Water well: purpose, variety, construction

A water well is an important part of communications, which allows for scheduled and emergency measures for the repair, maintenance and installation of water supply networks. We will consider the types of such wells, the methods of their construction and show how you can build a well for the aqueduct with your own hands.

Purpose and Varieties

Wells installed on water supply networks are designed for various purposes, the main ones being:

• Control of places of branches, intersections and turns of main pipes. As is correct, any network is divided into straight sections, at the beginning and end of which wells are installed for access to pipes in case of an accident or planned measures. In addition, it is the turns and branches that contain the couplings and flanges, which are most often prone to leakage;
• The ability to access the locations of valves, adjusting and shut-off and adjusting valves. Often, at the intersections and branches of pipes, various valves are installed for flow control, for which a well is constructed;
• Location of pumping stations, metering devices and other equipment. A number of various devices are placed directly on the line, and their filling with earth is not provided. To accommodate such devices and access to them build special tanks;
• For the reception and drainage of the resulting as a result of an accident or the planned discharge of water, special reception and drainage wells can be installed on the water supply system;
• In autonomous water supply systems, a well may serve as a source of drinking water or play the role of a caisson over the wellhead;
• Inspection and maintenance tanks are also installed at the entry points of pipes into homes or passing through other obstacles.

Note! As you can see, the appointment of a water well may be different, but all of them are intended for activities related to the control, repair or maintenance of water supply networks.

Thus, depending on the purpose, facilities can be divided into varieties, among which are:

• Inspection wells. Designed to control various critical sites and areas;
• Engine rooms and equipment placement stations. Here they install pumps, meters, gearboxes and other equipment;
• Control points where gates, taps, gate valves and other controls for system parameters are located;
• The drainage wells intended for collecting, absorption and water drainage.

An example of a drainage facility is a wet well in a water supply system. It is needed to drain the water from the system in case of repair work: the liquid is sent to this tank, from where it is pumped out.

Methods of construction and materials

Brick

The modern range of building materials and technologies is huge, so there can be plenty of ways to build hydraulic structures. One of such methods is the construction of a tank made of bricks.

Brick is a familiar traditional building material, the quality and reliability of which is beyond doubt and time-tested. Of course, from it you can build a beautiful well for a water supply system, which will last for many years.

During the construction of centralized networks by state and mercenary services, this material is practically not used, but private traders use it quite often.

As a rule, the points of placement of hydraulic structures (CTA) are planned in advance, and when developing trenches at the same time, they excavate pits for their installation.

With this approach, you have to do the following:

1. Align, compact and pour sand and gravel bottom of the pit;
2. Pour reinforced or unreinforced reinforced concrete slab at the bottom;
3. Lay the walls of the building, taking into account the holes for the entry and exit of pipes. Usually use half-brick laying with standard ligation of rows;
4. Cover the walls with a concrete cover with a hole for the hatch;
5. Perform exterior waterproofing of the walls;
6. Run backfill.

Note! When constructing holes, it is necessary to take into account the dimensions of the mortgage glasses, not the pipes. When entering pipes into glasses it is necessary to take measures for waterproofing the places of entry of communications.

The disadvantages of the method are considered the high cost of bricks, the complexity of the work and the relatively large construction time.

Plastic

A fairly new, but very popular type of hydraulic structures is plastic tanks. They fully comply with the accepted standard sizes and are ready for operation, they have specialized inputs for communication with sealing systems, staircases and hatches.

The materials used are very different - polypropylene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, etc. Usually, the hull walls are made with stiffeners and corrugations to reinforce the structure. At the request of the customer, the product may have insulation and other additional systems.

Installation is simple: a tank is installed on a prepared concrete or gravel pad, fixed with special anchors (cables, brackets, mounting ears) and covered. Products with a reinforced hull can be filled with ordinary earth or sand; ordinary tanks with flat walls should be filled with sand-cement mixture.

The positive aspects of using this type of construction are quick installation, easy installation and complete tightness of the walls, which are not afraid of prolonged contact with water. The disadvantage is quite a high price.

Reinforced concrete

The most common and popular material for the construction of water wells today is reinforced concrete. It is the most durable, reliable and durable method of construction.

There are two ways to use concrete:

1. Casting in the prepared formwork. A rather laborious method, but the result is a monolithic, durable and very reliable construction;
2. Construction of precast concrete. In this case, ready-made concrete goods are delivered to the object, which in our case are cylindrical rings. From the rings make up the column, which is covered with a concrete cover with a manhole.

Let's look at the construction of prefabs in more detail.

For example, we have compiled a step-by-step instruction:

1. The bottom of the pit is tamped, then we make a sand-gravel bedding and pour reinforced concrete slab with a thickness of 100 - 150 mm;

1. Rings outside are treated with waterproofing compound, mastic or penetrating insulation. In the calculated places we cut out holes for the pipes using a corona cutter;

1. We lower the first ring onto the cement-sand mortar bedding and set the level strictly horizontally. Then we apply the solution to the place of the joint and set the next ring, not forgetting to control the level;

1. In case of non-standard depth, the last ring can be replaced with an additional element of the required size.. We cover the column with a concrete cover with a manhole;

1. Seal the joints with a solution with the addition of liquid glass or a special sealant for the seams;

1. We fill the structure with layer-by-layer compaction by splicing with reinforcement or with the help of vibrotool.

Note! It is better to make a drawing of a water well in advance. This will help avoid inaccuracies and errors during work.

Conclusion

The well for the control and maintenance of engineering networks is an important element of the water supply system to the consumer. Thanks to him, there is a quick access to the most important nodes of the water supply system.

The video in this article allows you to see the assembly process with your own eyes.