We purchased a lake home which shares a well (4"drilled well with a submersible pump)with a neighbor. The neighbor heads south for the winter and has the system winterized (October-May). The controls and pressure tank are all located in his property. We would like to extend our season at the lake and are wondering how to truly share the well, with him being able to winterize his side and allowing us to continue to use it year round. Do we just need to out all the components on our side and tap off to him in a way that is easily drainable? Or do we look at putting another line to the submersible pump and add our own tank/controller. Thanks in advance.

how deep is the pipe that goes from the well to the houses ?

One thing you could do is to bury an expansion tank at the well, install the pressure switch at the well head and run a pipe to each house with an underground valve on each.

I still need to find out the depth of the pipe that runs to his house. He didn't remember so am going to see if there is any other record of it.

I would have to dig it down 6 feet or so then? The property is central Minnesota so we do need 5-6 feet for frost. So would need a pit setup with some heat tape probably....I will check into that.

That pressure tank can be placed in a heated pump house that is kept above freezing all the winter months that you extend your stay at the lake. Typically they are built with thick walls with good insulation between the inner and outer walls, same for the roof. To heat a smaller pump house people sometimes use something simple like an old table lamp with 2 or more bulbs (in case one burns out). They don't have to be high wattage bulbs, just whatever is needed to keep things about 40 degrees. The lamp is placed near the pressure tank. That's the way my grandfather did his. His well casing came up inside the pump house, pressure tank was in there. He had a hose bibb connected so that he could drain the pressure tank if elec went off for very long.

The water pipe from each lake house can be connected to the pressure tank so that there is a shutoff valve on each line and it has a drain port so you can get the water out of it, either by gravity or with pressurized air like they do to winterize yard sprinklers. If the water line slopes to the house you can open a faucet or tub spout and drain the line that way. But using air pressure will help to get the most water out to winterize the line. After the line is drained you can add some RV antifreeze (it isn't toxic) to the winterized line. This way each lake house could have a different shutdown schedule.

A pump house doesn't have to be fancy, just needs to be big enough to hold the equipment and insulated enough for the coldest winter nights with minimum energy usage for heat.





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I like Lodis' scenario best but before you do any construction you need to know what type of pipe material is in the well. If the pump is connected to rigid pipe (galvanized, Sch. 120 PVC, etc.) then necessary means will need to be factored in to remove the pump from the well. If the pump is attached to coil pipe, then the pump MAY be able to be removed with the building in place. Plan first, then build.

If both parties are gone, and the power goes out, it will freeze regardless of the amount of insulation. Murphy's law.

If loss of elec is a big concern you can get a small gasoline generator for not a lot of money that will make enough elec to run some light bulbs in the pump house. If they are staying at the lake house year round a generator might be a good thing to have anyway, could get one big enough for essentials at the lake house plus the pump house.

But you're right, someone would have to be at the lake house to start the generator if elec power goes out, unless you get one of those autostart ones and that's getting into a bigger cost.

Their thought about adding a second pipe to the submersible pump and run it underground to their lake house, have their own pressure tank inside the lake house or adjacent in a heated addon could also work. As long as you have firewood for the fireplace things would stay warm even if elec went out.



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