The Quest For H2O
Log Home Living|June/July 2017

A combination of research, technology and planning will help you tap into your subterranean water source.

Dan Mitchell
The Quest For H2O

In the good ol’ days, frontiersmen would use divining rods and their best guess to determine if a piece of land had a viable water source lurking beneath the ground. It was a primary factor to establish if the land could be built on or not.

Fortunately for us, methods have changed, but the importance of having a good, reliable water source has not. If you’re in the process of evaluating potential home sites, a property disclosure statement should indicate what kind of water source is available with each parcel, i.e., whether you will have to dig a well or you can tie into city water.

If city water is an option, you’ll need to know how far away the closest line is. If it’s a mile or two down the road, tapping into it could be expensive, because you’d have to pay to bring the line to the house. If it’s within close proximity, say a quarter mile or less, then you simply need to get an estimate on how much it would cost to bring that water to your site verses the cost of drilling a well.

Well… That’s a Deep Subject

For most of us, building your dream log home means doing so in a secluded, rural area and often the only option is to drill a well. It’s a good idea to check around at adjoining homes — even if they’re on large tracts, like 20 or 30 acres — to learn how they get their water. Just the fact that there are homes at all tells you that there’s a viable, potable water source, because they couldn’t live there if there wasn’t. It’s just a matter of its quality and how far you have to go to get to it.

This story is from the June/July 2017 edition of Log Home Living.

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This story is from the June/July 2017 edition of Log Home Living.

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