A dacha well is the main or alternative source of water supply.
Water from the well is used for drinking, cooking, and watering the garden. In all of these cases, the site becomes independent from central water supply systems. You can dig a well in your dacha yourself: you don’t need to use excavators or other special equipment to do this. But first, let's talk about the types of wells.
Do-it-yourself well in the country: types of wells
Conventionally, all wells are divided into two groups:
- utilitarian
- decorative.
Utilitarian wells
Utilitarian wells are those that contain water; their purpose is purely practical. The most popular type of this group was and remains the classic well made of concrete rings. The water from it is fresh, clean, cool, and of high quality.
Advantages of a well made of concrete rings:
- long service life
- ease of cleaning and other maintenance
- ability to repair chips and other damage
- the opportunity to improve the well from the outside.
The Abyssinian well (needle well) is another type of utilitarian group. It looks like an inch pipe buried 15–20 meters into the ground. At the end of the pipe there is a perforated tip, shaped like a needle. The purpose of the tip is to collect groundwater.
What an Abyssinian well looks like can be seen in the photo below. Its fundamental difference is that water is pumped in forcibly. Without a pump, such a well is ineffective. Mine concrete structures are filled due to the natural flow of groundwater.
Decorative wells
Decorative wells are built as decoration for a summer cottage. They are part of the landscape design, so the aesthetic component of the object comes to the fore.
It doesn't have to be a deep well of water. To create an atmosphere, it is enough to realistically reproduce the superstructure, decorate it with a bucket, jug, flowers or other decor.
Design options
Construction companies offer to purchase ready-made designs for decorative wells, but such products are quite expensive and are not original. A landscape designer will be able to advise on how to choose the right decorative wells and design them in accordance with the appearance of the garden, but you can also cope on your own, not only with the choice, but also with the creation of the structure.
Ready-made decorative wells are expensive and not original
Ready-made designs of decorative wells
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There are several designs of wells, in the likeness of which decorative structures are also built. This could be a mansion with a gable roof, a crane well without a canopy, or a column protruding above the surface of the earth (Abyssinian well). A well, similar to a house, usually acts as a decorative object.
Small decorative well
Beautiful crane well without canopy
A decorative well can become an interesting object in the landscape when illuminated at night
Magnificent view of the estate with a decorative well
Country style well
Beautiful landscape with decorative wells
Spectacular well in oriental style
Decorative well with a roof with curved corners
A beautiful decorative well will never cease to delight your eye
Decorative well in a modern style
There are several designs of wells, in the likeness of which decorative structures are also built. This could be a mansion with a gable roof, a crane well without a canopy, or a column protruding above the surface of the earth (Abyssinian well). A well, similar to a house, usually acts as a decorative object.
- for country style (an ordinary village hut with a cozy garden around), a well in the form of a mansion with interesting carved details is suitable,
- in oriental styles, a small building with a tiled roof with corners curved up would be appropriate,
- modern styles (minimalism, modernism, etc.) involve creating a well structure by analogy with other objects on the site (house, bathhouse, barn, chicken coop, well and other structures must be made of the same materials and using the same technique).
Do-it-yourself utilitarian well in the country: photos, videos, drawings
Making a classic well in a country house is more difficult than an Abyssinian one, but it will last 3 times longer.
Construction begins with the selection of materials. Traditionally, mine wells are equipped with reinforced concrete rings from the inside: they are strong but heavy. You won't be able to install them yourself.
The second option is prefabricated plastic rings, which weigh much lighter, cost less, and are not subject to corrosion.
Stages of constructing a well
- At the preliminary stage, you need to choose the right place for the well. The ideal option is geological exploration of the site and precise identification of areas where there is water.
- The next stage is determining the size of the well. The diameter of the pit should be 10 cm larger than the diameter of reinforced concrete or plastic rings.
- Now you can move on to digging a hole. Its depth should be such that the ring does not completely enter it, but rises 15 cm above the ground.
- You need to lower the second one onto the concrete ring installed in the pit and secure the joints with staples and cement mortar.
- The next stage is to remove 80 cm of soil from the inside of the rings. Once this is done, you can dig a hole from the outside until the concrete rings sink to the bottom under the weight of their own.
The third and fourth rings are installed in a similar way until water appears at the bottom.
The final stage is to clean the bottom of the well, after which it must be left to fill with water for 12 hours. After 12 hours, the accumulated water will have to be pumped out and a filter installed at the bottom to protect the water from impurities.
The bottom filter consists of three layers:
- bottom layer - river pebbles, height 15 cm
- middle layer - gravel or fine crushed stone, height 10 cm
- the top layer is quartz sand, height 10 cm.
The filter is ready, the well is filling - you can move on to the superstructure. You can do it in different ways. The photographs below show examples of successful add-ons.
You will find a video on the topic useful.
Decorative wooden wells in Russian style
Wood has become the most popular material for making decorative wells. It is convenient to handle. You can make various planes from wood to build a well, namely timber, boards, lining, slabs.
The most logical way would be to build a well from timber. Since it will serve a decorative function, there is no need to adjust the wood for clear, even lines, or for a tight connection. You can carefully lay them in a house, fastening them with long nails.
And you can put a bucket inside, fill it with soil and plant flowers in it that will climb along the well. Such a decorative element will become the most eye-catching place. Before installing a wooden well, each beam must be treated with an antiseptic. This will help the tree last longer.
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Photo example:
Do-it-yourself decorative well at the dacha: photos, videos, drawings
A decorative well decorates the site, is used as a flower garden, and masks storm drains, irrigation barrels, pumps and other equipment on the site.
The design of a well can be budgetary or luxurious. It is important that it fits conceptually and stylistically into the design of the summer cottage. We will consider the simplest decorative well today as an example.
To make it you will need:
- block house 1.5 m long
- carriage board
- wooden blocks 40x40 mm
- edged board
- moisture resistant plywood
- fasteners.
The basis of the decorative well is a cube covered with a block house.
The racks on which the roof will be supported are attached to the base. The rafter frame is made of thin timber, and the slopes are reinforced with corners cut from moisture-resistant plywood.
The roof is covered with clapboard, and a cylinder for a bucket and the bucket itself with flowers are used as decoration.
What to make a decorative well from
If your summer cottage is equipped with a concrete well, then the most correct option would be stone or brick. They are quite unpretentious to dampness, as well as to weather conditions - showers, snowfalls. The main quality is strength and durability. You can even make a decorative well from tires or wood.
It is important to know! The design of your future well should take into account the material from which the house is made. There must be clear harmony.
Required materials and tools
The main raw materials for creating a well are planks of wood or timber. Protective products are specially purchased to ensure high-quality preservation of your main raw materials from rot and mold. Necessary tools for manufacturing: saws, electric jigsaw, milling cutter, chisels, screwdriver or drill, fasteners, and measuring instruments.
How to make a decorative well from wood with your own hands
To create a decorative well, you will need the following materials: wooden boards, an electric or regular jigsaw, a grinding machine, a saw, nails, a hammer.
Let's start creating:
- We cut two triangles from the boards to create the roof. The dimensions for this are determined as follows. The length should be 80 centimeters and the height 65 centimeters.
- Now let's start creating the main part of the well. To do this, you need to cut the boards with a saw. Length 1 meter 80 centimeters. Width – 15 centimeters, height 6. We prepare 12 parts 15 centimeters by 100 centimeters, size 15 by 80 centimeters.
- We begin assembling the well. Here you will need a hammer and nails. Fold the base into squares. Once you have folded the first row, secure everything with nails. And we also continue for 6 more rows.
- Then we prepare boards 1.5 meters high. We take a board 15 centimeters wide and nail it to the bottom of the well. We also install the 2nd board opposite the first one.
- Then we nail the board on top and thereby connect the two supports.
- We fasten our triangles on the sides of the well.
- Then we smooth out all the corners on the sides of the product.
- Then we create a bar for the roof.
- We are engaged in the manufacture of roofs. We cut 4 boards measuring 20 by 80 centimeters. Once the planks are made, we attach them to the roof and nail them down.
- The last point remains - this is the wheel with the shaft. We take a log and reduce the diameter and shape for the future wheel. And again we nail everything down.
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It will also be possible to paint the well so that it fits perfectly with the decor of the country site.
How to make a decorative well from stone with your own hands
To create such a structure, you must first pour the foundation. To create a well, you can use a brick or a concrete ring. And then just cover it with bricks. We dig pillars for support into the ground and sprinkle them with sand or stone, and install the roof. It is better to create it from the same material as the roof of your house.
You choose the dimensions for the future well yourself. Wells made from natural or decorative stones are constructed exactly according to these instructions. A simpler and more convenient way would be to cover the concrete rings with artificial stone. To do this, use only high-quality and special glue. After creating the well, simply coat with varnish.
Making a well at your dacha with your own hands: photo
To decorate a well, you can use the most unexpected materials and ideas and get a nice result. Take a look at the photographs of unusual wells and see for yourself.
How to clean a well at your dacha with your own hands
To ensure that the water in the well is always fresh and clean, it needs to be cleaned periodically. It is advisable to carry out sanitary treatment of the well after spring floods.
The easiest way to do this is to dissolve a teaspoon of potassium permanganate in a bucket of water, then pour the liquid into the well. After 2 hours, pump out the water from the well and let it fill again.
Automated cleaning can be done in other ways. It will require deep and drainage pumps and water tanks. Using a deep pump, water will be pumped out from the well into a container, and using a drainage pump, it will be pumped back.
The pumps should be located at a distance of 50 cm from the bottom, and the deep pump hose should be as close to the bottom as possible in order to lift silt and dirt with pressure and pass them along with water through the filters. The cleaning process continues until clean water flows from the pump.
To be sure of its quality, we advise you to submit samples of purified water from the well to a laboratory. And then drink it for health benefits.
Choosing a material for a well roof
A well should always have a roof, because without it it will not look beautiful enough. The roof covering can be made from the same material as the well, or you can, for example, take metal tiles, corrugated sheets or ondulin.
If the well is made of the same material as the house, and the roof of the well and the house also matches, then it will look very harmonious on the site. Photo:
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