Video series about our journey to building a cabin in the mountains of Western North Carolina. In this video we start the development of a spring water collection.
Nice job and great video. Looks like you will get 1500 gallons a day from that time of year. I think every collection maker does theirs a bit differently. I know the first one I ever did, (50+ years ago) I made a dam out of concrete. Worked, but it silted up easily. Now I do them out of clay. I admit readily I normally use a small backhoe. Have to be careful to dig down and not go thru a clay layer so the last digging is by hand. I make a "V" sort of trap. I clay up the bottom well, then spread with a big sifter a layer of bentonite, (you can buy it in 50 lb bags). It is a naturally found very fine powder that when wet becomes clay, and seals up any leaks. I then lay in a layer small stone, then the perforated pipe, (holes on the top or bottom or sides seem to work fine. I put a couple yards of washed rock above the pipe, maybe 2 feet, then 4 or 5 layers of plastic, then a few inches of dirt, then heavy fencing wire, then a foot more of earth. The fencing wire keeps the animals from digging it all up. The pipe needs to be sloping downhill so that it drains and doesn't silt up. I run my vent just after the damn, then down the hill to the pump storage. I've found that trying to filter my water it is useless. I get enough silt that I'm constantly trying to clean filters. Instead, I run the water into a small (300 gal) tank, on the bottom of the tank, then pull the overflow to another similar settling tank, then to the main tank. This way, the water is clear and no silt. I have to pump my water up a couple hundred feet usually to my holding tanks, so water that is free of silt is important, as silt will destroy pumps pretty quickly.
@paulkramer4176, thanks for the input, extremely informative. I will be making the collection box soon and then install the main tank near the camp site. I'm definitely going to use more clay if I make another one and not use the hydro cement. I do need to add a layer of dirt or something to protect it soon. Thanks for watching and stay tuned for more!
Anyone looking for a natural spring. You need to be looking higher up the hill. Highest point in landscape, Low points are most likely run off. The High point will be more likely a spring. Plus gravity will help with the flow. Water runs down hill. Check the flow with a pipe and a gallon jug. Dig a hole bowl shape, place the pipe in it , bank the pipe one side in the bowl and other side out. Time how long it takes the jug to fill up. Anything less then 3 gallon a minute is most likely run off. Before you build anything. Wish I had seen this long ago , could have you saved you time and money . Best of luck to you.
Looks great, I installed one 18months ago and with 1/5 of your flow we get 200gallons a day, more than enough for living off and we have large gardens we water every day. Best bury that to prevent surface water getting in, that can contain bad stuff and block up the system, even a few “ will help the water flow over. Also get a pro water sample done after it’s settled taken past any filtration you going to use, they cost 120-200, but will give all the elements and you can check levels. We had marginal high barium levels so had to use a water softener. We put ours into a 250gal tub I put underground and then a 80 dollar sump pump moved it on 120watts solar 100ft up to big tanks. Great vid, look fwd to seeing more
Great feedback. Thank you for watching. I'll keep an eye on barium levels. I'm hearing (0.1-2.1 mg/L) throughout NC so we'll see. I'm not sure yet how many feet up I have to pump but it will be interesting. I wish it was high enough that it could be gravity fed but it's not.
thanx for recording that... bought some land in Tenn that has a "creek/water" but similar to your's, so this was helpful for me to conceptualize how to DIY on my own w/o calling in the troops for now.
Glad to hear it was helpful. The hardest part for us was digging because the ground was so rocky. Look for that clay to seal the water....that stuff is amazing!
One gallon per minute is 1,440 gallons a day. If you can figure out a way add a storage tank you should be ready to handle the dry season. Thanks for the video & good luck !
Bentonite is a clay which is used to seal leaks in water projects. It can be purchased in hardware stores. But it would plug your pipes if put down above them.
Always put the gasket on the flange side of the bulkhead. It wont necessarily matter in this application; you'll just see some minor leakage around the threads. Still, it's a best practice.
This bulkhead has two gaskets, one inside and another outside. I got them at Tractor Supply. They are well made. It's probably overkill for this application.
Not sure where you but check and see if you can find bagged Bentonite clay, It is mined commercialy. You would just dump the powdered clay on the upstream side of your dam and it will settle into the leaking spots. This is non toxic. Good luck!
I would have raised to the outlet at least a foot to create a larger reservoir for water acumulation . Developing spirings is not easy for sure. if you put a few large barrelss in a line for a resivor a person could use the over flow as a source of water for a mini hydro electric generator.
Thanks for the input. My initial concern was that the water would not rise enough. I think it will be fine since we are going to connect it to a retention box before going to a bigger tank. I may even do something with the over flow. I'm collecting data at this time and make adjustments with time. Thanks for watching!
@@LETowers i dont know if you can find in usa but in greece is basic building material.marble in high heat became cao. plus water , gives a white mud. is to strong to connect everything and water tide.old timmers was using it with sand to plaster walls. are still alive after 150 years
I used 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe. The length of the two perforated pipes are about 18 inches but the length will depend on the size of the collection system. Same thing for height. You want to make it high enough that you can access the shock port after it has been filled back with rocks. Thanks for watching.
Will do. I wanted to make sure everything was working ok prior to adding dirt on top. Everything seems to be working really nice so I'll start covering it soon.
Great job, but you need to back fill the front downhill side or you’ll lose all your work….. Prior to doing this, seal the downhill side of your barrier with good clay…
Both are reverse threaded. The external thread is reversed so when the NPT pipes are put in the internal thread, no chance of loosening the bulkhead fitting since the reverse threads will only get tighter if a lot of force is applied.
I may do a video about dowsing. I was not a believer but now I'm on the fence. My excavating guy showed me and I was still skeptical....then my wife was able to do it!!
I dowse for wells, i can tell you how many feet down to get water. I can find buried plastic pipe of any type I can find gas lines as well. That's a fact.
Never leave a engine on its side. Always roll it back over asap. I bet all your engine oil was in your air filter. Not good to run a engine with no oil.
with a storage tank and solar pressure pump pump. off grid could be a thing. one issue i have.is that you took the whole spring. not saving some for the wildlife that has relied on it for generations
Check out episode 9. I installed a storage tank and get really nice pressure with just gravity. I have thought about looking into a solar pump but not sure if I’ll need it. No worries about wildlife, there are tons of springs in that same area. Thanks for watching!
@@LETowers It's pretty easy I've driven multiple wells like that granted they were in rocky sand but they were also 40' you only gotta go a couple feet. You can use a pressure washer with a jetter hose to help if needed.
@@LETowers as bleach will destroy your water source. You don't have to use anything, only on stagnate water would you need cleaners. Maybe use micro filters at the end near the residence. But water from the spring is pure. If you have a spring lizard, that's sign of a healthy water source.
