Does My House Need A Well Recovery Test

If you have a private well that supplies your house with water, then you should have a well recovery test performed. If water is supplied to your house by a public well or public water supply, then you do not need and should not perform this test.

There are many things that can affect your wells ability to produce water and this test will very accurately show the rate at which your well produces on the day of the inspection since the flow rate can change from when the well was originally drilled.

How Much Does A Repair Cost

Well repairs can range from the replacement of a well pump at $2,000 to the need to drill a new well at a cost of about $20,000.

If the well produces water at a rate that is slower than your household needs, a water storage tank can be installed to manage the initial demand and allow the well to slowly refill the water storage tank over the course of the day. This type of a system can cost $3,000 on average to install.

What Could Go Wrong

Every summer we have several wells that fail the well recovery test. What this means is that the well stopped producing water during the two-hour test and ran dry. We do our best to not allow a well to run dry and we stop the test prior to that event whenever possible, but some wells stop producing water more abruptly than others.

The issue with a well that runs out of water is that the occupants of the house wouldn’t be able to fill up a glass of water if someone took too long of a shower. It is important to keep in mind that in addition to cooking, cleaning, bathing, and using the restroom, we also use water for tasks such as landscaping, washing cars, and recreation. Water is a very important resource and if your house can’t produce enough water then there will be issues and inconveniences that may cause you to feel uncomfortable in your own house.

Some wells don’t fail in the sense that they stop producing water, instead they fail by producing an inadequate flow of water. Three gallons per minute (3 gpm) is a safe bare minimum before the average household will notice an issue with their water supply. 5 gpm and above is considered the comfortable range where there is almost no difference in water usage between the rate of water supplied from a public water source and a private well. The actual cause of a well failure can be immense but identifying that the flow rate is inadequate is the first step to diagnosing the underlying issue.

What’s the Next Step

A well specialist could come to the property to diagnose the cause of the lower flow rate and provide you with a quote for the repair. This quote could then be used by your realtor to negotiate the repair of the well or installation of storage tanks to make the system meet the needs of your household.

10 Part Video Series about Water Wells

The Two Moose Home Inspections Process

When we first arrive to the property, we locate an exterior water faucet and test its function. If the faucet works then we use that faucet to hookup our equipment. If the faucet does not operate as intended then we will either turn it on or connect our equipment directly to the well pressure tank located inside the house. We then run the well for a period of two hours checking on the readings from our equipment as we perform the rest of the home inspection. At the end of the two hours we record the final reading and we then write in our report if the well passed or failed the well recovery test.

Our pricing and availability is located on the Two Moose Home Inspection website when you click “Schedule an Inspection”. You can schedule everything online and you will see an invoice and pre-inspection agreement from us once we get access to the house from the homeowner.

If you have any further question, please send us a message.