Thread: How does one go about tapping a natural spring?

I have been looking for information on how to do this. We have three natural springs that bubble up from the ground, so the water level must be fairly high. Although we have a running brook on our property also, we want to run some sort of pipe into the ground so that if the water dries up in the brook there will be alternative sources available to us. I have not been able to find out how to do this. I am wondering if a pipe driven into the ground would be sufficient or if it needs a pump or some other sort of force to drive it up. About 3 miles away, there used to be a pipe driven into the side of a hill near a rock outcropping. People used it for years to get fresh water. Thanks for any info you can provide, as we want to do it in the spring.

I have seen small block and morter spring houses built over the spring to contain a small pool of water. Then you either pipe that out, or you open a door and dip it with a bucket.

If your house is downhill from the spring, you might not need a pump, but otherwise you definately do.

Be careful about chemicals when building the spring house.

We have 2 springs . One was under the house in the corner of the garage . We made concrete walls 4'x4' x4' deep and dropped a pump in it . we made a box with heat to stop it from freezing .
The other spring was up hill from a garage/ coach house . We dug a hole 4x4 x4 and dropped a plastic drum in the bottom .
We back filled the drum with 3/4 gravel.
Then cut a 4" hole 2' down under the ground and added 30' of 4"pipe then 30' of 3" 30' of 2" with a clean out on the end . We ran 3/4" pipe into the house for the sink , toilet and shower . We had good pressure for showers .
The pipe drop ed off about 22' from the spring to the house . This was a temporary set up we used wile building the house . We used it 8 years before we drilled a well .

Thanks for the information. We are going to attempt to tap one of them this spring.

My folks have a spring well .....well everyone in their area in the U.P. has one it has so much pressure they have a relief line that runs constant into the lake ....and the well is not that deep .....I guess it all depends on the area you are in ..... I have even seem them down south flowing naturaly out of a mountianside around my uncles place....Even drank the water with no problems.

One other thing , Water doesn't just push thru the dirt its piped thru rock or shale If you dig thru the shale the water will sink into the ground . Some times if the spring is in rock you can dig in to the crack the water is coming from and set a pipe in concrete . If you use a drum and gravel idea you need to cover the area with clay soil and leave the top of the drum out of the ground a few inches to keep ground water out . Test the water to see if its contaminated .

These springs are bubbling up from soft ground. There are a lot of field stones around, but digging is easy. I am sure the water is safe. There is nothing running onto the land, and the nearby brook is clean for miles, except maybe unless an animal dies in it. I drank from it as a kid for years. We also have a stone well built right onto our back porch, but it has always been cemented over the top. It may be a good idea to uncover it and see what is at the bottom. I think my grandfather covered it up because he was afraid that us kids would fall in.

The ground is soft because the spring has been moving dirt with the water for 1000s of years ,
The has to be some type of rock clay sand or shale to move the water some where . For it to be safe the water cant mix with ground water . A true well will have water that is from deep in the ground .When a well is drilled in the ground there is a steel casing that gets cemented in to solid rock . If the seal leaks your well can be contaminated with ground water. You mite be able to drink from a hand dug well but in most cases it will have impurities in it . You may never have a problem until one day you get the runs . Where the spring is visible on the ground is not where its coming from. I would get the water tested and they will tell you the deal . If the water has dinosaur poop in it, it the best . people poop NG . Its all in the test . The water could always be used for washing and boiled for cooking or drinking .

Oh, I see. I thought because it was coming up in one spot, that there was a spring right under it. We will have to get it checked then. I was thinking that if the brook dried up, we could use this as an alternate source. I was planning on purifying anything that came from this source anyway. Wouldn't want to get sick. Thanks.

I know this thread is old, but I've been looking for spring house information and found it. This link is a company I got some stuff from. The "water collection system" pictures give enough information to come up with your own plan. I used this one and it worked great. I dug into the side of the hill above the spring until I headed the spring up. I then poured a concrete pad, actually bowl shaped in the bottom. I dug a notch up the sides of the excavation to tuck the sides of the backwall into and set the bottom of the headwall into a notch on the bottom. I then cast the bowl in the bottom and grouted the sides into the notch. Water from the outlet flows into a cleanout I made. I filled the excavation up to the top of the headwall with washed stone, covered this with thick plastic, and backfilled the excavation. Works great. I have one of the 500 gallon tanks, so water isn't a big worry for me.

I bought the headwall kit because I didn't think I could make one better. It's not too expensive and worth every penny. The other components you can improvise on.

Hope this helps someone.