Magic water....the house with no well or tap

Specific Inspection Topics Plumbing Inspections
1

I did a HI the other day on a foreclosed manufactured home out in the sticks of western pa. Now this double-wide is on a foundation and my client wanted a private well test and septic dye…so I wanted to get that started as soon as I arrived I began looking for the well or water source.

I looked around the home and there was no signs of a well…there was also no signs of a pressure tank or well inside or outside the house ANYWHERE. Nowhere to be found. It was not on a public tap either…we called the township and public water was nowhere near.

Now the water was off in the home…in had not been lived in in “some time” says the Realtor. Now there were no main valves anywhere to turn water on or off… on a last ditch effort I flipped the breaker on the water heater and I began hearing water filling it up and there would be a tiny bit of water at the taps. Even after water filled for 1/2 hour there was no pressure at fixtures…just trickled.

Beneath the home the main water line to the home went straight into the ground…there was no power or pump run to this hole in the ground. Just a 1/2 plastic pvc line. The hole was filled up with mudd and a complete mess. It was extremely mudding beneath the vapor barrier and it seems as if there is a subsurface water problem beneath the home. But no valves anywhere or a water main did not exist. The only things beneath the home where a few drainage lines…an ac line and the one pvc that went directly into the ground.

There is no pump on the property or well house or sistern tank… it’s not on a public water tap system…This is the craziest thing I’ve experienced…how can this house get water…?

I mean it had to have it at some time right…?

2

Could it be a cheap installation with a “submersible pump” in covered up well casing somewhere out in the yard?

3

How far away was the neighbors well? Sounds like a shared well but you should have at least found a filter and valve.

4

I just did one today were the well was pumping to the house a 1/4 mile away.

5

wouldn’t a subersible pump still need a pressurized tank on site to aid in distributing the water… ? there was no tank to be found…and no spot where a tank once was…?

thanks for the help…

6

there are no neighbors near…or even remotely close for that matter…?

7

Sand point?

8

Wow what size of pump John?

9

At a recent inspection my client couldn’t find the well head even after I suggested looking in “that bush”.

I found the well head but it was covered with wood chips and after looking at the well and septic permit we discovered that the pressure tank was buried, too. That wasn’t the first time I experienced a buried pressure tank.

Still, your 1/2" PVC water line is puzzling.

10

Still would need a pump and storage tank.

Sometimes the pump and tank are in a covered pit; happy digging…

11

i did think about this…it was my only logical explanation… I didn’t think humanity would stoop so low…