Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Anyone ever built a pump house?

I HAVE A PLACE IN NORTHERN WISCONSIN. IT GETS PRETTY COLD UP THERE AND I HAVE TO BUILD A PUMP HOUSE FOR THE SHALLOW WELL PUMP THAT WILL SUPPLY WATER TO OUR TRAILOR ABOUT 100FT OR SO AWAY.
FROM WHAT I HAVE BEEN TOLD YOU CAN NOT DIG A PIT ANYMORE ( THANK YOU DNR)
SO IT WILL HAVE TO BE ABOVE GROUND.
HAS ANYONE EVER HAD TO BUILD A PUMP HOUSE AND IF SO WHAT DO YOU DO TO KEEP IT FROM FREEZING IN THE WINTER?

Not outside, but I have a heated pumphouse inside our unheated horse barn that stays "pump-wet" all Winter. My pumphouse is an improvement on one my late FIL had in his unheated barn.

Suggested tips:

1. Make it big enough to put whatever plumbing inside it you want to have there (pressure tank, pressure switch, electric panel, valve tree, ???) but not much bigger than that. The smaller the space you have to heat, the easier it will be.

2. Make it tight, TIGHT, TIGHT. This includes vermin-proofing it so mice, etc. can't gnaw their way in to a heated paradise, leaving a hole for cold air to enter as well.

3. WRT #2, I highly recommend a concrete floor going from vermin-proof wall to vermin-proof wall. Leave a 4" pipe through the floor, down to whatever your local freeze-proof depth is (36" here), for your electricity input and water output. If you will be running pipes to more than one place eventually, maybe you want a 6" access pipe. Don't insulate the hole, leave it open to the heated inside of the pumphouse. The farther the hole is from the edges of the pumphouse, the better (for not freezing; running pipe and electric will be a pain - tough).

4. Insulate, INSULATE, INSULATE. I have 2"x4" walls with 3.5" fiberglass in them. I suggest you go up to at least 2"x6" walls, and use closed cell foam (comes in 4'x8' sheets at Home Depot, etc., usually blue, in various thicknesses) since you pumphouse will be outdoors (if you get a leaky wall and the foamboard gets wet, it still insulates). Use the same stuff for the ceiling.

4 1/2. INSULATE THE FLOOR. Put at least 3" of foam underneath the concrete pad, and at least 3" on top of it. Do your best to vermin proof the bottom layers.

5. Winterize whatever door or access panel you have with that 1/2" (or is it 3/8") foam stripping (foam rope) made to use on older windows to stop their leaks. Cram as much of this as you can into every crack all around the door. Use multiple layers, as many as possible (if the door is 5" thick, 10 1/2' foam ropes would be perfect - if they will fit in. Maybe you can get 2 or 3 in - our door takes from 1 to 3 ropes depending on what side of it you're insulating.)

6. Install an indoor/outdoor thermometer with the "outdoor" sensor at the bottom of the pumphouse and the readouts outside the house or someplace you can see them. Monitor the temp periodically, especially when it gets real cold. Be prepared to add or adjust heaters if necessary. A wireless remote might work, but I prefer good old fashioned thermometers, because who wants to open the pumphouse to install batteries at -20 deg?

7. Figure on at least 3000W of heating (I use one 1500W milkhouse heater PLUS the waste heat off a 30A 220VAC hot water heater. The waste heat is sufficient most of the Winter if I seal the pumphouse really well.). Milkhouse heaters have fairly low temp output (lowers fire risk) and have a built in thermostat - but you have to monkey with this to get it set right before it gets too cold, in the thermostats tend to get flaky after a couple of years (so I have to check mine out every year, and we tend to have a surplus of milkhouse heaters that don't self-regulate well in bathrooms, workshops, etc.). Maybe someone will have a much better idea for a heater - I hope so. I tried 110VAC electric thermostats and they were not as good as ones on the $20 milkhouse heaters. Allow enough space in front of the heater so the warm/hot air doesn't blow directly on any pipes, wire, plastic insulation, etc.

Heck, maybe you'd better wire it for 6000W of heating.

Can a pumphouse be taxed by your county as a permanent structure?

It would be here.

Just curious, but did you hear that you couldn't dig a pit frpm an "official" source or the grapevine? I ask because there are always "you can't do that's" that turn out to be false.

I've got my house well (p-tank, controls, etc.) in a pit. It IS vastly superior - a little insulation in the "roof", and it stays above freezing without any heating.

Damone,

The Wisconsin DNR has an excellent booklet on sandpoint wells that you can download for free. Lots of good ideas, including pump house construction.

The booklet can be downloaded by clicking on this link:
Wisc. DNR Driven Point Wells Brochure

Pits have been illegal in Wisconsin (and a lot of other places) since right after WWII -- that is why they invented the "pitless adapter." There are a lot of alternatives for really cold climates.

I would guess that you have a lot of neighbors with sandpoint wells, as they are so common in Northern Minnesota, across Northern Wisconsin, and through the Upper Peninsula of Mich. I'd visit a couple of neighbors to see how they took care of the problem.

Good Luck,
Ken

[EDIT: Another thought after reading Theo's comments above. To the best of my knowledge, it is only the well that can't be in the pit. I believe that the pump and pressure tank can be in a pit that connects to the well through a pitless adapter.]

The place we cashed in for our pond project had a pretty slick setup for a well and tank in a pit. It was on the Tippecanoe River in Indiana, so the winters got pretty cold. The northern Wisconsin winters that I remember were a few ticks colder, but this might spark some ideas with Damone.
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The pit was 4 feet deep with cinder block walls and a gravel floor. The top of the well was just above the gravel floor level. This obviously won't work for Damone, but the pitless adapter will keep him in the game. A concrete slab floor was poured around the pit and a 12' x 18' pole frame and insulated bunkhouse was built on top.
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The cover set flush with the slab. It was built with treated 2 x 6, 3/4" plywood for the floor, and insulated with foam sheets and expanding foam sealant around the edges. The shed had a space heater, but I never really used it. The point is, there was no heat yet the whole shootin' match never froze. I think the pit alone was not enuff; the structure alone was not enuff; but the combination of the two along with the size of the slab floor stretching out 12' x 18' kept the frost line at bay. It worked very well.

Thank you for all your help. I am now thinking that maybe i will drive the point down ,put in a tee with a plug at the top, and run a 4-5ft piece of pipe horizontal just below the frost line ( i am guessing 3ft belwo the gorund) and build the pit next to where the piont was driven in and house the pump and tank in there.
To me it would seem that this way the well could not get contaminated?
Thanks again