Pulling a well pipe

R Q

R Q

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Location
Charlotte
I have a well that used to supply water to my house but now have a city water meter. My well quit working several years ago and since I had city water I never fixed it. Well we water plants a good bit so I'm going to get the well going again. It has a new above ground pump so its just pipe and a foot valve in the ground. I don't know how deep it is but I suspect not too deep. I've never pulled a well pipe so what all is involved? I don't know what kind of pipe is down there. The top is galvanized.
I've primed it several times and it won't hold it so I'm guessing either the pipe is rotten or the foot valve is bad.
Tell me about it!
Thanks
 
Will depend on age. Either poly roll pipe or galv all the way down. It's pretty much as straight forward as you guessed. Grab and lift. If it's poly you can rig a roller and pull it with a truck birch and a rope. But mist likely two filks. One lifts then holds while the next lifts. Try to use legs and not back and have fun.
 
we pulled ours with three/four people. it is 200'ish deep. our well is the crappiest pvc pipe they could find all the way down with the wire taped to it. it took two people to yank it up at the well head, one on an a frame ladder to ease the break over, and one to walk it across the yard. we had to pull it a couple times a few years back to fix broken pipe and the pump motor, so we got pretty good at it.
 
take a couple of boards and start pulling up. once you get it above ground sandwich the pipe with the boards. Let the boards rest on the casing. Basically one on one side of the pipe and one on the other. Then take a pipe wrench and get it where it will fit the pipe. Hook the wrench on the bottom of the pipe when you want to stop pulling up. Once the let go of the pipe, the wrench will bind and hold the pipe in place (whiel resting on the boards...it also helps it from falling down the hole) so you can cut it off with a sawzall. Grab the next section and pull up, take wrench off and pull up another 10' or so. Then hook the pipe with the wrench on the bottom again and let it bind. Cut it off above the pipe and rinse and repeat. I pulled 300'+ with this method of galvanized 1". Replace with schedule 80 PVC with screw connections. Enjoy!
 
I helped a friend twice in a year pull his 250 PVC line to fix stuff (one time it was January). It was just the two of us. Really good old fashion fun.

Just be patient and use your legs because you back absolutely will not last.

Since we we're not replacing the pipe, I drove a steel pipe in the ground and I used a prussick to allow a periodic break to cuss and have have a beer.
 
Take pictures! I was lucky when my pump quit, I found another one like it and had the motor rebuilt and then I rebuilt the pump with new parts. Did not have to change the ejector assembly or foot valve.
 
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