When we bought our vacant property in 1996, a 2” well existed and it was basically a bare pipe sticking out of the ground with the building over the top of it. When the land was sub-divided years ago, a new well was drilled for the old house on the lot next to us, and the well on our property was abandoned. All I needed to do was add a pump, tank, and associated plumbing and we had our very own running water - it was a glorious day! I felt like Tom Hanks in the movie
Castaway when he finally got his fire lit.
Here is the little building where the well resides. It's nothing fancy, but its functional.
I knew early on that this system would require service from time to time, so when I rebuilt the platform, I added hinges at the base to swing it out of the way. Years ago, I used to just lift this thing right up with sheer muscle. But for a recent service of the tank, my body said “no way Jose’”. It ***** getting old, but I guess it just makes you think a little harder. I decided to devise a way to let mechanical advantage work in my favor. I mounted a temporary 2x6 sticking out the door opening so a chain could be attached to it. Then a cable and come-along winch pulled on that to lift it up.
Of course the trick was knowing exactly where to place the little pedestal and how high it should be so it didn’t flip too far over the other way. A stack of cinder blocks worked in this case and I snapped several pictures showing things in detail for next time since my memory is deteriorating at about the same pace as my body. Here are a couple of in-process shots. Arrows point to the 2x6, cable, and pedestal.
