Getting well water to new garage?

[Jimmy_B]

Hoping someone can steer me in the right direction with this one.

I have a well for my water source. Like any well, the water is pumped up and into my house to fill a pressure tank. I am guessing the correct thing to do would be to run a line from the output of my pressure tank out to the garage, but I have a finished utility room that I would rather not tear into. Would it be legit to tee off of the line between the well and the pressure tank? I know technically it would work, but I would be back feeding from the pressure tank to the added tee. Are there any risks or ramifications to doing this?

I'll try to post up a sketch soon.

Thanks in advance,

Jim

 

[NWOhioChevyGuy]

Think of it this way, the pump does not know where the storage is it is pumping to, so the added line to the garage will be seen as just more storage for the pump to put pressure.

If I were you I would add a bladder tank in the garage and tee off the existing well line, this would be no different than having two bladder tanks in the house. Water will not back feed to the garage from house it will be fed from the well to the garage as you use it and the pressure falls to where the pressure switch calls for it.

Remember water is not compressible, so if you use it anywhere in the system the pressure switch will know, no matter where it is located.

Our property has a bladder tank in the well pit and in the house currently, very similar to how your system would work. In the past it tee'd off to two rental houses on the same property. (Which are now gone)

 

[dirttracker18]

i am not a plumber but I do see a problem here. I think you are speaking of teeing off the line from your well to the pump, where you pressur tank is located? If this is the case you could draw the line empty and create a possibility of brining in air if you happen to be using the garage water when the pump turns on.

If you have a pump in the well, then this would likely work.

 

[BD1]

Looks like by your posting it could get pretty cold . Is the garage attached ? Will it be heated ??

 

[nehog]

If there is a check valve at the pressure tank, then a Tee off the line between the pump and that check valve may not work. The pressure switch for the pump will be at the tank, so once the pump shuts off, you would not have pressure.

 

[mudhog]

it will work fine, just make sure you put some valves in it to isolate just in case you have a rupture. I got a set up like this and it works fine.

 

[Jimmy_B]

I guess I should have given more info.

The garage is NOT attached, about 100' from the house.
No heat, so I would prefer to not have a pressure tank where I would have to drain it for winter.
I was planning on a farm style hydrant that shuts the water off below ground.
My well is 440' deep with a pump at the bottom of the well.


I never thought about check valves. I'll have to look tonight to see what's there.

Thanks for the replies so far.

 

[Nowater]

I have a set up very similar to what he describes. A tee from the well drop comes to my garage. The other end of the tee goes to the house and the pressure tank about 75 feet from the well drop. At the garage end there are some variations in pressure due to the pump being on or off when the pipe is full out open, but it is not a big deal.

What I don't know, is if I add another pressure tank at the garage will it interfere with the existing pressure tank at the house. It seems to me the extra tank would serve to even out the pressure more and for a longer time. I have the extra tank, so I would rather not buy one larger tank to replace the existing tank or an extra one. The well water is used for irrigation. Do any plumbers want to comment?

 

[wnstwolf]

What are you using the water for? I also have a well. I split off one of my exterior hose bibs and ran heavy duty garden hose undergound to a hose bib and utility sink out in the barn. Yeah it is a bit hokie but in the fall I unhook the hose hit it with the air hose to blow it out and turn off the hose bib as I do for the other for winter safety.

As a side note my house hose bibs are set up to bypass my house filter sustem and softener. Whish it was not for car washing but good it is to avoid issues when watering the grass...

 

[JCQuick]

I would think if you added another bladder tank and another backflow prevention vavle you should be fine

 

[Kevin54]

A pressure tan is to reduce the pressure coming in. At my well head, I have a hydrant and it run straight from the well pump and has hellascious pressure. You could dig about three feet down at the well casing and you will find the pitless adapter that is fastened to the well casing. You can tee off of that to make a run to the garage. Your pressure switch will determine when the hydrant is kicked on or off. If that makes any sense. I have a separate well that we had put in years ago to take care of mu pond. I need to dig a trench to my garage, hook the wires to 220 and put a small pit with a pressure tank in the garage so I have water. Once that is done, then I can add a sink which will have reduced pressure due to the pressure tank,

 

[BD1]

Do you have a well pit or a pitless adapter above grade ??
I would call local well guy and ask for a estimate for what you want and see what he says. That 440 ' is deep. I thought mine was deep at 265'.

 

[Jimmy_B]

I have no well pit, it is a pitless adapter. I had to spend a little time learning what these things were. I don't see any checkvalves in the system either, at least not in the house.

Think I'll call a well guy for a consult and find out what codes are. This might turn in to more work than I anticipated.

Thanks for the responses guys. I'll let you know what I find out.

Jimmy B

 

[Frank The Plumber]

The pressure tank is there to absorb surge and keep the pump from cycling. If you run directly off of the pump you are going to have an uneven pressure provided to the outlet that you use. The pump will kick on every time you use this tap and it will affect pump life. I would pull from the storage so the system will be properly pressure buffered.

 

[Jimmy_B]

I want to do it the correct way. If it's more work than I thought, then so be it. I've had the pump replaced once and it wasn't cheap. The last thing I want to do is shorten its life.

Sounds like I will need to tear into the finished utility room to do this correctly.

 

[Falcon67]

The house is the main consumer, so I'd let it control the line pressure. I would T off between the house and the well, use a one way check valve on the way to the shop and put a bladder tank in the shop. One gate valve or shut off on the feed in and a gate valve at the cross in front of the shop bladder tank will drain it quick. Use a small 20~30 gallon tank at the shop, it'll drain quick. The pressure tank at the shop will prevent you starting the pump every time you open a faucet out there and keep you from stealing pressure from the house. The pump should not start until line pressure drops to around 30 PSI and with the shop and house tank, that should be a lot of water. Our well is only for yard water and it's 12' from the shop, so I don't have your same issues. I'll come right off the pressure tank.

To help a well pump live long, it needs to run continuous or be off. The sprinkler systems are designed with enough heads to pull the pressure down so the pump runs all the time with a zone on. Your house should have a big pressure tank in it, I'd think - 100 gallon or so.

 

[911mike]

Why not just run it after your holding tank at the house. Dig and bury 3/4" black plastic pipe and tie it into the house. I did it and it was really easy. I rented a concrete hole saw and bored a 3" hole through my basement wall and ran the pipe into the basement 4ft under ground level and at the barn we have a 5 feet deep frost free faucet. They make a product call Link-Seals that work great to seal the pipe into the concrete wall. I used 2 of them, one at the exterior and one at the interior side of the wall.