A recent job saw us contacted by a homeowner who was renovating their property that they had recently purchased. They had been told that the existing on-site borehole would be sufficient for their needs but on investigation, the building contractor established that the borehole pump did not work and the borehole ran dry very quickly. There was not enough water for the existing house never mind the redeveloped house which was going to have a higher demand for water.

The owner contacted Dales Water Services and specifically Jonny to discuss the predicament they were in – a very expensive house with no water! Jonny carried out an independent review of the existing borehole and the hydrogeology of the site, establishing that the sites underlying geology were not ideally suited to a borehole water supply. As a consequence, it was no surprise that the existing borehole supply ran dry when used as it was just too shallow for the aquifer underlying the property.

We also discovered that the existing borehole was a very narrow diameter. Why is this important?

A borehole needs to be drilled at the correct diameter to allow for the installation of the submersible pump and related infrastructure that goes into a borehole. The existing borehole was only 4 inches in diameter – far too small to install all of the necessary equipment even if water had been present in the borehole.

Jonny developed and designed a new borehole construction for the owner of the system taking into account the sites underlying hydrogeology, ensuring that if the borehole was successful that it was of sufficient diameter to enable the installation of the correct equipment into the borehole.

The works progressed and were successful; the borehole was very deep and much deeper than the original borehole which didn’t supply the required water. However, the new borehole supplied some 2m3/hr sufficient for the house.  Jonny designed the water treatment and incorporated a storage and boosting element into this to further ease constraint on the sites underlying aquifer and hydrogeology with the storage and boosting meeting instantaneous demands for water.

Key Takeaways

Dales Water Services offer a home buyers report for anyone purchasing or selling a property with a private water supply, taking into account the infrastructure installed, potential volume of water available and the quality of the water.

In this instance had the purchaser commissioned such a report they may have had an opportunity to examine the existing supply, establish that there were issues and problems with that supply and what might be involved to provide a modern supply of water. This case study also shows that the seller of the property and supply likewise should be carrying out the correct due diligence to give the purchaser the correct information when they are selling the property.

We were able in this instance to provide the new owner with a water supply and we are very pleased that we were able to do so.