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A well in the country, and sometimes near the house, is a necessary thing. But just a concrete ring sticking out of the ground with some kind of cover does not please the eye, and the comfort of use is below average. To remedy the situation, it is required to ennoble it and put a gate that will facilitate the rise of water. Ready-made well fences are for sale – with a roof and a gate, but they either have a solid price or look pathetic. Therefore, most often a house for a well is built with their own hands. Then you can apply your imagination and arrange everything the way you need.
Types of well houses and their tasks
The primary task of the well house is to protect water from the ingress of various substances – dust, foliage and other similar contaminants. This requires a tight-fitting lid. Open wells are possible only for technical water – for irrigation. Water from them cannot be used for other purposes. So if you plan to at least wash the dishes, the well should close tightly.
Protection from precipitation of any kind is also necessary: rain and melt water carry very dirty water with fertilizers dissolved in it, animal waste, various garbage and impurities. Its entry into the well is fraught with serious pollution. To protect against precipitation, a canopy is made, most often a gable – it is easier to remove precipitation.
Another task of the well house is to protect from outsiders or, in any case, to ensure safety for children. To do this, hecks are made or locks are cut in.
To make it easier to raise water, racks and gates are installed – in the simplest case, a rotating log with a handle to which a chain is attached. And all this together should still please the eyes of the owners, but at the same time require minimal maintenance.
Open or closed
As you can see in the photo, the well house can be open and closed. It’s cheaper and easier to make it open: the well ring can be finished with stone or wood, the lid, racks and canopy – made of wood or metal – whichever costs less. Materials for such a structure require a minimum. There is only one “but” – in winter, water can freeze in such a well. If you do not plan to use it in cold weather, no problem.
But for winter use, an insulated well house is required. But even then it can be made open:
- buy a polystyrene “shell” for the well – they are of the right size, fix it, and put the finish on top of it;
- make the overlap of the ring and the cover from several layers of wood, and lay the boards in different directions, blocking the joints.
Another option is to make a closed house. It is slightly larger than the well ring in size. The existing air gap is already a good heat insulator, but protection can be further improved – by laying gaps with foam, for example.
What to make
The choice of appearance sometimes takes a long time. The beautiful half of humanity is especially “suffering” with the desire to decorate the well, going through numerous design options and spending a lot of time doing this. In fact, everything is simple: if there is a house, and the well is nearby, it is worth decorating it in the same style and, if possible, in the same color. Agree, it looks good.
What if the house is brick or plastered? Choose a finish that matches the style of the design of the site. If this is one of the first buildings on the site, just do it the way you like.
Often the question arises: to make of metal or wood. Wooden ones look really nice. But without proper care, they quickly lose all their attractiveness and become gray and ugly. If you are not afraid of the prospect regularly, at least once a year, renew the protective coating (remove old paint, then repaint), make it from wood. If this is not for you, make it out of metal. The whole structure or just the frame – your choice. What is a bad option: a frame made of galvanized metal profile, sheathed with siding. Especially if the house is finished in the same way.
As you can see, there are a lot of options. First choose the type – open-closed, then the materials and finishes to your taste, understand the design, make a house for the well with your own hands.
The organization of the water supply from the well is described here.
Canopy for a well with a cover – an open house
Structurally, the device is simple: there are two racks located one opposite the other. They serve as a support for a canopy, and a gate is attached to them – a device for lifting buckets of water. A drawing of an open house with dimensions, see the photo below.
Please note that the posts can be dug in after the well ring has been finished. Depending on this, the order of work changes, but the design in any case remains the same.
About the manufacture of paths on the site is written here, you can read about the benches here.
How to make a canopy
First, the canopy is assembled. Make two side triangles according to the required dimensions. In the drawing above, only an approximate spread of the two extreme points is given. More can be done if necessary. The length of the canopy depends on where the racks will stand – close to the well ring or behind the casing. The approximate dimensions of the canopy with a ring diameter of 100 cm are shown in the photo below.
It is possible to assemble the structure from a galvanized profile, a metal profile pipe or a wooden beam. To prevent the profile from bending, it is reinforced at the door attachment points – you can put a wooden block or a metal corner inside.
To ensure that rain does not get inside, the expansion must be made much larger than the size of the ring – at least 20 cm on each side.
If the racks are attached directly to the concrete ring, the procedure is slightly different. First, a frame is assembled that encloses the ring. In the photo, it is made of a board 30 mm thick. Racks are also made of the same board, the place of attachment to concrete is reinforced with overlays. They also play a decorative role.
If the canopy turned out to be heavy, it is advisable to use a beam of greater thickness, otherwise it will not withstand the load.
After that, the previously assembled roof is attached to the racks. It is possible to make triangles immediately on the spot, but it is more convenient to prepare them in advance, assemble the truss system, and hoist them on racks in finished form.
Next is the finish. Sew up with a board, clapboard, roofing material. Just keep in mind that the boards, if used raw, will dry out after some time, gaps up to 5 mm thick will form between them. There is no question of any hygiene then: both rain and dust will fall … Using a dry board is also not very good – in wet weather it will swell, the flooring will “go in a wave”. In general, if you want to have clean water, build a house with doors – closed. There are more chances to save moisture from pollution.
How to build a firewood shed with your own hands, read here.
Do-it-yourself closed house for a well
We are talking about such a variant of shelter for the well – with a door. If you still make a cover inside, it’s sure that dust will not get in.
A frame is being built, then it is put on the head of the well and fixed with anchor bolts.
- support post made of 100*200 mm
- short support posts from the same beam 100 * 200 mm
- fixing bar 30*60 mm
- triangular beam
We assemble the frame, with the help of short bars we fasten it to the ring. After we proceed to the assembly of the pallet. Assemble the flooring from a board of 30 * 100 mm or so. The frame is sheathed with boards or sheet material, such as waterproof plywood.
To keep the doors well, you can put additional jibs. We hang doors – one or two, as desired. To make it easier to navigate, below are drawings with dimensions.
According to the same scheme, you can make a roof for a metal house. If there is a welding machine, you can use a profile pipe. It is easier to attach finishing material to it.
How to make a fully enclosed frame
You can also hide a concrete ring in the house. In this case, the gate, as a rule, stands separately, and then the frame is assembled. Choose the dimensions so that the design freely covers the ring. Height – 20 centimeters higher than your height: so that you can safely bend over and get a bucket.
We take profiles from thick metal, galvanized. From the guide we assemble two identical frames – the “floor” and the upper level of the ring. They are connected by racks (profile for racks). It turned out a cube with filled sidewalls.
At the guide profile, we cut the sides, leaving the “back” intact. So you can make a triangle. We fix the rack, which is equal to the height of the entire house. If you want to have equal slopes, the rack is attached in the middle. You can make the far slope steeper, then the stand is moved 15-20 cm from the center.
We attach the notched profile to the fixed rack. We get one of the elements of the truss system. We perform the same operation on the other side. We connect the resulting tops of the triangles with a crossbar.
From the side of the door, we add racks – on both sides. It is better to strengthen them – put wooden blocks inside and fasten them with self-tapping screws.
We fasten the roofing material, for example, a profiled sheet, sheathe it with plywood. Soft tiles are then laid on plywood and nailed – who has what technology. The “foot” and sides of the roof are finished with any material. If you want – you can use wood – clapboard, imitation of a log or timber, if you want – siding.
In this case, the same materials were used as when facing the house: so that everything looks like a single ensemble.
Another video example of an assembly from a drywall profile in video format.
The construction of a metal gazebo is described here.
Making a well ring with your own hands
If a cap or canopy is made, the gray concrete ring remains visible. The view is not the most attractive, and I want to decorate it.
stone finish
The most popular way to decorate a well is to finish it with stone – pebbles or medium-sized rubble. If everything is more or less clear with the finishing material – to buy or assemble, then the question of what to cling to it remains. There are several recipes:
- A bag of glue for tiles and natural stone 25 kg + a bag of dry mix 300 – 50 kg. We mix everything, in a dry form, we dilute to a pasty state with water. Stones are soaked in water. We apply a thin layer on the ring – a vertical strip from top to bottom, select and place the stones, sinking them into the solution. When a piece is made, before the solution has dried up, the stones are cleaned, the seams are overwritten.
Well lined with stone - M500 cement – 1 part, sifted medium-grained sand – 3 parts, PVA glue – 1/3 part, water – about 1 part. Work at approx. +20°C, wearing thick rubber gloves: corrosive to hands. Knead immediately a small batch of the solution: 1 part is a 500 ml jar. Such an amount can be worked out before the solution sets. The technology is similar: stones are soaked, but the well ring is also wetted. Then a layer of mortar is applied to it, stones are pressed in.
We offer the third recipe for how to line a well with stone in video format. The composition of the mixture here is very similar, but before applying the solution, a mesh is fixed on the ring. With this technology, nothing will definitely fall off.
An interesting variant of the hinged cover on the well is proposed in the following video: it leans back almost completely, but whether such a device is needed is up to you.