Clay castle for a well made of concrete rings: how to do it yourself, photo

It is not difficult to equip a clay castle for a well with your own hands. This is necessary so that contaminated water does not get into clean water. The seal at the seams between the rings will last longer with the added protection of compacted clay.

Do I need to make a clay castle around the well

Doubts about the need for a clay castle appear when the consumer sees the consequences of improperly manufacturing this design. If a carelessly laid element collapses, it will damage the well shaft, and eroded earth will fall inside. This can be avoided. Do not forget about frost heaving, especially if the groundwater level is high. Sometimes drainage is needed. The well and the blind area should be insulated so that the top rings do not tear off the heaving of the soil.

A clay castle is necessary for the perch to take a long detour through the sand. Otherwise, polluted waters will immediately approach the upper part of the well and, if the slightest crack occurs, will fall into drinking water. Before arranging a clay castle, you need to wait for the earth to shrink. Hired craftsmen offer to do it right away, and this threatens to form cavities between the clay layer and the settled soil. It is advisable to wait for time, you can finish this work with your own hands.

Advantages and disadvantages of a clay castle around a well

There are disputes about the expediency of building a clay castle, especially with your own hands. There are still some drawbacks:

• you will need to find clay with a sand content of no more than 30%, and this may not be available at the site of excavations under the well;
• it is difficult to achieve complete waterproofing with only one clay “seal”, coating of the seams on the rings will still be required;
• clay will have to be soaked and kneaded by hand, mechanical mixing is not suitable;
• the sediment of the soil and the clay layer itself take time, with hasty laying, the lock will not work.

Contract teams may offer to do everything in one season, but their motivation is to get paid as soon as possible. When arranging a well with their own hands, many have the opportunity to wait. The advantages of a clay castle are significant for someone:

• clay is an inexpensive material, sometimes completely free;
• with proper installation, repairs will not be required for years;
• elimination of defects or consequences of wear is not expensive;
• the well will be reliably protected from the ingress of melt and rainwater.

How to choose clay for a castle on a well from groundwater

For the manufacture of the castle, you will need fatty clay, the admissible admixture of sand in it is up to 15%. To check, they roll a small ball of moistened raw materials with their hands, drop it on a hard surface from a height of 1 m. If the ball is broken into pieces or badly damaged, the sand admixture is unacceptably high. If there are only small cracks on the sides, it is suitable.

You can also press on the ball with your hand and see if there are large cracks around the edges. In addition, to check, a rolled lump of clay or a cake from it must be dried in good ventilation or even in the sun. The more sand in the composition, the less the sample will crack.

Oily clay will crack as it dries, but holds its shape better when wet.

Clay is soaked to increase plasticity. If possible, they are harvested in the fall and left in the open for the winter.

If there is no time, soaking is carried out for 1-3 days. The soaked clay must be kneaded – without this procedure, it will not become waterproofing. The process is quite laborious, it’s hard to do it with your hands, and a concrete mixer or a mixer on a perforator just mixes, and does not crumple. The traditional way: knead (knead) with your feet. To increase plasticity and improve water-repellent properties, 10-15% slaked lime can be added, contact with the skin should be excluded. The finished clay has the consistency of plasticine, it is laid wet.

How to make a clay castle for a well with your own hands

It is advisable to start laying the clay castle after the shrinkage of the soil, which lasts at least 1 year after the construction of the well itself. Concrete rings in the ground should not be wrapped with heat-insulating material, especially foam. The Stenophon, mentioned further, will doubt and begin to decompose in the ground.

The outer part of the trunk is recommended to be treated with built-up waterproofing or bitumen, but the material should not be roofing, but designed to work in the ground. This will give more chances to maintain the integrity of the ring joints during seasonal soil movements, if any.

Frost protection should be placed on top. The well itself will maintain a positive temperature in winter, but the clay around it must not be allowed to freeze, the strongly heaving material will damage the upper rings when expanding. When installing an insulated “house” on a concrete well and a warm blind area, the clay castle will not freeze, expand and the trunk will remain intact.

In this photo, EPPS is used to insulate the well shaft, the probability of freezing of the clay castle increases, which will lead to the separation of the upper ring:

The width of the clay castle is 1 m from the well, the depth is at least 2 m, but always deeper than the level of soil freezing. Clay should be poured above ground level to ensure a slope away from the well. For greater castle density, laying should be done in layers of 10-15 cm, carefully tamping each of them with a tool. It can be a heavy log with handles. Do not try to hammer clay into the castle by trampling it with your feet – this is ineffective.

How to make a blind area on a clay castle for a well

The blind area protects the clay castle from erosion and freezing. The cause of frost heaving is sub-zero temperatures and water. It is enough to remove one of these factors so that the well does not deform after the winter. The concrete shaft itself is buried far below the freezing level, which is enough to heat the surrounding soil.

Drainage is necessary at a high level of groundwater in spring and autumn, the main difficulty is that it is not clear where to dump the allotted water. A natural circulation system will require a slope. If the well is located in a lowland, the task becomes more complicated. In extreme cases, you can put a drainage pump, but it will work constantly, as, for example, when pumping water from basements, which are drowned in spring in wetlands. The drainage system will also require a manhole with a lock on the lid.

The width of the blind area is at least 1,5 m, and in addition to the insulation, waterproofing must also be present in it. Clay can also be used here, with a layer of 0,3-0,5 m, also compacted, but in this case it is better to postpone the work for a year. The lower part of the structure may settle, and melt and rainwater will go into the resulting gap.

From above, the blind area is covered with wood or tiles, that is, with such material that will not be damaged when the soil moves. In case of repair, it is better to leave the finishing layer collapsible.

Repair and restoration of a clay castle for a well

The reasons for the repair can be different: the clay castle could be washed away by rain or water, water came up to the mine through the gaps and the clay seeped inside, an unpleasant rotten smell suggests that a cavity had formed somewhere.

The clay castle can settle over time and exfoliate from the blind area. To eliminate the resulting voids, the flooring, waterproofing and insulation are removed, and the castle itself and the inner walls of the well are inspected. If no clay water leaks into the well are found, and no cracks are visible from the outside, the top layer can simply be topped up.

Traces of dirty water leaking into the well, cracks on the outside, a suspiciously high level of filling (out of season), a rotten smell (after rain, for example) are signs that the castle needs to be redone.

The dug out old clay needs to be soaked and kneaded again, and the walls of the well barrel should be inspected for cracks. Drips from the inside will also be a clue where the seams have parted, in these places a hydroseal may be required. Concrete locks in well rings can be destroyed. The outer insulation, if any, should be removed and replaced with a new one. It makes no sense to look for gaps, water can make a “pocket” and the material will be peeled off in places.

Conclusion

When making a clay castle for a well with your own hands, you should take into account the subtleties of this technique. The task is to get water from the depth without impurities, and carelessness in execution will lead to the opposite result. The method itself is quite good and economical, but will require a responsible approach.