Customer Forced to Fill Water Well in with Concrete. Reverse Trimmy Method. Well Abandonment

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In this video I take you along with us as we abandon a old water well. Being too close to the new septic system, the customer was forced to drill a new well & fill in the old well with cement.
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[@fredkelly4365]

As an English person, I love the way you say SEEment.

[@dac518]

Americans made cement, so we can call it whatevrr you want

[@morton228]

@@dac518 WRONG

[@dac518]

@@morton228 americans are always right

[@johnrazor8720]

Not as cool as “Al U men tium” but very good. You should come to the southern US and we can teach you lots of words and even how to squeal like a pig. 😂

[@OvertravelX]

As an American, thank you for Triumph motorcycles and Kate Beckinsale.

[@stevenandkimmetzger880]

I'm really impressed with the way you clean up the job site, and leave it in the condition you found it. It's a darn shame the knuckle head concrete delivery man wasn't on the same page.

[@jamescasey1756]

Walk a Mile in his Shoes .

[@uzlonewolf]

@@devilselbow Did you even watch the video? The complaint was not about cleaning the truck, it was about how the driver did not use the boards they laid and instead made ruts all over the yard.

[@TWEAKLET]

@@devilselbow they had a ready made path to the well for the truck who instead went and got stuck in the dirt

[@HardDriveGuruOfficial]

@@devilselbow If you deliver concrete I'd hope you know the importance of laying out a path and following it so you don't squash the homeowner's lawn.

[@GunnyZneedsbeer]

I didn't ask the question on how to abandon a well. You learn something everyday. Worth a subscribe

[@jnucci1]

I had a shallow well that went dry. Part of the job for the new deep well was to fill in the old shallow one. My well driller couldn't find the old well. He followed the water line as far as he could, but it disappeared somewhere underground, and he didn't want to tear up the yard looking for it. I eventually found it, it was right underneath a hand pump in the front yard. We thought it was decorative, but it was the real thing. Later on I found a bunch of half inch holes scattered over the front yard that were all old wells. The neighbor came over and told me the former owner would routinely pull up the point and sink it in another area of the yard, often only going down 10-15 feet. As the area got developed, all the shallow wells eventually went dry. My well driller never came back to fill in any if the holes.

[@yyfreak1637]

You should, having holes in the ground like that provide really quick pathways for contaminants to get into the ground water.

[@dougdiplacido2406]

I really love your attention to the customer's property. Thanks for sharing your work and expertise.

[@onionhead5780]

This is why I love the internet. I enjoyed learning something interesting that I never even knew I wanted to know about. 👍

[@gsxrsquid]

I love the way you clean up behind yourself. Very professional!.

[@robertbragg9364]

I learn more from youtube than anywhere else anymore. I'm definitely using this trick from here on out. We've used old hammer drills to shake the pipe. Sawzalls with wood attached tona blade then a concrete vibrator from harbor freight, and it always takes forever to get the concrete to drop. Some pvc pipe and problem solved 👌🏽 too damn easy to not have thought of it before! We use the same blue barrels, though. We usually cut them down when the concrete dries. Thanks. Have a good one 👍🏽

[@CindyRae]

Love the red, white and blue buckets.

[@mtyhntr49]

I totally dug watching this video. Well oiled machine on how that works. Thanks for sharing 😊

[@tomp538]

Great video I learned something new today. The well digger; another unsung hero of modern times.

[@tfish7330]

Nicely done. Regulations are different in different states. In Wisconsin, this method is not allowed. We can do this with different grout and use a tremie to pump the grout through the pipe instead of flowing it into the well like this. Also the tremie has to be removed. It cannot remain in the well. For most residential wells we are using bentonite chips to fill the well and put a cement plug at the top.

[@guidedbygreen1480]

yup, bentonite chips capped with a foot or two of concrete is my preferred choice. I hated doing the portand cement method.

[@jefferygodwin1631]

Very good video. love how you explain things to us that don't work in your industry.

[@afd33]

Love your channel. Found it about a month ago when I wanted to learn more about my well system. A lot of what you do is different than what they do up here in Wisconsin, but it's still fun to watch and learn. As for the last bit of your video, family first of course!

[@h2omechanic]

Absolutely! Taking them to the fair today!

[@Mike_Drew]

Have you ever tried on of the "bigfoot" sono tube bases as a funnel? We use them on the top of sono tubes all the time to shoot the concrete in. Doesn't leave the extra that you have in the bottom of the barrel. Love watching your videos, great balance of explaining everything and showing the process.

[@fideauone3416]

Same thing happened to my mother. When the inspectors for the county inspected her new well they said it was too close to the house, by less than a foot. Had perfect water, 8 gpm., moved over and drilled again, got half as much water, and it gets muddy. The only thing I enjoyed, as the co. man leaned over to look down the well, his new Ray Ban aviator sunglasses fell out of his pocket and down with the concrete they went.

[@Look_What_I_Did]

I call BS. Who drills a new well and not know the regulations? Also unlikely to produce half the volume. Possible, but wicked unlikely. So stop lying. Less than a foot a person seeks a variance, and usually receives it.

[@Comm0ut]

​@@Look_What_I_Did Not everyone doe their job properly. I've worked behind some utter morons!

[@Old-bold-pilot]

I appreciate your hard work and taking the time to explain the operation. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@Kevin-bz7hj]

Love it when I learn something new thank you.😎

[@KC-nd7nt]

Never seen this procedure. Thanks

[@DavidJones-smiley]

I learn something new ! Thank you

[@ghost307]

Thanks, very informative. FYI the term, although pronounced trimmy, is spelled tremie. In major concrete projects like footings the use of the pipe is reversed. A large pipe is set in the hole and the concrete is poured inside of it. That pipe however is slowly raised as the concrete is placed rather than being left in place.

[@nraynaud]

oh that make sense, the French word "trémie" means "funnel" in an industrial context (in particular in the concrete world, but also the powder world, for example the thing that loads grains in the trucks at the bottom of grain silos). I suppose the meaning got slightly changed to mean the dumping pipe below the funnel when crossing the language barrier.

[@ghost307]

@@nraynaud Yep. This world has a long history of moving words between languages and butchering the spelling. That's how the US started calling the German immigrants in Pennsylvania the "Pennsylvania Dutch".

[@kennylavay8492]

Every one has their ways of doing things.

[@jim6635]

Great job sir! Like it.

[@jeffreywhite4962]

Thanks!

[@klatubaradanikto]

I have no idea why this was recommended for me but it was very interesting.

[@drob5664]

That was very interesting. In my 40 years in this field, I have never heard of reverse trimmy. I have always pumped grout into the trimmy. Great idea and defiantly a time saver. But I don't think Florida Water Management would go for that.

[@curlydave7689]

It is TREMIE, not "Trimmy". It is a man's name, the guy who invented the Tremie tube.

[@drob5664]

What ever dude, you got me good.@@curlydave7689

[@bobbysmith5642]

Florida could care less what happens with old wells. My property in FLA has like 12 water wells on it. None of them were ever permitted, nor have been cemented in. Some are probably 100 years old. I just picked the deepest one close to where I built my home to throw a submersible in to supply my home with water. I have a few more good ones if the casing ever fails in the current one I am using. Heck you can still have a drill rig come to your property and drill a unpermitted "weekend special" if you know who to call.

[@drob5664]

@@bobbysmith5642 I don't know which district you are in, but in the St. Johns and Southwest districts they are pretty strict. Drilling a unpermitted well will lead to stiff penalty's for the driller. Also those open wells around you are a source of contamination for you.

[@bobbysmith5642]

@@drob5664 SW FLA... The county even asked where my water was coming from for the new building. I told them that I have like 12 wells to choose from. They didn't seem surprised, nor did they care. They had no record of any of them.

[@lpconserv6074]

Well, just for the record, we love the content, and at the same time, we know you have a "day job" . Great topic. I really did not know there was a specific system to abandon a well....

[@thatguy8005]

Never seen this done before… cool

[@davidwright1653]

I never knew there was such a process let alone what it's called; Now I do. Thank you for the education.

[@victoriasarem710]

I learn a lot from your videos. I hope to see more from you soon. Thanks for all you do ❤

[@drubradley8821]

That was interesting, and I had no idea of such a process. Clever. Thank you for showing this.

[@mikemmikem2758]

That's one of the darndest thing I've ever seen. Kool beans.

[@toyotaWalsh]

Awesome thanks for the video

[@MrRickoscar]

Good work ethic for your clean up on jobs.

[@jameslemon51]

Great video.

[@Unknown-pc9yq]

I have no idea how I found your channel but it's so interesting. Just watched the drill truck video and it's an amazing machine!

[@davidsauls9542]

Beautiful !

[@busichfarms]

Great job

[@daviddodson4458]

Love seeing the videos and love the professionalism as well as helping people such as DIY people. Keep up the good work.

[@hphillips7425]

Interesting. Good quality work

[@fpplsoftwashpressurewashin8757]

Great work brother!

[@kevinwalker4623]

Now you just have to find a cement company that has the same care and professionalism that ya'll have.

[@arthurr8670]

I have a feeling there isn't one that exists in the US.

[@tiloalo]

Find one that films youtube video, it help boost their professionalism usually...

[@brookejefferson9676]

Great video. Lots of useful information for folks as well.

[@camarors8992]

Great to learn something new. My local township is coming through with public water and I was curious what I should do with the current drilled well

[@RuthlessMindset68]

Hi Philip, I’m enjoying watching your well content. But I now have a bone to pick with you. As a concrete driver, the biggest term I hear constantly being misused is the term ‘cement’. Cement is the limestone powder that is mixed with sand, aggregate and water, and others to make concrete. The words concrete and cement are not interchangeable! That would be the equivalent of calling cake/pancake batter as flour!

[@lownslowav8r]

Kinda like a loaf of flour. C-ment??? C-Oncrete.

[@Nyth63]

Oddly enough, the dry bulk semi tractor and trailor that delivers that grey powder ingredient to the batch plant is called a cement truck. 😂

[@ehsnils]

I agree - I do work at a cement factory. Producing literally shiploads of that stuff. And it's not just a grey powder. There are many types, all depending on what you want to do.

[@ehsnils]

@@lownslowav8r Semen?

[@serengetilion]

That was nice of you to tell US ALL that fact. Thank you too

[@rpamartin]

Thanks

[@billsmith5166]

Cool. Great idea.

[@jaxcell]

Great Job, Thanx

[@kenpgh]

Very educational vid , keep up yhe good work 👍🇺🇸

[@johnpike9612]

You're lucky to be able to do this, most states require by law that it is pumped from bottom to top and that costs a small fortune... almost as much as drilling the well to begin with

[@BLHomestead]

Thank you for the great info. Also thank you for the parts I ordered from you! I haven't been able to drop the pump in yet but thank you so much for the awesome service! 🤘

[@dljones61]

Now that's pretty cool

[@printolive955]

I worked in the well service 30 years ago. In Nebraska the abandoned well can be filled with gravel and the top 20’ must be sealed bentinite. Or concrete Most old wells are a tube well 2” that have a air motor and pump rod cylinder and leather cups or neoprene

[@kevinblevins2612]

Great work ethics

[@2003evodave]

On the west coast we pull out the casing before back filling the well.

[@joelmollenkopf3767]

Interesting

[@samedmonds8151]

I was really waiting for the truck

[@johnhalchishick7094]

I abandoned two wells inside of a old missile Silo from the 60s each well took 22 cement trucks full of neet cement pressure pumped from bottom up.They did allow the trim pipe to stay in well.

[@oldtimefarmboy617]

Where I live it is done differently. I do not remember the specifics numbers but we would be required to dig a certain depth into the ground around the well casing and then cut it off, push a plug a certain depth into the casing, put two or more pieces of reinforcement bar through the casing that stuck out a couple of feet out the side, and then fill the casing with concrete and then fill the hole we dug with a foot of concrete to create a pad on top of the well to prevent anything from being able to flow down the outside of the casing. Then the dirt you dug up has to be put back in. That way the well casing is plugged inside and outside, the casing can not ever sink any further into the ground, and it is below the maximum depth that the average trencher can dig if you need to run any sort of water, sewer, or gas plumbing as well as electrical lines.

[@johnizitchiforalongtime]

Interesting action for a well being to close to the septic system. I understand why. Poor planning suspect.

[@moverling5]

Nice job. 👍🍺

[@DR-jo7fg]

Sorry, Cement is the powder glue you add to sand and gravel to make Concrete

[@anthony01571]

OUTSTANDING : o ......

[@jimthode]

Good explanation! It is actually a Tremie pipe rather then a Trimmy pipe.

[@sheldonfrey1]

Put a U-bent rebar into the buckets of concrete to make an anchor for small tents and sunshades.

[@owenkittredge3433]

In the 1970s and 80s I worked as Petroleum Geologist an the switched to Environmental Geologist in the early 90s and was surprised how poorly water wells were regulated. The completion design was poor and abandonment was worse, leaving lots areas for contamination into the well bore. It is nice to see how much better it has become since I left the industry in the mid. 90s. I do have question about the logic in using the gravel. In the oil fields and water wells, neat cement was used for cementing in casing and well abandonment. I cannot think of an advantage of the gravel other than saving cost on cement. Oh back then some water well folks would mix bentonite with the cement thinking that it would help with the seal. I would not let them because in the oil fields bentonite would be mix into cement that was to be drilled out later because it weakened the cement. Oh very nice work and clean jobsite.

[@berrypainter]

interesting, my well driller used bentonite to close up my old well.

[@9ballz]

Pretty neat!! Did you think about using pipe with bell ends? Might have been better than couplings

[@sawyer4981]

That has got to suck paying to get that drilled only to have to pay to fill it with cement and repeat the process all over again lol.

[@jacobboggs5145]

Interesting, so when we abandon Wells we actually use a pump truck or a drill rig. We still send the PVC down sc40 with coupler then we use a grout pump to sent cement to the bottom. Pump a batch then pull 40-60 ft at a time rinse as you go and you can use that grout pipe 20-30 times easy. Some applications you can get away with a lay flat hose also.

[@jamesoliver6625]

I've seen Haliburton Co.. do this with a pumper truck and a support truck and about five guys. They got to the well about 10 AM and were leaving before 11.

[@leewyton7975]

I enjoy your work and learn a lot of cool stuff!!!!

[@hamop78]

Question, I just finished watching all your well related content videos. (Thumbs up on all) I now know you shouldn’t mess with the factory settings on the springs of the pressure switch BUT-- I have.. Because the switch I bought gave too high pressure. So -- I messed with the factory settings to achieve what I wanted. Please explain how the springs are set and particularly, what is the purpose of the smaller of the two springs.

[@chrisparker4821]

In the oil and gas industry we call it U-tubing, the cement is heaver then fresh water so basically the cement is pushing the water out. The yield of the cement is probably between 15 and 20 pounds per gallon and fresh water is around 8.3ppg so if you do the math with 300 feet of cement pushing down on fresh water you can actually get some dangerous psi.

[@ronwade5646]

Here in Aridzona they put a minimal poured pad with rusty hardware or, just stuff a rock in it and walk away; we got a lot of rocks! 🤠

[@johnmcmickle5685]

in Highway construction they have a product called select flowable fill. If it was allowed it would flow done the pipe anc could bet topped off with Sakrete.

[@user-ji8yl8rs8l]

In Maine wee use steal casing an black tubing on pump and we put a metal cap on we don't cement them

[@dreamwolf7302]

Wish i had known about this, when i filled the well on ym old property. Old well was hand dug, and when they put the septic in, they put the leach field less than 20 feet from the well.

[@stewatparkpark2933]

Tremie pipe . Used in concrete foundation piling .

[@OcRefrig]

Good vid ! very good info. Now I’m a Pro ! 😂.

[@tomivy1052]

that was COOOOOOOLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@jeffgarner3178]

Thanks Phillip I'm always learning something from you.. We spoke earlier in the week about a Grundfus 290 so that we can run a solar battery when we loose power. You gave me some concerns about scraping my 1 inch poly when pulling the pump. Do you have a video in how to make a roller pulley?

[@oldtimefarmboy617]

Look at air hose reels. They can give you the blueprint you need to build the same for your water well line. Put it over the casing and hammer some stakes into the ground to hold it in place then run your pipe through the reel and start pulling it out. Will hold it in the center of the casing.

[@nemo227]

This reminds me of a house back in the 1940's. The kitchen sink had a hand pump which we used to get our water. I assume the kitchen was directly over the well or a cistern that was filled by a spring. We've come a long way baby. Water is necessary for life but we (the general public) give it too little attention.

[@jeffreywhite4962]

That was cool. this was a new one on me, after 35 years of driving a mixer. thank you.

[@serengetilion]

I'm asubscriber and love the way you explain and do things. Can you tell me or have an idea why I'm getting grits of sand coming out my faucets with the water. It clogs up the aeroators within my faucets at times. Many thanks for all you do. Don't ever change.

[@allalphazerobeta8643]

If it were my well, I'd have had you put the last 20ft or more as galvanized steal pipe and then use the concrete pad for a flag pole base. If it were further from the house, I'd use it for a small wind generator.

[@Sailor376also]

Cement mix. Flowable fill? In Michigan we can order a flowable fill,, sand crushed as and 1/2 bag or 1 bag cement. Perfect for infilling abandoned tanks, etc. Flows like heavy cream,, sets to a firm sand sort of feel.

[@georgeparrault9945]

8:50 Catch all the heavy stuff in the bucket ? Sounds like a Gold Miner 😂😂

[@user-xe5mf3nd6o]

Felton bros really had their head up their arse driving the cement truck all over the lawn without coordinating

[@bobbg9041]

We found a well dug out by hand about 300 ft deep and 6 foot in diameter it was a very old well but what the contractor who was tearing down the house did and it was what the codes said had to be done was fill it with sand just sand. It took about 2 or 3 large long dump trucks of river sand to fill it. Nice thing about sand is it filters out anything going down to the ground water, and in that area everyone was on city water anyway. And that system was so old the main lines had to be replaced. Were talking a well that was dug out about 1865 the city water went in in the 1920s or so the street main was closed about 75% by that time. With the sand you didn't need a purge pipe to bleed off the air. Gravel would work also. But cement go ahead and put in a flag pole that sucker is never going to move.

[@randymch]

Seems to me the house owner is missing a trick here... They have a perfectly usable shaft whixh could be used for a ground source heat pump, and yet you're filling it it with concrete.

[@Comm0ut]

Also odd that the well is apparently not authorized for lawn watering where proximity to the house would be irrelevant. I bought a home with a freshly drilled "compliance well" (the water tested fine fifty years after it was drilled) installed but not connected. That is now my backup well in case of first well failure. Me being me I keep spare well pumps on small skids I made ready to attach to my steel post mount (I'm lazy and like to have spare everything bought opportunistically) and can also use them on the backup well thanks to farm grade garden hose and fittings.

[@JoeKubinec]

In our county the geothermal well is under similar location constraints as a water well. So we have to site it minimum disances from property line. structures, septic tanks, drain field and water well. Hard sometimes. The house in the vid would have been too close to the abandoned bore to use for geothermal in my county.

[@maxium4x4]

I do not drill wells but have plugged old ones with bentonite clay which is recommended by the health department. I like this method better. On average the wells here are 100' to 120 and since I sit above an a larger aquafer my home well is only 48' deep. NW Ohio. Always learn something new and a Big Thumbs up.

[@h2omechanic]

We used to do that, but a old well filled with Bentonite never sets up, a few months later the near by well started to get Bentonite cross over through the water veins. We had inspectors on the job trying to explain the situation, then they watched this method & preferred it (as long as the trimmy pipe is near the bottom, the entire bore will fill up with concrete) the fact gravel even comes up & out is proof the concrete gets to the bottom. We always make sure the inspector "OKs" it, before you do anything.

[@NHComputerGeek]

I drive a concrete truck, i've filled in many holes, pipes, and trenches with what we call Flo-Fill, basically sand, cement, and a LOT of water, no course stone. It flows nicely and I wonder if it would do this job easier than the stone.

[@theradioweyr]

I think the Trimmy pipe got plugged but the gravel that was bigger than ordered but enough went in there, it's all good!

[@sooweeq123]

I learned something necessary. Thank you.

[@samdoe5087]

Bentonite does a better job of sealing the shaft than concrete. You don't have to worry about the water because the bentonite absorbs the water and that cause it to expand against the sides of the shaft while still staying flexible. The concrete is rigid and water can pipe along it contaminating other aquifers. In my state an abandoned well casing must be cut off at least 12" below the surface.

[@bartdaw6681]

Interesting, I would have kept the well and used it for irrigation.

[@johncochran8497]

You're assuming that water only comes out of the well and possible contamination from the septic system can't go down. The old well needed to be filled to prevent any possible leakage from the septic system from contaminating the ground water below which in turn is pumped up by the new well and consumed.

[@3OBTPA]

​@@johncochran8497I was wondering why it had to be filled with cement. Thanks for answering my question.

[@jetegtmeier71]

like putting a straw in a katchup bottle, no more glug glug just easy flow :)

[@nraynaud]

could you use a coiled pipe to get the water out? so that it's even faster than assembling segments of hard pipe?

[@SlickArmor]

6:37 our definitions of cool are drastically different. 7:15 once again.

[@synchro-dentally1965]

What about pre-feeding a rope through the 1" pvc in case it was dropped into the well? Not sure how often that happens. You could drill a hole at the end of the pipe to tie the rope off.