THE RIGHT WAY to develop a natural fresh water spring at an off grid cabin 

Bentonite Clay

I didnt know that, thanks.

USS Navasota AO-106 Thank YOu for this info. all this time and never heard of that ,I Praise Father GOD ,He has Protected Me .I went and looked it up JESUS IS LORD

I’ve worked with concrete off and on over the last 2 years and have soaked myself and had it dry on me(bagged concrete and from a truck from facility). Not once have I been burned, I even worked at a plant where all we did all day was pour concrete into forms, so I’ve had lots of exposure. I’ve been told once buy some old fart “your gonna hate life when that shit burns you” as I’m using my hand as a scoop and too smooth it. Idk maybe my skin is built different but not once have I been burned or even my skin irritated by it. 🤔 Edit: from my research it’s lime or chromium that causes the burn, and from what the internet says i should have been burnt to a crisp by now😂even got that shit in my eyes and was just fine.

@@Smallpeenman Maybe, just maybe you're a superhero! :)

How did it go?

Eleven months ago Please update us!

Agree with others. How did it go?

Detailed update please!

Nice job. 15-16 ppm tds and high Fe in my water as well.

do you clean the first 2 tanks at any point?

Seems like a great method!

Thanks!

@@downstateradv Hello, Im going to be putting in the exact same system in my spring. I've subscribed and I plan on asking questions in the future thanks. Here's one, does your 500 gallon in ground tank stay filled?

You too! Appreciate the kind words.

The tray on the bottom, excellent idea. Do you know when a spring becomes a stream? I’m trying to figure out the difference between the two.

When it's out of the ground, it's a stream ​@@dcampos5284

Rothari, that is exactly what we have here. Please watch the video all the way through. I have about a 3-4 inch settling basin at the bottom and then the tap pipe allows water to leave. Above that is the overflow in case the tap gets clogged. And the entire think is sealed tightly with wood and foam tape on top.

@@downstateradv totally polluted huh haha

Honestly your best bet is to just use your best judgment try to find the absolute beginning of it and start digging. but definitely be careful while you're digging and watch carefully you'll start to see the mouth quickly but you can also dig too quickly and end up smearing the mouth in if that makes sense. If it is a ground spring and on flat ground then you'll need to make what's called a spring box. If it's on a hill try to keep digging up until you find the true start of it you'll see it coming out cold and clear very quickly.

It's a tough call and you certainly can "kill" a spring by digging near it. I'd have to see it to be of any help. Maybe find a local ol timer and see if they could come take a look and share some thoughts

Well that’s a nice way of putting it, Lol. I would get a battery operated grinder with a diamond blade and scribe and cut the blocks, you can cut rebar with it too. There’s no sense in cutting them short and then using little pieces to fill the gaps, and set them straight on top of each other with no overhang or steps in the joints. If you’re going to do it you may as well make it look good, not good enough, make it right. Sorry, as a retired mason it’s hard to take.

Basically just to get above the grade for the surrounding Hill to avoid groundwater intrusion.

Bentonite Clay is what you want to line with and lead-free.

Hydraulic cement will set up underwater, in fact it will setup with water flowing such as around a pipe with water leaking around it. It sets up by a chemical reaction and will expand as it sets up, it can burn you so gloves are required. It’s also very sticky and sticks to your skin and it’s hard to get off once it dries. Hydraulic cement sets very fast, within minutes once mixed with water. When you can feel it getting warm or hot you’ve got seconds to get it in place and finished.

​@@Hoaxer51thank you so much for the information! I was thinking of regular cement that works for under water after it dries. Bt what you are referring to is applied directly while wet or under water. Great information!

Thanks Rupes. No standard concrete blocks are fine but I coat all of the interior with mortar and hand smooth to keep growth down

@@downstateradv that’s great thanks - I’ll be up in the woods doing ours in the coming weeks. Great content 🙏🏻🙏🏻

@@RupesMcDGuitar Im going to start the exact same project. How did it go?

I will do the same style ..maybe quite bigger..thanks for some idea

Bee

Keep the bacteria and virus too, they seems to be their for millions of years.

Hi barb. I'm in the upper Catskills near cobleskill.

Hey Jerry. Just based on experience. You don't want it too high since there really should be no back pressure in a system like this. It should be free flowing always.

What are you talking about?

Sorry I don't control that though it does fund future projects through revenue for creators. It's just how this platform works. You could always skip forward. It's a good video so give it another go. Take care.

Elaborate

Mostly because we are not yet there full time and I'm still unsure if the delivery pipe that crosses high above the creek will stay flowing without some sort of heating device. I'm looking into DC internal heating devices and insulating the pipe as we speak and running the whole system off of a small solar system. I'll be at the property in two weeks and will likely run a test then to see how it fares in 0° weather. Realistically though I think that run is too long to count on the water being able to retain its heat from the ground on its own. It's almost a certainty that I will need to add external heat in order to keep that pipe from freezing. Once that system is figured out though it will likely be able to run all year long for a very long time.

@@downstateradv Gotcha. Thanks!

@@downstateradv I would love to see a video or know if you had any success with the heating mechanism. We live up north so freezing temperatures are a guarantee. We are planning on setting up the spring water system this year but we want to find a way to keep it running all year, as we hope to live in our cabin off-grid year round.

That's looking like a project for this summer so definitely stay tuned.

​@@downstateradv In my place we have winter of -15°C and we do not need heating system. If the pipe is wide enough (in your video it is) and spring is flowing constantly than it does not get iced. Certainly there is ice around but it runs. If you have too cold winter it is good idea to make pipe longer and put around the spring instalment more materials (dirt or whatever). 70 centimeters (27 inches) of material around assures it will not get iced at all. That is why in coldy places you will find out pipe comming out of ground... because spring development instalment was insulated by the ground. If you do it right there is NO NEED of heating even in -25°C (-13°Fahr.). To use heating system instead of ground insulation is just complicated. Something what can run for free why to make it run by instrument which will need maintance?

Everybody has to take their own risk levels and responsibility into account. All I can show is how I did it. Yes, concrete will always leach but it has also been used for a containment method for drinking water since it was invented. And realistically, besides glass, which can't be used for obvious reasons, every material we could use for this purpose is not technically food safe. The good thing is that with how I develop springs, the water barely touches the concrete blocks at all while it's flowing through.

Would you rather it be plastic?

Harsh! 🤣

Erk found it but I suppose technically it is hydrophobic. I know Lowe's sells it premixed not sure about bagged that I mix. Probably in an 80lb bag I can't lift lololololol

Perhaps it's called that in your area. Around here we just call it hydraulic cement.

20lb bucket of grit I mix. Sakcrete. At least it's not 80lbs!

Hey Eren. So the delivery line from the spring over to the 500 gallon buried tank is roughly 40 ft long. Yes it does have a very slight decline all the way to the tank. That keeps sediment from building up inside the line. The gravity provides plenty enough movement for the water. No the water is a constant flow from the earth. We bypass that delivery pipe and the holding tank during the winter and let it run down a chute to the creek. If we run the 500 gallon tank dry I'll reconnect the spring for the two or three hours it needs to fill that tank and redisconnect it.

@@downstateradv Oh thanks a lot. So im 22 and Im from Bosnia and I pretty much live in the mountains and I have a similar water supply system. I recently moved into our old house and I have a lot of problems with the system, and since Im new in this area of work and knowledge, there has been an enormous amount of "head scratching" moments for me . So ,for a long time (about 7 years) Nobody was living in the house and there has been lots of changes in the area . So basically there has been lots of earth slides or dk how do you call them correctly. So basically I have an 1000 litres collecting box made out of concrete ,about 700 meters far away from my house ,up in the mountains, and the altitude difference is about 90 meters. So the waterline is going from this huge collecting tank to the main tank ,that is about 100 meters away from the house. So the issue was that the waterline pipe,was buried about one ft underground and after the earth slides it has been broken in several places,so we had to replace about a third of waterline pipe with a new one. Now the issue is that the area is all in the woods and there is lots of new trees and long grass that werent there before ,so its little bit difficult to figure out the right way to lay the pipe on the ground ,since a little mistake creates an an air bubble in the pipe as soon as the pressure drops just a little bit and it tottaly stops the flow ,then I have do go to open the pipe and let the air out and connect it again and so on... Until now I see a little bit of progress in my work and I hope that I will figure it out.

Sounds like you're having a bit of a hydrolock situation. I would suggest installing what's called a drop pipe every 50 ft or so. Basically it's a t in line with a piece going up into the air and a hood on top to keep bugs and animals out. Essentially it allows air into the pipe and keeps it flowing. The only downside is that you are going to get a lot more of an increase flow out of it and it may really be gushing by the time it gets down to the house. Be careful with that part. But that should clear up any sort of hydrolock problem.

@@downstateradv Oh thx a lot bro.

@@downstateradv Bro ,sorry for bothering u,but could u send me an picture example of this setup with t pieces with hood on top ,so I cpuld check if I can find it in the stores over here. Thanks in advance.

Hydraulic cement. Yes it does. Commonly used for sealing around foundation penetrations

Sorry James, I don't control them.

I can't tell if this is a real comment or a troll. You do realize there is a year round creek that flows just beneath this spring right?!

@@downstateradv that’s the point the year round creek lost its source of water.

Ok, this has to be a troll. You win.

Not true-if this is like our creek- there are several springs feeding the creek...all along . We have 3 Springs along Just 200 meters Of creek.

HK I honestly can't tell if that person is for real or not. It seems odd that somebody would be this uninformed. This spring that we tapped does not at all feed the creek below the creek below is fed by a gigantic 6 acre pond thousands of feet up the mountain. That's why I was laughing. I thought it was a joke.