Is this going to be a nightmare? House with a well.

[OptimusRhyme]

We have put an offer on a house that's only source of water is a well. We have never had a well. Any experience?

We lived on a farm with only well water.
Connected to main sewage though, bizarrely!
Someone came out every so often and tested the water, for what I don't know, but it always came back fine.
When I moved in, the landlord spoke to someone to check the water was fine as I had a baby at that point, they sent out a letter telling me the results of the last 3? Years checks, and that it would be fine for a baby, just boil first, as you would with tap water.
The water was lovely, I was gutted to move and go back onto mains water!

Used to have a house with a well. Was fine for years then it got contaminated with sewage. Bloke up the hill blocked the sewer as he was too tight to buy loo roll and was wiping his arse with newspaper and flushing it. Somehow the sewage got in everyone’s well water. So were on bottled water for ages.

We asked for a quote for mains connection and it was going to be thousands as it was nearly a mile to the main. So we did the digging ourselves (on our land), laid the service pipe, water company did the last few feet and we saved a fortune.

Is it a well or a bore hole?

Wow that’s daunting!! I was going to say my parents have a well in the garden, they do, but they have mains water and the well is just a hole in the ground. I was going to say no-one has ever fallen in

Yep we have one. Supplies all the water. Need to get it checked once a year. No issues

We have a bore hole, no mains water. Our water is checked every 3 years by the council’s environmental health team. We have a UV filter to get rid of bacteria.

I lived in a house that had water from a spring, rather than a well. The water tasted much nicer than mains water, but it did sometimes run a bit low in the summer!

The hospital I work in gets it's water from a bore hole. We have awful problems with line scale in kettles and geysers. And the water tastes different. I only live five minutes away so it's not an issue with the local supply.

I grew up in a house that had only well water. It was not a problem.

Brexit preppers will be very envious of you!

A lot of houses in Ireland (rural) have wells.... every house I have lived in had one and we never had problems.

What is the difference between a well and bore hole?

A borehole is usually mechanically drilled and can be quite narrow. A well is usually wider, because it was probably first dug by hand. Technically, they're both holes in the ground down to the water table, and if they're being used for domestic consumption, environmental health will want to test it every now and then.

I grew up in a 250 yo farmhouse, which had a well outside the front door, covered by a manhole cover, but the water actually came from a borehole across the road and up the field. But I assume if there were ever contamination, it would basically be from the same source, well or borehole, so would probably all be contaminated together.

I’d imagine that’s a good thing. Water will taste lovely.

Friends have a well as they needed to for PP when developing their area. It tastes great and have had no issues in 10+ years.

Could you look into harvesting rain water for flushing toilets and othet things? So the worst case scenario you just need drinking water.

Wouldn't put me off

Forgive me for being thick but why does it taste better?

Apparently because it comes from the last ice age! So untouched by modern man and all the contaminants. But they did pay alot to drill down very deep

I grew up on well water in and I’ve often thought that I’ve never tasted water as good anywhere else. Glad to know I’m not imagining things!

Mains water is chemically treated so spring and well water tastes so much better. My grandparents had a home with spring water on tap.

I've two clients with bore holes rather than mains water and both are fine.
It can depend on the local water though and whereabouts you are within the country (this also applies to mains water but to a lesser extent as there is some processing)
One client has very very hard water from their bore hole (hard water area) so lots of issues with limescale and I'm not keen on the taste compared with ours but I live in an area with lovely soft water and the second client lives here and has little problems with it - they do periodic testing and it has a filter system but no issues.

@wonkylegs any reason why we couldn't add a water softener to it?

The spring water we had was not chlorinated. It sounds strange, but it tasted sweeter than mains water.

My grandad, very rural north Devon had a well as his source of water for decades.

It was a sad day when the water finally became too contaminated to drink; but luckily the mains wasn't far away, so a line was dug to his house.

But another of the old ways gone.

We have a borehole, I prefer it as there is no water bill. You have to be mindful that you pump could die, but that’s a easy fix. Just be aware that a power cut means no water.

We have well water. I love it. I can't stand the taste of mains water, it tastes of chemicals to me. It probably has a few more germs than mains water, but I find that it gives you more protection against stomach upsets as you have good immunity!

We also have a borehole, which is basically a much deeper water source, and less likely to run out than some regular wells (most won't run out - ours has run out twice in my lifetime - 50). It's just a back up for us.

Are you in a hard water area? Would you need softeners? I'd hate to have to move onto mains water now. Plus it's great having one less bill.

Just consider the costs in case you'd have to go onto mains water for any reasons. It cna range from 1000 to tens of thousands