My garage/well project

[Mr T]

Sorry, gotta post pics to brag.. but doesnt being the first to post put you in charge of this forum? :D

Here is my garage project.
Pic 1: As you can see in the first 2 pics, not pretty, and lots of water damage (made visible by our good friend fe (Iron). (note the rat trap up off the ground behind the pipes on the right side of the pic, luckily it was not occupied)

Pic 2: The infamous sand pit. Most of these pipes are for the pool. The black pipe that goes up off the top of the pic is our 1.25" gas line. (wow!) I dont know if the insulated pipe on the left is asbestos or not, goes the length of the house in the crawlspace, pool hot water.

Pic 3: Well tank is now out of the way, the mess of pipes on the right will be going away soon too. LIke how they did the watersoftener bypass? The black horizontal pipe is just temporary. THe big plastic pipe that comes out of the ground and is just hanging there is the pool fill, it will be connected to the white shutoff by the gas line that goes up. Not a big priority at the moment. Small copper pipe that follows the big pool pipe was the old water softener drain. No clue where it goes, not reusing.

Pic 4: Tank is up and out of the way, wiring is temporary untill my painting is done, then new conduit will be run. (fyi that wiring is probably the safest wiring to the well since the house was built. It was a long day and I needed to get the water back on. The shelf is designed to handle the full weight of teh tank if the bladder would fail and that tank fills with water (about 200 pounds)

Pic 5: Whole thing. THe garage was unpainted, and a nice gloomy pale of off-pink. The water heater(electric), a water softener, and a utility sink will soon be living under the shelf. The upright in the corner is temporary. I will be running 2 hangers from the attic to fully support it next trip up there. There is white pvc sheeting behind the well tank, and it will continue under the entire shelf, and behind the pool filter. Fun fact #39, the furnace to the top-left of the pic is bigger then the one in our 2300sqr ft house. 40-85 degrees in about 8 minutes!!

I'll post a few more pics when all is done!

[Mr T]

Sorry, had to post a pic of that R.O.U.S. trap I found.

"Rodents of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist..."
(best movie ever!)

[Ohm1]

Good job. Heck, you can see the difference!

By the way, if you catch a rat, save some for me! :D

[Mr T]

I cant wait to get the rest of the garage painted.. Might actualy want to spend time out there then. (I guess the wife doesnt nag enough....yet)

No signs of rats. Found a box of rat poison in the crawlspace that was about as oldas the trap. This house had the classic air conditioner installation of punching a 3 hole to run a 1.5" freon line through. Had signs of mice everywhere when we bought the place (was abandoned (repo) then empty for 2.5 years. Filled in that hole and sealed the garage to house wall and havent seen a dropping since. I catch a few in the garage here and then. Infact during this project, I found a occupied trap that I forgot to check....since last fall. I can mail it to you (vacum packed for freshness) if you want. Its pretty thin now so itl save on postage.

[mdshunk]

I notice that the well installers in your area favor running unprotected single strands of THHW or RHW to the well. Darned well guys, anyhow. That's the way most of them do it in my area, then I get tagged for it during the electrical inspection. Go figure.

[Mr T]

Talking about the yellow and black coming from under the tank? Yup that goes to the pump, via some thick-***-walled(tm) conduit. I shortened that conduit so it will fit under the tank (remembered to remove conduit from wire before cutting:) ). The conduit now terminates into a junction box where it will be come flex going to the well tank. As you can see I have not done that yet. (on the list, next trip out to home depot). Also running a new conduit from the service panel over to near the pressure switch, and again it will switch to flex.

The white wire you see going into the switch is actualy the old air conditioner line. I needed to replace that in a bad way, about a 125' run, with 3 splices along the way. It had a 30a fused disconnect in the garage, untill I brushed against it one day and the box was hot to the touch. I got that out of there fast. It is now breakered at 15A for the well. I plan to run a new feed to the AC from a sub panel mid house.. THe run will be about 40' then. Hopefully that will get the voltage that makes it to the unit within it's specs (bit too much drop in the line now)

The well was replaced sometime ago. Origional well had a wall mounted control box (complete with 30A fuses). You can see the old water line in the 2nd pic.. it comes out of the ground and terminates at 1/2 of a union. I think the wiring is origional though.

[Ohm1]

MD-

I just seen the same thing (Thhw ran without pvc) on monday. I was shocked, but I guess they use to do it this way back in the days!?

[mdshunk]

MD-

I just seen the same thing (Thhw ran without pvc) on monday. I was shocked, but I guess they use to do it this way back in the days!?
Nope, water well installers still do it (wrong) to this day. They have preassembled "well cable", which is just a black, red, and green THWN twisted together sort of like how SEU is made. It needs conduit, but you can't tell them that. It's aggrivating. I wish water well guys would leave the electrical to the electricians. There is a new style well cable being made that's yellow in color and doesn't need conduit. It reminds me of a cross between really heavy zip cord and type UF cable. It's also quite expensive.

[Mr T]

This is in conduit. I removed a section of conduit to shorten it. Your looking at the excess wire of which I have not shortened yet. I'm not finished. The shortened conduit now terminates into a junction box where it will connect with wire going to the pressure switch through flexible conduit. The wire you see is coming from that junction box. I havent run the flex line yet (and the yellow/black wire is not long enough to make it to the switch either). Thats a 'this weekend' project. I did what you see to get the water back on.

[xkvator]

(I guess the wife doesnt nag enough....yet)

Just been recently married, have you MR T? CONGRATULATIONS.......Well, just wait another month or two!!! :D

[Mr T]

6 Years next month. Co-incidently, ive been remodeling this house for 6 years now. Also been broke for 6 years (but theres additional reasons to that :) )

[xkvator]

just checking to see if you've gotten those wires in a jb, yet.

[Mr T]

oh... about 3-4 months ago, back when this thread died.... The well has been done with the exception of running new wires from the panel to it, but I got tons of other work to do out there before that can happen.