafrost zone.
The sections below are generalized; local geology may differ greatly. How to find water for a well in this particular place will be discussed later, but general information will help you not to worry about unnecessary things.
Peresechenka
The easiest way to get through here is a mine well with good water, as has long been customary in Russia, on a loamy hillock. Here, most often, a fairly thin fertile layer lies on dense loams, which below turn into fissured ones. Therefore, pure condensate can be found 4-6 m from the surface, pos. 1 for rice, but the well’s debit will not be large.
Note:
Note:
Plain
General diagram of the occurrence of groundwater in rough terrain
Below the slope, wells are not dug at all: The water in the loam is spoiled by surface runoff from this or last season, and the likelihood of soil movement is extremely high. Even lower, the water quality improves and the soil becomes stronger, but the cracked loam dives sharply deeper under the clays and becomes thinner, or even wedges out altogether. Here you need to drill a fairly deep well into limestone, which will produce vadose or condensate, suitable for drinking, pos. 2.
Next, a cloak of fertile soil appears in the ravine. Here the only option for an amateur well-digger is perched water; The vadose and condensate have already gone 30-40 meters deep. The easiest way to drill a well for a garden, a vegetable garden, and a watering place for pets is an Abyssinian, or punched well, see below. In such places, the Abyssinian well can be pierced by two people over a weekend to 9-12 m, and the water surface will stand 3-4 m from the surface (position 3), which will allow it to be pumped with a top vacuum pump. The debit will most likely be the highest for a given area, but in no case should you drink such water raw, and it is better to give boiled water to living creatures, so as not to fight worms later.
Drinking perennial water in this section can be taken from a shaft well on a hillock, pos. 4. Seasonal surface runoff here is small - the mounds, as a rule, are covered with dense turf, which drains it to the sides - and the water migrates under the dome of the mound through capillaries for quite a long time. But, for example in the Oryol region The debit of the well on the hillock is no more than 200 l/day. In addition, the soil underneath is unstable, the frame can only be built up from above, and there is a high probability of running into quicksand, which will greatly complicate and lengthen the work. A less labor-intensive option, but requiring much more highly qualified well-digger in this case, would be drilling a well into sand with a depth of 15-20 m, pos. 5. In terms of debit and mirror height, it will be equivalent to the Abyssinian, but will give water of better quality.
Note: A well for sand can be drilled not only from the clay cover, but anywhere. In Fig. its location is shown conditionally.
Finally, if there is no water in the area at all, you can drill an Abyssinian well in the floodplain of the reservoir, pos. 6. However, as stated above, the debit will be sharply seasonal, and for drinking and cooking, the water from it will need to be settled, passed through a shungite filter, like “Rodnichka”, and then boiled.
Note: It is impossible to drill wells for limestone and sand in the floodplain - the surface water seeping along the outer surface of its trunk is destructive for the local ecology.
Plain
In flat places, geological horizons are truly horizontal; at least approximately, but the layers most often occur in a mosaic pattern, see Fig. The migration of water into the perched water and through it here is almost exclusively not capillary, but gravitational, i.e. fast, and precipitation rolling down the slopes is practically absent. This leads to important conclusions:
Note:
What should the well be like?
Abyssinian
General diagram of the occurrence of groundwater on the plain
Based on this, you must, firstly, give preference to tube wells, see below. Secondly, if you are going to dig a mine, then based on the results of searching for water, you need to choose a place where it lies deeper, as long as you can get through there. Thirdly, you can build a well on high water, but use the water from it only for irrigation and technical needs.
Note: It is undesirable to use Abyssinian wells in these conditions, because the layers up to the artesian are free-flowing. The water surface will be deep, the top pump will pump poorly or not at all, and drilling an Abyssinian well into which a submersible pump will go is no easier than drilling a regular one.
What should the well be like?
Abyssinian, tube and shaft wells have already been mentioned above. Let's look at them in order of increasing complexity of the work and decide which one you can do yourself without having any mining skills.
Abyssinian
About the construction of the Abyssinian well
correctly drilled Abyssinian well
The Abyssinian well is the easiest to penetrate: Over the weekend you can make the necessary equipment, and get water on your next trip to the dacha. A driven well is simply a steel pipe with perforations and a drill bit at the lower end. They hammer it with a sliding woman and, as the penetration progresses, they increase it with the help of couplings.
Enough has already been written about the structure of the Abyssinian well, so let us dwell, in addition to the quality and availability of water described above, on some features. The first is that although cleaning the trunk of an Abyssinian well is possible, cleaning the filter is impossible. The filter itself can only be made the most primitive and crude. Therefore, it is impossible to guarantee any service life of a driven well: depending on the local geology, it can provide water for decades, or it can completely fail within a season.
The second is related to pumping out water. Amateurs can only drill an Abyssinian well with ordinary water and gas pipes. Otherwise, the work becomes very difficult and, most importantly, the danger of the well being buried increases sharply, i.e. the drill rod goes sideways and breaks, which nullifies all the work. But the caliber of the smallest submersible pumps is 76-85 mm. Vacuum top pumps pump water from a depth of up to 7 m, and airlift (aerolift) water lifts require a pipe with a diameter of 150 mm.
Tube well construction
Tubular
Tube well construction
Finally, the debit of an Abyssinian well, other things being equal, will be 2-2.5 times less than that of a shaft or tube well, because the water intake area is small.
Tubular
A tube well is a real well with a water intake device, see fig. on right. In general, it consists of the following parts, see fig. on right:
The water intake device of a tube well has a long service life and provides efficient water intake, so it can be located at great depths. Its design is quite complex, see figure:
Note:
Shakhtny
The grid - holes in the pipe - provides mechanical strength to the filter. The separator increases its throughput several times. It is made from steel wire with a diameter of 4-8 mm; the gaps between the turns are 2-4 mm. The mesh filter is made of stainless (brass, bronze, nickel, molybdenum) mesh of satin or twill weave; in this case, relatively thick warp threads are spaced, and thinner weft threads are intertwined closely. The pores of a satin-twill filter (the area of one is 0.025-1 sq. mm) are not visible to light, which ensures high resistance to clogging, but its porosity, i.e. permeability to liquids is high. The mesh should be placed on the separator so that the warp threads are oriented vertically. The service life of the entire filter is up to 40-50 years.
Manually using rotary percussion or cable-percussion drilling, it is possible to drill wells with depths of up to 40, 70 and even 100 m. However, independent drilling of wells with a description of the necessary tools and work methods requires a separate, and not just one, detailed presentation. Here we will only say that the devil is not as scary as he is painted: tools and equipment for drilling a disposable well into limestone can be made over the winter in a home workshop from scrap materials. Actually drilling the well will take a week or two.
Note: independent drilling for water has another difficulty - the methods described below for searching for water give a very large error when it is deep or do not work at all. Therefore, to drill a well on sand or limestone, it is better to turn to professionals. The good news here is that tube wells provide a lot of water and you can compete with your neighbors in terms of costs.
Shakhtny
You can build a shaft-type well yourself in a month or a month and a half. You will have to work hard, but you can get good quality water in sufficient quantities without extra costs. Therefore, let's look at them in more detail. “Them” because there are quite a lot of varieties of mine wells. The most common are 3 types, see fig. on right:
Types of mine wells
Note:
Simple well heads
Well head dimensions
Another tent
Water intake tents for wells
Where to dig?
Note:
Continuous layers
Mosaic
From personal experience
How to build a well?
Safety precautions
Dangers of rigging (operations with loads).
Loads and rigging
Slipping and collapse
Gases and ventilation
Quicksands
Trunks
Tree
Note:
Stone and brick
Types of mine wells
Imperfect or incomplete hangs, as it were, in the rocks covering the aquifer. It is easier to dig a well of this type; it can provide the largest area for water intake (from below and from the sides) and thereby achieve maximum use of the formation. But in weak soils, an incomplete well will sag until the trunk breaks, at which point its use will end. Imperfect wells can be built on hillocks or other places where the aquifer is strong and fractured.
The shaft of a perfect well is brought to the underlying rocks with high bearing capacity, which is why such wells stand and provide water for centuries. But you will have to go through the entire aquifer, and this work requires certain qualifications and is quite dangerous.
A well with a sump (grenade launcher) is classified as accumulating (storage). It is even more difficult to build than a perfect one, but it is possible to extract water from it in one burst, say, for watering a herd or a certain stage of a technological process.
Note: In RuNet, for some reason, wells with a sump are called modern. Although the same sources cited by the authors clearly say that wells with grenade launchers were dug on steppe pastures and caravan routes in deserts thousands of years BC.
Construction of an imperfect shaft well
The structure of a shaft-type well as a whole is shown in Fig. The barrel simply allows you to get to the water-bearing part with a filter and water intake, about which see below. Simple, but not simple: the trunk must be strong, sit firmly in the ground and provide safe access inside both during construction and during operation for cleaning and disinfection.
The clay lock, or water seal, is the most important part of the well. The lock diverts surface runoff to the sides. Without this, surface water will seep down from the outside of the trunk, as a result of which the water in the formation will deteriorate, and the trunk itself will be undermined and sag until it breaks.
The dimensions of the castle are at least 1 m to the sides and at least 1.5 m in depth. It is highly desirable, during the construction process, to cover the entire trunk from the aquifer to the top with approximately 0.5 m of clay. The slope of the castle slopes outward is 10-12 cm/m. It is also highly advisable to place a concrete blind area around the lock with a distance of 0.5-1 m to the sides behind the lock.
The head is already a water folding device. The technically simplest heads for manual water collection are of the following types, see next. rice.:
Simple well heads
Well head dimensions
Approximate dimensions of the head are shown in Fig. on right. The tent (roof) above it protects the well from precipitation. In addition, competent owners cover the mouth of the well with a lid. And they are very competent and not lazy - in winter, the second lid is at ground level, this prevents the water in the well from freezing. The second (bottom) cover is absolutely necessary if the pump pumps water, because... freezing disables it.
The head is the face of the well and, to a large extent, the face of the house. The decorative design of a well comes down to the head. Everyone makes it to their own taste and according to their capabilities; As for finishing materials, see below.
Another tent
This time it’s not the roof of the head, but a tent in the well itself. The formations that carry good water close to the surface are rarely more than 1.5-2 m thick. If there is little water, there is no point in going deeper into the formation by more than 2/3 of its thickness in order to increase the flow rate: the flow of water only decreases due to the difficulty of inflow from the sides. In this case, expanding the well trunk at the bottom - a tent - will help to increase water intake; it will collect water from a larger area.
Water intake tents of industrial production are made of concrete conical ones. By placing 2 such tents of different sizes one above the other, we get a two-tent well, left pos. in Fig.. It allows you to obtain water of acceptable quality even from quicksand; To do this, sand from the lower tent is thrown into the gap between the tents.
Water intake tents for wells
Under a solid tent, you need to immediately dig a shaft of increased diameter, and the volume of soil removed increases in proportion to its square. In addition, it is impossible to accurately determine the reservoir flow rate in advance without special studies. Therefore, in the practice of shallow-well construction, prefabricated tents, mainly made of wood, are used, on the right in Fig. Having reached the seam and determined its debit, a recess is made along the perimeter of the bottom of the mine - a lining or a mortgage - and a tent is assembled below. This work, it must be said, is complex and dangerous, therefore, as they say, it is better not to take on it right off the bat, but to invite an experienced craftsman.
Where to dig?
Aquifers are found everywhere, but every extra meter of excavation means extra risk, hard work and expense. That's why Before starting excavation work, you need to find the exact location for the well.. This is especially important in flat areas with patchy geology, because... here the quality of water and the flow rate of wells located literally ten steps from each other can differ dramatically. An additional condition is that the well should not be closer than 20, or better yet, 50 m from cesspools, livestock yards, manure and compost heaps, drainage and sewer collectors, etc. sources of pollution.
Various ancient methods of searching for water (with a freshly laid egg in a tuft of clean wool, on felt or in an unworn felt boot, by vegetation, the density of the fog, the crush of midges, the flight of birds in the heat in summer, etc.) are effective, otherwise they would not be used. But in order to use them for results, and not for your own pleasure, you need to be either an experienced well-digger or a grandfather-sage. And one can only guess about the depth of the water.
Note: The Chinese consider a curious way of finding water to be 100% reliable... using a cow. The cattle are not given water until they become worried, and then they are released into the study area. Where she stopped, she sniffs the ground and digs with her hoof - that’s where she needs to dig.
Scientific achievements do not depend in any way on the user’s attitude towards them. And they are completely indifferent to the level of his knowledge. Let's take, for example, a Neanderthal or, to make it more clear, a medieval monk. Show them how to plug the TV into a socket, where to press to turn it on - they will be able to watch and listen, having no idea that there is electricity. And no magical rituals or blessings with anathemas will turn a doubles show into football or vice versa, until they show how to use the remote control. We will use this property of objective truth to find water closer to the surface.
Continuous layers
Here it is enough to determine the excess, positive or negative, of your site over the nearest ones with existing wells, and the level of the water surface in them. It is not advisable to navigate by bodies of water, as you will end up on interstitial water or quicksand. If, for example, your neighbors’ well water is -6 m, and your site is 1.5 m lower, then your water will be found at a depth of about 5 m, because Aquifers generally follow the surface topography. Surveys should be carried out during the annual minimum precipitation; in Central Russia and Siberia it coincides with low water in rivers and flowing lakes.
The most accurate methods for determining excess are using a hydraulic hose level, at a distance of up to 50 m, and leveling. An experienced leveler finds a height difference of 10 cm at a distance of up to 1.5 km. Self-leveling with a rented device is possible at distances of up to 200-300 m.
You can often find advice to determine the elevation using an aneroid barometer, but the accuracy will be terrible: a difference in heights of 1 m corresponds to a difference in readings of 0.1 mm. It is difficult to find a device with such a division value, and it is very easy to change its settings in the field. In addition, atmospheric pressure can change by a large amount while moving from place to place.
Mosaic
In places with mosaic layers, you will have to look for water directly on the site. In the previous case, by the way, this is also not at all contraindicated: what if a dome of the formation swells under an area convenient for economic reasons? It’s a meter and a half less to dig and build. But if you dig at random, you might pass by it.
In this case, two methods are possible. First, after waiting for the land itself, we rent a portable gas analyzer. Landlords will show you how to set it up for water vapor. Then it’s similar to the Chinese cow: we walk and look; Where we smell more moisture, we dig there. You just need to keep the sensor at exactly the same distance from the ground. There are, especially for geologists, instruments with a sensor equipped with a calibration stop.
((img-30))
The second is to learn dowsing, or dowsing. There is no exact theory of this phenomenon yet, but its practical effect in the search for electrically conductive minerals is indisputable. Dowsing has long been officially included in the arsenal of geological exploration methods under the name of the biogeophysical method or BGF. As for the dowsing of “energy grids”, witches-sorcerers, mediums, etc., adherents of esoteric teachings can so far present to the most respectable public anything except unequivocal indisputable evidence. Don’t smile ironically: the strength of objective science lies precisely in the fact that initial knowledge about the essence of the process or mysterious revelations are not required for research. Faraday and Ohm knew no more about electrons than the Neanderthals, but they discovered the basic laws of electricity. Without which it would be impossible to imagine television.
BGF is not at all the prerogative of individual, supernaturally gifted individuals. Percipient, i.e. Almost any physically and mentally healthy person can become a dowser. You can find out where to get a free BGF training course from the video:
It can be supplemented with the following instructions:
From personal experience
In his youth, the author had the opportunity to build communication facilities in rural areas. Often it was necessary to cross existing communications, but there were either no plans at all, or, it seems, they were made by picking your nose while looking at the ceiling. This happened in the heyday of stagnation, and there were also chronically no batteries for the cable detector.
An experienced foreman from the local communications department advised us to look with a frame. More precisely, with 2 probes made of L-shaped pieces of aluminum or copper wire about 40 cm long. We tested our sensitivity over a 6 kV power cable buried at 1.7 m; his route was precisely known.
A clear effect appeared immediately in 10 out of 12 people. Two of the insensitive ones were bitter drunkards who never missed an opportunity to get completely drunk on any kind of alcohol, including the most disgusting surrogates. Subsequently, they both reached chronic alcoholism; one ended his days in a psychiatric hospital: the “squirrel” did not want to leave him. Or he is hers.
In the field, during a real search, only one had an effect. But when they dug a hole according to his marks and found the desired pipe at the indicated depth, he returned to the others. Apparently, previously they simply did not believe the fact. After a week, all the “locators” became so skilled that they no longer even dug holes: the work was crazy, time is money.
Two of the seekers, not the most sensitive ones, at the request of local residents, tried their hand at searching for water. Both times it was found exactly there and at the depth that the wires showed.
On the outskirts of the city, when the highway was extended there, the effect weakened. Closer to the center, when a tram and trolleybus appeared, only one remained unclear (not the one at the beginning), but no closer than 50 m to the electric transport lines. This testifies in favor of the electromagnetic nature of the BGF and against its mystical explanations.
How to build a well?
The construction of the well begins in the driest time of the year.; then the perched water and quicksand weaken or dry up, and the moisture-intensive soils that impede the passage of the mine dry out and do not stick to the shaft so much. Since exploration is carried out at the same time, there is no need to delay the work, so as not to have to postpone it for a year.
Safety precautions
When building a well, safety precautions must be observed strictly: for someone buried alive or poisoned by gas, it doesn’t matter whether the rock above him is 5 m or 500. The main risk factors when digging a well are the following:
A complete list of safety measures and methods of organizing work on these points requires not only articles, but books. In addition to the general health and safety rules, you need to be guided by SNiP and Mining Rules when mining minerals in open pits. We will focus on the most essential.
Loads and rigging
The working area must be fenced and free of clutter so that nothing (no one) falls into the shaft. When working below, you need to wear a helmet: a lump of earth weighing 0.5 kg hitting the skull from a height of 5 m will cause a concussion. There must be at least 1 employee at the top.
Any cargo, incl. a tub (bucket) with soil must be moved manually using at least 2 ropes of equal strength: traction and safety. Because ropes must dampen the inertia of a moving load, their safety factor must be at least 4 times. So, for example, if a well shaft is assembled from KTs-15-9 rings (see below) weighing 1000 kg, then ropes are needed with a tensile strength of 4 tons.
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It is prohibited to tilt loads weighing more than 200 kg; you need to operate with them using hoists and mechanisms. Hoists are designed for the same safety factor as ropes. The manual gate must be equipped with an automatic emergency stop and a rope brake. Manual and electric winches with a worm gear or other without reverse motion can be used without a stopper, but must be equipped with a rope brake. Ropes are tightly attached to a tub of any volume; The use of detachable buckets is strictly prohibited.
Workers who are outside the line of sight of each other must notify the beginning and end of each operation by voice or conventional sound signals, with confirmation of what they hear. For example: “I lower the tub. - Accepted"; “I received the tub, I’m filling it. - Understood"; “The tub is full, vira! “Okay, I’ll raise it.”
Slipping and collapse
If the well shaft will be built from the bottom of a ready-made shaft, which will save materials if it turns out to be empty, then after drilling every 1-1.5 mm its walls will need to be strengthened. However, the construction of mine supports is a whole science. The fact is that no support will hold back the soil that has already shifted. It plays the role of a fuse, preventing the trigger from being pressed, the sear being pulled back and the firing pin being released. But, if it has already broken from the rest, then there will definitely be a shot: the weapon of nature is always loaded and does not misfire.
We strongly recommend not to be guided by descriptions of handicraft methods for securing the shaft. We will simply dig in a way that excludes soil movement. We will go through the so-called. sliding shaft mine. In modern mining, this method is not used, because from the depths at which it is applicable, everything suitable for industrial development has long been selected. But there will always be enough water for yourself; on the upper horizons and in small quantities it is a renewable resource.
Gases and ventilation
In RuNet, in the old fashioned way, they advise checking for the presence of carbon dioxide in the mine with a torch or candle. This is in the 21st century, when any digger knows how to operate a gas analyzer, and anyone can afford to rent one! And what about methane? At least they remembered that 200 years ago miners were already using an explosion-proof Davy lamp.
If there is gas, it must be removed. A vacuum cleaner or a household hair dryer, as is often recommended? These devices are not explosion-proof and are not designed to operate for hours. But you can’t just blow out heavy CO2, you need an exhaust hood. Here it is appropriate to recall the energy-independent antiquity, which “savage” miners, by the way, successfully use to this day.
This antique hood is a small stove, like a potbelly stove, fired at the top. Once upon a time, a leather or canvas sleeve was tightly attached to its blower, lowered into the shaft. The thrust turned out to be “reactive”, because it depends on the difference between the levels of the vent throat and the mouth of the chimney. Nowadays a thin-walled metal corrugated sleeve is used. It interferes less with work, because it can be stretched as the shaft deepens.
Quicksands
Quicksand is the most serious obstacle when sinking a mine. Having discovered it, you must immediately stop working, seek advice from specialists and follow their instructions. Fortunately, at shallow depths above aquifers, quicksand with a thickness of more than 1.5 m and quickly moving are extremely rare. You probably just carelessly explored the water and came across liquefied perched water.
If a concrete well is being built, and the lower ring has a cutting skirt (see below), then, most likely, the matter will be done without a tongue and groove, a bottom box or a series of slanting tongues. Most often, it is enough to simply settle the trunk to solid ground, and then select sand from it and continue working.
To settle the trunk, it is covered with a strong shield and loaded. You absolutely cannot beat a woman! If more than 5 tons of cargo are laid, and the column still sits as it did, this means that the trunk has gone awry and is stuck. Then a consultation is needed again. A specialist will examine, measure and tell you how and where to load it so that it still falls down.
Trunks
Tree
In RuNet, according to old sources, the construction of wooden wells is described in detail. A blackened, mossy log house with a crane, whatever you say, is romantic. But let’s remember why Bazarov died with Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons”? Or let’s laugh at the “cultured miller” from Bulgakov’s “Notes of a Zemstvo Doctor,” who almost went to his forefathers from an overdose of quinine.
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In the old Russian villages, which drank “living water from the crane,” typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, even malaria were rampant in the middle latitudes! And what’s wrong, the larvae of its carriers, Anopheles mosquitoes, lived freely in the non-freezing “living water”.
Maintaining a wooden well more or less in accordance with sanitary standards requires its annual spring or, depending on local conditions, twice spring-autumn cleaning and disinfection. Whether bleach or modern biocides are used, the water becomes unsuitable for drinking and household use for 1-2 months. Just at the time when it is needed most. And when the well is shut down, it needs to be pumped out regularly, which costs money if the pump is electric, and you need to call a sanitation service for the sludge.
Note: It is impossible to avoid stagnation of water in a wooden well when its debit is excessive without periodic pumping, which greatly complicates exploration. In a concrete well, this problem can be completely solved with side filters.
Further, a wooden frame does not isolate the trunk from overhead water and surface runoff, so a hydraulic lock is needed at its entire height, and this is a lot of extra work and material. Drilling a shaft under a log house without support is impossible; its construction both at the top and in the mine is difficult and dangerous, and the most strewn driftwood creates a serious problem. The fact that the wood from the disassembled support is only suitable for the stove, this seems like even a trifle. As well as the fact that the volume of excavation work for a concrete well will be approximately half as much.
Finally, the log house itself requires selected logs, in order of preference, oak, elm, alder or birch. And not just logs, but seasoned logs, rounded to size and soaked. How much will they cost at current prices? The question is rhetorical, it’s better not to count, so as not to get upset. The surface part of the log house will last from 30-40 (oak) to 5-10 years (birch). Underwater takes longer, but expensive repairs will be needed after just this time.
Therefore, we leave wooden wells to museums and antique lovers, and let’s move on to more practical ones. It won’t be difficult to design their heads to suit every taste.
Stone and brick
Stone wells last not centuries but millennia. In Italy and Greece, there are known ones that are still in use today, the origin of which was already lost in ancient times during the time of the brothers Gracchi and Demosthenes. They look prestigious and respectable. But Selecting stone for a trunk is even more difficult than selecting wood for a frame, and it will be prohibitively expensive. The construction of a stone trunk is possible only from below, i.e. complex, dangerous and lengthy.
Laying a brick well
Concrete
Solutions, mixing, compaction
Note:
Prokhodka
Laying a brick well
Wells are not built from ordinary brick: it is full of microcracks that will allow soil runoff into the well. Another thing is substandard, burnt out and cheap iron ore brick. It is swollen, warped, and twisted by a propeller, but it is dense and waterproof, so wells can be built from it.
The shafts of brick wells are erected only from the bottom, which requires a large amount of dangerous work and wood to support the shaft. It is impossible to build up a trunk at the top and settle it like a concrete one: the brickwork will not withstand the loads. A ring-shaped concrete tray is prepared in advance for the masonry; they carry it with spoons into 2 bricks (wall thickness 54 cm) with ligation of the seams in the rows and between the rows. Every 10-14 rows are tied with steel anchors with a diameter of 3/4 of the seam width (see figure) with an interception of 1-2 rows. Anchors are laid staggered around the circumference and thickness of the wall.
Concrete
A concrete well is strong, durable, and hygienic. Its construction is as safe as possible for underground work. It has one more remarkable property: if it turns out that the covering rocks are weak and the trunk will not hold for a long time, the well can be immediately converted into a perfect one, simply by extending the trunk from above. And if the formation turns out to be poor in water, go to the sump in the same way, without a complex, expensive and risky tent.
Dimensions of reinforced concrete rings for wells
A concrete well can be monolithic or prefabricated from special rings, see table. The first ones are labor intensive, but cheaper. You will have to work less hard on the prefabricated one, but it will cost more. As for the duration of construction, contrary to popular belief, it is approximately the same in both cases: when assembling a barrel from rings, it is necessary to cement the joints and mounting openings after installing the fasteners, and hardening of the solution requires the same 3-4 days of technological break as casting another monolithic belt. If the trunk is assembled dry, it loses most of its sanitary, hygienic and operational qualities. They also won’t be able to get through the quicksand without a tongue and groove; they will flow into the openings.
Bottom ring of a reinforced concrete well with a cutting skirt
In any case, it makes complete sense to cast the lower ring (or belt) yourself: factory ones with a cutting skirt and windows for side filters are very expensive. Its diagram is shown in Fig. on right. Height – standard, 90 cm; internal diameter is also from the standard range. Wall thickness – 90 mm. The outer diameter of the skirt is 10 cm larger than the ring. The reinforcement scheme is also standard: 5 belts made of corrugated rod 12-16 mm evenly in height, tied evenly in a circle with 10-12 ties made of wire 4-6 mm. The cutting edge (blade) is also 4-6 mm steel.
Solutions, mixing, compaction
To form castings, seal openings tightly and make bricks for side filters (see below), a mixture of the following composition is used, per 1 cubic meter. m of finished solution:
The solution for final sealing of openings differs only in the absence of crushed stone. For temporary sealing of windows under filters during shaft excavation, a conventional cement-sand mortar with M200 cement is used. Its water-cement ratio (W/C) is taken from 0.7, as long as fresh cement does not flow out of the windows, so that later it will be easier to knock down the seal.
It is impossible to use river rounded crushed stone, the concrete will be fragile: during the construction process it will have to experience tensile loads, which any concrete does not hold well. For the same reason, crushed quarry crushed stone is not suitable; it contains a lot of flakiness - grains that are too flat and/or long.
The formwork with the installed reinforcement frame is filled with the molding solution layer by layer, in layers of 10-15 cm. If the trunk is prefabricated, you need to prepare a ring punch in advance to form the profile of the connection of the rings, see below.
Each layer of solution is compacted with a perforator with a vibrating rod for 10-15 minutes. If laitance appears on its surface earlier, compaction can be stopped and the next layer can be poured. The casting is kept for 3-4 days, then the formwork is dismantled and the finished monolith is put into operation. If the well is monolithic, then the formwork must be assembled according to templates; a “pot-bellied” or “waisted” trunk will certainly get stuck.
Porous concrete for filters is mixed as follows:
Porous concrete is very fragile, so bricks from it are prepared in advance and walled into ring windows after opening the layer. They are finally secured with a solution for sealing openings.
Note: The height of the side filter windows is about 150 mm. The total width is 1/4-1/3 of the ring circumference. Number of windows – 3-4; they are distributed evenly around the circumference. If there is a suspicion that the well will have to be brought to perfection or sump, you can provide 2-3 belts of windows; The debit of a well depends only slightly on the area of the side filters.
Prokhodka
To sink a shaft with a monolithic shaft, at least two people are needed; prefabricated - a team of 4-6 strong, responsible and attentive workers. True, there are desperate heads who build a well alone, for example the author of the video:
Video: how to dig a well alone?
But in this case, one should be surprised not at the hard work and perseverance of the author, but at the fact that he remained alive until the end of the work and can talk about his ordeals.
First of all, they dig a pit for the lower ring; In any case, it is cast separately. In the finished ring, windows for filters are temporarily cemented, installed in the foundation pit (in this case, it is permissible to turn over with precautions, see below); it protrudes 20-25 cm above the edge of the pit. Then the ring is carefully aligned horizontally and vertically; the evenness of the entire shaft and the ease of its penetration depend on this.
Next, the gap between the ring and the wall of the pit is filled with the excavated soil, layer by layer and with a tamper. Then they install the formwork, fill in the next belt (or install the next ring, see below), wait 3-4 days (the backfill will settle in the meantime), and begin to dig with a bell (pos. A in the figure): they select, passing over and over again circle, ring lining, until the trunk shrinks. Be careful of pinching the shovel: you can get an uppercut with its handle!
Ring assembly
Digging a mine with a sliding shaft using a bell
After shrinkage, the barrel is checked again with a plumb level, and the next pass of the bell is made so that it is level. The usual technique for this is to start digging in the place of least draft. But, generally speaking, a navvy excavator is a creative profession. Without exaggeration.
When the same 20-25 cm remains above the ground from the finished trunk, it is extended as described above, etc. As the trunk deepens, it settles more and more suddenly; especially in dry dense soils. Then, you may have to dig with a bell with pillars: soil supports are left under the skirt of the ring (pos. 1-12 in the figure), and then they are knocked down one by one, as the lining was chosen, with oblique blows of a shovel from top to bottom, pos. 13-16.
It is now useless to level the trunk, there is too much of it in the ground. To prevent it from jamming during the next shrinkage, they remember which pillar collapsed last. If there was no spontaneous shrinkage and the barrel had to be loaded, remember the last one that was shot down. In both cases, the next break begins from the diametrically opposite rear sight; the next one after it - from the one next to the last one shot down, etc.
Ring assembly
Wells made of end-to-end rings with flat ends are mainly built for sewerage and drainage. For this, as you know, you need a crane and a wide pit. Aquifer wells are assembled from rings connected into a quarter (pos. 1 in the figure) or into a socket, pos. 2. The first ones are cheaper, you can make them yourself. Second:
Concrete ring connections
How to fell rings
Concrete ring connections
The joints are sealed with a final sealing solution, see above; it is applied to the connector of the previous ring before installing the next one. Remember to wait 3-4 days for the solution to harden! Professionals who need to meet the contract deadline seal the joints with special gaskets, but we can wait, and cement, unlike gaskets, is eternal.
The rings are fastened with brackets (pos. 3), terminals for bolts - clamps - pos. 4, or embedded pins with eyes for a bolted connection, pos. 5. For the first 2 methods, you don’t need special rings; you can punch holes in regular ones and make the fasteners yourself. The second ones are more expensive, and the installation openings will need to be bricked up. But such a connection is eternal, because... metal parts are protected from corrosion. In any case, you need at least 3 connectors per joint.
How to fell rings
Filling of concrete rings
There is water!
Securing the barrel
Filters
Finishing touch below
Completion at the top
Why does a well need a house?
Pseudo-house and well house
Finally
Finally, let us remind you once again:
Filling of concrete rings
Assembly of the barrel in bulk of rings is carried out according to Fig. In the place marked in red, 2-4 traction and the same number of safety cables are attached. Each person uses maximum effort, see above about safety precautions! The cables are spread out in a V-shape or fan. The belays are passed in a figure eight into pairs of strong stakes driven into the ground.
The pile-up is made by loosening (releasing) the safety ropes more; traction ones only tighten the ring so that it doesn’t spill back. The most skillful and collected workers are put on release: if they get caught at the wrong time or at the wrong time, the ring tries to turn up on its heel, spin around and splash to the side. But it is round, heavy, rolls quickly and far. The author knows of a case where a KTs-20-9 ring that had spun together broke through 2 walls of a country house and got stuck in the 3rd. At that time, a deep well-pool was built in an arid area to collect winter precipitation for the summer. Also, by the way, an exclusively concrete product.
There is water!
Finally, there is water! Now we stop the excavation, pump out the water 2 times a day and remove the sediment. Then we go deeper by 20-30 cm, up to 3-4 times, until we reach the old sure sign of maximum debit - 3 keys. If you have sunk 1 or more meters into the formation, but there are still no 3 keys, we hope for a year that the well will swing through the side filters. We’re not in a hurry to build a tent or add construction to the sump, it’s too much of a chore.
A layer that carries good quality water is not like a wet sponge; the water in it flows in intertwined veins. Cut this one and there will be a key. In layers of normal structure per 1 sq. m of cut along the rod there are 3-4 cores, and the cross-sectional area of the well is just about 1 square. If 3 springs come out of the clean bottom of the mine, we are at the core, there will not be a noticeably greater debit.
Securing the barrel
Reinforcing the well frame with planks
During the exploration of the overburden of the formation, the shaft is secured against subsidence. Wooden - logs-beds in deposits (stoves), resting on wedges lying on stone slabs, see fig. on right. It is easier and safer to secure the concrete trunk at the top by hanging it by the mounting holes to a temporary pile driver made of 3-4 logs. The legs of the piledriver are protected from moving away by stakes driven into the ground; they are called boys.
Filters
Before the trunk shrinks into the formation to the required depth, side filters are built into the windows; In contact with water, the bonding solution will naturally not harden. The bottom filter is poured after final shrinkage. It is ordinary: a layer of crushed stone of a fraction of 3-5 mm, 10 cm thick, then a fraction of the same thickness of 15-20 mm, and on top - gravel of 70-100 mm by 15-20 cm. A side filter is desirable in any well, because then the water in it will be flowing and will never stagnate.
Types of pores in side filters of wells
There are rings with ready-made side filters on sale. Straight pores in them - for layers with a weak flow, inclined (in them the inflow of water is difficult, and the outflow is facilitated and there is almost no sediment into the well) - with a medium one, V-shaped - with a strong one and for collecting water from quicksand, see fig. The mobility of water in the formation can be determined independently when it is opened, but this is of no use to us, because The described concrete filter is universal and copes with its duties in any layers.
Finishing touch below
Underground work ends with 3-4 times the complete pumping of water and cleaning the bottom of sediment with an interval of 1-2 days. More cleaning may be necessary until sediment is no longer deposited on the visible layer of the bottom filter. The water can be tested a month later.
Completion at the top
Well, after all that, there are only mere little things left: making a hydraulic lock and a head. It is possible to also build a house for the well. It's worth staying a little longer at the houses.
Why does a well need a house?
Pseudo-house and well house
Take a look at fig. The fact that on the right is a house, and on the left is only an imitation of it. The purpose of the well house is not so much to block the path of precipitation or small living creatures suffering from suicidal syndrome; the lid does this. The house is intended primarily to house a water pump, and a wind-swept structure is not suitable for this.
The device for manual well water pumping is shown in Fig. below. There are also semi-automatic houses, in which the electric pump is turned on either manually or from a float-contact sensor in the house pressure tank, and turns off using a timer with a preset time. Automatic houses pump from pressure and flow sensors in the water supply. With a stable power supply, they make it possible to do without a pressure tank, which more than pays for the cost of automation.
Scheme of a manual water pump in a well house
As for the head, finishing it to the owner’s taste will not harm it in any way. There is only one requirement for materials: they should not be hygroscopic, because... The air humidity around the well is always increased due to evaporation from it. Facing brick, for example, is not suitable; it will soon become saturated with water and become a breeding ground for bacteria, although it may still look like new. To insulate the head and house, if the climate requires it, you only need EPS - polystyrene foam, mineral wool and polyurethane are porous.
If the finishing of the head is made of wood, it must be impregnated with biocides under industrial conditions under pressure. It is not advisable to decorate a well under a tree with a plastic blockhouse or metal siding, because... cavities in the sheathing will become condensation traps. Of the layered materials, only ondulin is suitable, especially since its decorative qualities are not bad.
Finally
Finally, let us remind you once again: building a well is by no means a hobby. This is hard, difficult and dangerous work. An amateur well-digger is a contradiction in definition. The level of skill of workers may vary, but the approach to business should always be professional, serious and thoughtful.
In contact with
When quicksand appears in a well, you can expect numerous problems both during construction and during operation. The presence of such an underground phenomenon significantly affects the quality of water, up to its complete unsuitability for drinking.
Great difficulties arise when digging a well shaft when passing through such an unstable layer. However, all problems can be solved. This is best handled by professionals from specialized organizations, but you can do everything yourself.
At its core, quicksand is a soil layer with water saturation and a thickness of 1 to 15 m. As a rule, it is a limited, elongated volume in the earth mass, filled with sand and sandy loam (often with solid particles of various impurities). In its normal state it is sealed and stable, but under mechanical stress it can easily spread.
403 Forbidden
403 Forbidden
nginxUnder the pressure of water, such a layer begins to move. In general, quicksand can have a fairly uniform or completely chaotic (heterogeneous) structure with a fine- or coarse-grained base. They often contain rocky debris and cemented sand masses.
At depth, quicksand is most often in hydrodynamic equilibrium, i.e. the pressure created inside it is balanced by the forces provided by the mass of the soil located above it. The formation can remain in this state for as long as desired until this balance is disrupted. When it is opened, internal pressure becomes dominant, which pushes the sand upward.
There are 2 main types of quicksand:
- The true variety contains numerous clayey and colloidal dust particles, which begin to play the role of a lubricant, connecting large particles. Such formations are able to retain water inside and have a low filtration coefficient, which does not allow external water to pass through the formation. In winter, when they freeze, they exhibit significant swelling. When drying, true quicksand becomes very compact.
- The false variety consists of fine, water-saturated sandstone. Taking into account the depth of such a formation, the water in them is under excess pressure, and when opened, it pushes out sand.
What problems arise
Problems with the presence of quicksand can arise during the construction stage and during the operation of the well. In the first case, difficulties arise if such a layer is located in the place where the well shaft is being dug, and it needs to be crossed, i.e. when the condition arises: the quicksand is located above the aquifer.
When digging a pit, you have to open the quicksand, which causes it to move. The liquefied mass begins to fill the shaft, making it impossible to deepen it further. The forming cavity leads to a high probability of displacement of soil layers.
Thus, a mandatory requirement arises: work on digging a mine can only take place if the walls are secured and the quicksand is blocked.
Big troubles arise during operation, when the quicksand is located in the bottom zone of the well . In an existing structure, this phenomenon primarily pollutes the water. However, this is far from the biggest problem. Quicksand impedes the flow of water and, in principle, can lead to complete depletion of the well.
In addition, possible mechanical loads cause great danger. In the lower part of the well there is a risk of lateral shift or settlement of concrete rings or frame crowns. When the formation freezes in the middle part of the shaft, intense swelling occurs, which creates very high loads on the shaft walls. In other words, an existing well in quicksand puts forward such increased requirements: periodic cleaning of the bottom zone, strengthening measures, etc.
Subtleties of well installation
As mentioned above, in order to pass the quicksand when forming the required depth of the well, measures should be taken to prevent the movement of water-saturated sand into the shaft hole.
These measures depend on the type of quicksand, its size, mobility (compliance), power, composition and other characteristics. Sometimes, when it is not so large, speeding up digging or drilling with a quick start to constructing the walls is sufficient. Intensive work is combined with pumping out water and cleaning the shaft.
Such actions are possible when digging shallow holes, as well as in circumstances where the passage of a dangerous area is carried out in the lower part of the well.
In such cases, it is important to follow safety precautions and control the risk of wall collapse. The resulting sediment must be pumped out continuously using a drainage pump of the required power, preventing the accumulation of seeping mass in the well shaft.
In general, the surest way to avoid problems is to identify the presence of quicksand at the stage of survey work and move the construction of the well to another, safer place.
Taking technical measures
When the quicksand is of significant size, when the pump cannot cope with pumping out the mass, various technical methods of sinking are used. When constructing walls in the form of a column of concrete rings, the technology of their deposition is often used. The method is implemented by removing soil under a concrete ring, which then slowly lowers down under its own weight.
Naturally, the dangerous area traversed in this way is immediately sealed by rubbing the seams between the rings. When lowering the blocks, small additional mechanical loads are applied from above. An important condition is uniform settling, which prevents distortions of the rings.
Another option for sinking quicksand is to fasten sheet piles in the danger zone. Such a device is a wall, bulkhead, shield made of boards or beams, securely fastened together using quarters or corners, while in the lower part the ends of the tongue and groove boards are sharpened so that they can be driven in from above.
When the quicksand is located close to the aquifer feeding the well, excavation can be carried out using a sheet piling box. Such a tongue and groove is driven in strictly vertically with a controlled plumb line using a wooden butt or a hand-held hammer. It is immersed to a depth of 32-40 cm between the guide and spacer frames.
After removing the soil without exposing the ends of the boards, the device is hammered in again. If the thickness of the quicksand layer is more than 1 m, then the impact will have to be carried out using a piledriver and a cast iron head, which moves along guides.
In cases where the quicksand filling is highly liquefied, A special bottom box with a lid and a cutting metal shoe is used. This device is lowered into the bottom zone and pressed into the bottom of the shaft (directly into the quicksand).
The process of settling the box is carried out using wedges or jacks acting on the timber fixed to the log house. Jacks or wedges are installed symmetrically, on two opposite sides of the box. As it is filled with the contents of the quicksand, the lid opens, and the mass is removed and raised upward. At the same time, the well frame is gradually lowered creating a load. This method is applicable when passing through layers of about 0.8-1.2 m in size.
Pipe penetration
A fairly effective and reliable way to ensure the passage of powerful quicksand during the construction of a well is steel formwork made of pipes with a diameter slightly smaller than the size of the concrete well rings. Such formwork is immersed directly into the thickness of the quicksand, which ensures complete blocking and sealing of the liquefied soil.
It should be noted that concrete rings, even with maximum sealing, cannot create such protection. In other words, a steel caisson without a bottom is installed in the area where the quicksand is opened. Instead of a sealed bottom, a filter layer is formed from washed crushed stone of fraction 50-70.
The second method of tubular penetration is based on the use of steel pipes, which guarantee a backwater of water from depth, which eliminates the lifting of sand by water from the upper horizons of the formation. For this purpose, a pipe with a diameter of about 30-55 mm is used, which is driven to a depth of 25-30 m (to the upper aquifer with a stable flow rate) using a drilling rig.
In this way, something between a well and a well is built, while the pressure provided by deep water prevents the penetration of sand from quicksand.
Activities on existing wells
Poorly blocked bottom quicksand during operation can cause the above problems with water supply. In order to eliminate this phenomenon, wells with quicksand are periodically cleaned. The bottom filter is cleaned most thoroughly.
To exclude further influences of quicksand, a method of arranging a double tent in the water intake area is used. To do this, the shaft is deepened and a lower tent is installed. Then an additional drainage tent is installed at a distance of 40-45 cm from it.
Particular attention should be paid to the installation of this element - it should be carefully caulked along its entire length with moss and cross-stitched with slats. The principle of operation of such a filter is simple: sand from the lower tent remains between the walls of the elements, and water is pumped upward.
When carrying out preventive and repair work in quicksand wells, one should take into account the fact that the water column in the mine restrains the rise of sand from the formation, which means that all the water should not be pumped out of it.
The minimum water layer should have a height of 35-40 cm. To eliminate the risk of sand penetrating into drinking water, the bottom of the well is often equipped with a special filter. In particular, aspen board is used. Sometimes an additional filter layer of sand and crushed stone is poured onto it.
Quicksand during the construction or operation of a well can cause serious problems. However, there are many ways to effectively overcome such difficulties. All activities can be carried out with your own hands.
Modern water supply to a country house from wells with the development of household technologies needs to be intensified. The presence of washing machines, dishwashers, and high-performance heated showers requires increased water consumption. Wells that have existed for a long time do not always satisfy today's summer residents. Some see the solution in deepening the mines, others believe that the way out of the situation will be a well in a well. We'll tell you how to drill it, and when drilling inside a well makes sense
Low efficiency of wells can be caused by silting, casing collapse, and the presence of quicksand. But there is another reason that forces many to stop using water. Usually the water lies at a depth of 5-10 m, the source of water in them is streams.
Surface water originates in rain and snowdrifts. The distillate that falls to the ground in the form of precipitation, before seeping into the well, undergoes additional filtration with natural sand. Minor harmful impurities are sorbed by active soil ingredients. In the horse-drawn era, the water was always clean - regardless of their depth. The only factor that could spoil the taste of water was the presence of a swamp next to the well.
In the context of the industrial restructuring of the world, rains acquired a persistent acidic taste and alkaline soapiness. Sands and loams collected all the applied components from the endless fertilized fields. Wells from sources of crystal clear water have turned into reservoirs of nitrates, herbicides and heavy metal salts
Modern methods for extracting fresh water recommend drilling deep into the ground - to the groundwater level or, even better, to artesian aquifers. Among the many ways to ensure efficient home water supply, the most budget-friendly option is to make a well in a well.
Well inside a well
It should be noted right away: not in all cases, drilling a well in the bottom of an underground reservoir will save money. It often happens that it is more efficient to drill a hole nearby. This statement is almost always true in cases where the excavation is carried out by a professional team of drillers: the power of their equipment allows drilling on an industrial scale in a short period of time. The machine's performance ensures that the depth of most wells can be reached in a quarter of an hour. Completing the work will take less time than preparing the rig for drilling.
For this reason, most specialized companies prefer to drill in virgin soil. In any case, the cost of work is calculated from the zero mark - the soil level. This point of view contains rational grain for the customer. If you invite drillers, it is more advisable to drill a water well in a place that is as convenient as possible for servicing the source, laying pipes and performing the drilling itself - where fences, trees and decorated paths do not interfere.
Work on deepening existing sources, including the production of tube wells, is undertaken by individual teams whose equipment has less power, and specialists are ready to pay attention to such “little things” as strengthening walls, creating reinforcing frames, fixing casing pipes and building additional conductors. The customer receives a bonus in the form of a reduction in the cost of excavation due to the existing pit.
In what cases does deepening make sense?
To predict the quality of the result, it is necessary to have an understanding of the structure of aquifers and soil layers.
Clays, loams and sandy loams lie under the black fertile layer. In some pockets, the structure of which contains sandstone, underground streams formed by surface streams can flow.
Below the top layer of sandstones, under the clay crust, there is again a layer of sands (sometimes with pebbles), in which underground rivers flow. In most cases, these groundwaters are a continuation of surface water bodies. Sands at this depth can move along with water currents, forming “quicksands”.
Clays with boulders and granites are located deeper. The third layer of sands mixed with water lies, as a rule, on the surface of porous limestones, in the thickness of which powerful streams of artesian level flow.
Existing wells reach surface or groundwater. Often their filling is limited by quicksand, unnoticeable to users. With regular use, a lens is formed in the thickness of the sand, in which water accumulates. Its flow rate ranges from 300 l/day to 600 l/hour.
This volume may be sufficient for minimal water use, but this amount of moisture is not enough to provide for the average modern family. Attempts to deepen the well end in failure: instead of the selected sand, the underground flow brings new sand, and the natural balance is restored.
You can try to drill a well in such an old well: deepening the casing into the underlying sands will not require much physical effort. The installation process should proceed without unnecessary complications, unless a granite bottom is found under the quicksand.
In which well can a well be made?
There is no separate GOST or SNiP with requirements for the elements of a well in a well. Customers and performers use common sense when choosing methods, giving preference to the most functional and safe.
First of all, you need to make sure that the well will not cause the walls to collapse into the well. To do this, the existing structure is carefully examined, obvious and potential defects are identified, and they are eliminated.
Wells made of logs in 90 percent of cases require additional piping and reinforcement. Concrete rings are more reliable and durable, but they also require preliminary study. The masonry must be free of cracks, damage, and loose elements. The mine route must be vertical.
Violation of the alignment of the rings may indicate that the sand cushion is unstable and is actively affected by water flow. A newly drilled well can cause new masses of water to enter the well, which will simply wash away the ring with everything that was inside it.
Strengthening and reinforcing structures
Two elements are subject to reinforcement: the casing and the installed conductor. The reinforcement operation is easier to perform in a durable concrete well. To carry out the work, anchor bolts are embedded in the walls of the upper, lower and one of the middle elements along four axes, to which vertical posts made of a steel profile are subsequently screwed. The racks are scalded at two or three levels with edging rods, which should form squares. Reinforcing bars are welded into the tops of the squares, holding them together.
The conductor is strengthened in this way. They mark the point where the well will go, and around it, corners located strictly vertically are sunk into the well. The corners are scalded together around the perimeter. If the rings were tied before, the structures are connected, ensuring rigid fixation.
A drilling rig is placed above the shaft, which is equipped with a block with a gate on an axis and a headstock on a cable or chain. The tower is placed on a hard surface; in some cases, concrete slabs are placed under its heels or a monolithic base is poured.
Time to make a well
It is best to drill a well in late summer, early autumn, when the soil contains the least amount of water. The work can also be done in winter; in this case, you can try to freeze the water. To do this, in the most severe frosts, cold air is pumped from the surface of the earth into the well. With intense cooling, the water surface can freeze on the third to seventh day.
The drilling technology itself is similar to traditional ones. The only difference is that before work begins, a pipe - a conductor - is driven into the bottom of the well. The height of the pipe should reach the top edge of the well. The length of the conductor must be sufficient to deepen it as much as possible - to protect the drilling channel from moving masses of water and sand. If necessary, the pipe is extended using couplings.
The shaft of a modernized well is often backfilled after completion of the work. The well must be protected from overhead wastewater entering the well from the soil surface.
For five days, fellow diggers of the deceased 25-year-old guy worked at the site of the well collapse. Before this, a commission on emergency situations was convened at the district executive committee, and a plan for further action was developed. An individual entrepreneur professionally engaged in the construction of wells was appointed as the executor - the one who will dig up the body. The commission instructed the Ministry of Emergency Situations to provide him with all the necessary equipment, and the local police to establish posts.
The body of a young man was discovered at approximately eight o'clock in the evening, July 21, but it was only possible to remove it this morning, July 22, at approximately 7.40.
Relatives hoped for a miracle until the very end, so they expressed many complaints about the fact that the operational services did not begin the rescue operation as quickly as possible. However, the results of an inspection of the emergency site showed that the risk of a repeat collapse is too high to begin work immediately. At the same time, taking into account all the factors, there was almost no chance of saving the man alive. “We were not talking about rescue work, but about an operation to extract the body.”, - stated earlier in the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
It later turned out that the well had been dug since May 2014 by two workers: a deceased 25-year-old guy and a 42-year-old partner. On July 15, on the eve of the collapse, an older, more experienced man refused to continue working when he saw the displacement of the rings and chips at the level of the 27th. Experts later established the fact that the well shaft deviated from the vertical.
The young worker decided to finish the well; the next day, July 16, he found another assistant. Later, a witness to the incident said: after removing about 15 buckets of soil, he heard five pops from below from the well where the digger was located. These were the sounds of the “folded” lower rings.
Experts state: it is better to entrust the most complex work of digging wells to qualified and experienced specialists. This is a dangerous activity that requires extreme supervision. This is confirmed by dry statistics - over the past five years in Belarus, 20 people died due to soil collapse. Many of these cases occurred during well work.
Thus, on August 30, 2010, in the village of Selishche (Chaussky district, Mogilev region), the soil collapsed on one of the private farmsteads while deepening a well 10 meters deep. Various equipment and dozens of workers were deployed at the site, but the deceased man was only pulled out from under the rubble on the fifth day. This required digging a huge pit with a diameter of 20-25 meters and a depth of up to 12 meters.
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On August 12, 2014, on the territory of the Drazhnya gardening partnership in Minsk, a 31-year-old man fell asleep while he was digging a well at a depth of 5.6 meters. Emergency services teams and special equipment worked on the spot for several hours, but, alas, the man could not be saved.
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On November 2, 2014, a similar incident occurred on the territory of the Solnechnoye gardening partnership near the village of Kurgany (Minsk region). A 29-year-old worker was “hack-working” on one of the plots. He also died under the rubble of the earth.
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The construction of a well is best illustrated by the saying “Man proposes, but God disposes”: the success of the enterprise depends not so much on the skill of the builders, but on luck. One example of bad luck is when a well fell on quicksand.
When constructing a well you need luck
What is quicksand, how to deal with it and is it worth it - this will be discussed in the publication.
Quicksand: The Great and Terrible
It is about him that there are horror stories: how, when digging a well, concrete rings are suddenly carried away in an unknown direction by an erupting stream of water and sand, along with the poor fellow-digger. Indeed, a collapse may occur in the well shaft and a person will suffer, or even die, crushed by the soil and the shifted rings. And the cause of deformation of the mine shaft may also be quicksand.
True, it is unlikely that in the event of such an accident the consequences will be like in a high-budget Hollywood disaster film with special effects - with concrete rings being carried away into the distance by a stormy stream. Maybe only if you are “lucky” to get not on quicksand, but to pierce a stormy underground river with a well.
But quicksand is really dangerous and can cause a lot of trouble. To get a feel for it, I suggest watching the video.
The metro section, notorious to all St. Petersburg residents, between the Lesnaya and Ploshchad Muzhestva stations passes through just such a dangerous place. The quicksand near Lesnaya brought trouble to metro construction workers twice.
The first was during construction, in the 70s (the Soviet film “Breakthrough” was based on these events). Then, after the accident, to continue work, the quicksand was frozen, pumping more than 8,000 tons of liquid nitrogen into the tunnel. But at the beginning of 1995, the quicksand returned, and in December, after numerous attempts to contain the erosion, the stations were closed until 2004.
What is quicksand
Quicksand is a porous, loose soil saturated with moisture, consisting of unconnected particles. Due to the large amount of water, such soil acquires the properties of a liquid and begins to flow.
The quicksand is under pressure in a sealed cavity in the soil. When this cavity is opened, for example, by a pit or a well shaft, the quicksand masses begin to move under the influence of that same pressure, and masses of sand and water break through into the resulting excavation.
It is impossible to guess the location of the quicksand. Photo from the site otvali.ru
Most often, such formations are found on swampy soils or in river floodplains. The thickness of the quicksand layer and its dimensions may vary. Outwardly, on the surface of the earth, quicksand does not reveal itself in any way, so it is impossible to predict its location. Just as it is impossible to take measures to avoid meeting him. Experts distinguish true quicksand and false.
True quicksand
In addition to dusty sand, it contains hydrophilic particles of clay or silt, which envelop larger grains of sand, acting as a lubricant. Even with a slight pressure, the mass of this sandy loam comes into a mobile state.
If while digging a well you come across a true quicksand, then you are really out of luck. True quicksand practically do not give up water - they have a low filtration coefficient. Therefore, it will not be possible to build a well in such a place: instead of water, it will contain a viscous clay-sand solution.
False quicksand
Fortunately, true quicksands are not that common. Usually when digging a well they encounter pseudoquicksands. False quicksand does not contain colloidal particles - it is a soil consisting of fine sand and a large amount of water.
Dense sand saturated with water liquefies under pressure
To imagine how quicksand behaves, think of the sand at the water's edge. It looks hard and almost dry, but as soon as you step on it, it becomes fluid and water appears.
In order for a false quicksand, unlike a true one, to move at depth, it is necessary to apply significant hydraulic pressure. If there is a false quicksand on the way of the mine, it will not interfere with the construction of the well. Moreover, a well on quicksand is particularly water-rich compared to a regular one. However, it will complicate the life of both the diggers and the owner of the well during its operation.
How to deal with quicksand
It is better to entrust digging a well to specialists who have experience in encountering quicksand and can quickly make the right decision. If you decide to dig yourself, you must follow safety precautions:
- the walls of the well must be strengthened, that is, the well cannot be built on complex, loose soils without rings;
- there should be a partner at the top, and the digger should have a safety rope so that, if necessary, it is possible to immediately lift the person: the quicksand can move suddenly;
- if there is reason to believe that the quicksand layer is of small thickness, and the decision is made to pass through it, then you need to work as quickly as possible, and if it is impossible to pass, stop and arrange a water intake part in the quicksand.
Work in the well. Photo from the site stroytolk.ru
In the old days, in order to pass quicksand, in addition to the speed of work, strengthening the walls and installing a tunnel shield that fenced off the quicksand and slowed down the flow of water and sand into the well, they “bound” the water-saturated soil by adding a substance that absorbed water. If moisture is taken away from false quicksand, the sand becomes compacted and loses its quicksand qualities.
To do this, for example, they poured several bags of flour into a well and mixed it with a water-sand slurry. After some time, the flour absorbed the water, and work could continue.
Another option is to dig a well in winter. At this time, firstly, the groundwater level is the lowest, and secondly, the soil freezes.
Well on quicksand
You shouldn’t be upset that you came across quicksand while digging a mine: more than 40% of wells in the Moscow region are built in similar conditions. As mentioned above, such wells usually have a high flow rate (that is, the rate of water flow into them is high), and sand is an excellent filter. You just need to accept the inevitable sand drift as one of the features of your well and deal with it correctly.
Exploitation
You should not try to pump sandy slurry from a well: the more you pump, the more it comes. And this is fraught not only with a waste of energy: the sand entering the well is carried away by water from behind the outer walls of the shaft, and cavities form there.
And this is where the development of events follows the scenario of a disaster movie: the ground may move and the rings may shift, with all the sad consequences. In addition, the surface layer of soil can settle in cavities formed in the soil. And if there is a building nearby, then the weakening and even destruction of its foundation and the building itself is likely.
Ploshchad Muzhestva metro station in the film about the Leningrad metro accident. Photo from masterok.livejournal.com
Some subsidence of the soil is inevitable - this is normal. It is worth being patient and waiting until the soil around the new well compacts and the “well-aquifer” connection comes into balance. Only after this can a blind area be built around the well head. The process of soil compaction and subsidence can take several years.
After the situation stabilizes and the soil stops actively flowing into the mine, you can try to remove the applied sand until the quicksand begins to manifest itself again. And then you will have to wait again until the system calms down. The procedure may need to be repeated again.
It is impossible to use a submersible vibration pump in a well on quicksand, since its work will lift the sand located at the bottom. It is necessary to install a pump with surface water intake.
Surface pump connection diagram
Also, you cannot pump out water in one burst (at one time); at least a third of the usual volume should always remain in the well, and better yet, no less than half. Taking in a large amount of water can “wake up” the quicksand. It is better to organize a storage tank on the surface, the volume of which obviously exceeds daily water consumption, and install a low-power pump that fills it. And the entire water supply system at home should be drawn from a storage tank.
And most importantly, you should not use shields or install a bottom filter in an attempt to contain quicksand. You can find out the reasons for this in one of the following publications.
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