When you're buying a home with a private water supply (a well), there are a few things you'll want to consider and have looked at as part of your due diligence on buying the home. We recommend that you have a well testing professional test and inspect your well and well equipment, and also test for water quality- and this should be done before you sign your purchase and sale agreement. Here's what goes into that process:
This is the most critical because, after all, it's the water you are drinking. You'll need to have the water tested. You can do this yourself by obtaining a water testing kit from a local lab (We recommend Nashoba Analytical) or by ordering one online, but if you are having the well inspected by a well professional, you could also ask them to take a sample for you.
There are a few basic testing levels that labs have- but most labs have a "Comprehensive" level scan, which is more than the basic scan but not overly extensive (if the property is next to/near any industrial property, farm, train lines, airport, highway, or other industrial-type location, you will want to make sure to do an advanced scan that includes MTBE and VOCs (volatile organic compounds). You should make sure any scan you do also includes Radon in water and basics like Iron, Lead, Arsenic, Phosphorous, Bacteria, as well as many more.
We are not water quality experts, so we always recommend that you consult with a water conditioning professional and a well specialist to get the details on the total preferred testing panel for your prospective property. If the home has a conditioning system of any kind, like a water softener, or radon mitigation system, you'll want to take two samples: one "before" the conditioning (usually there is a spigot near the pressure tank) and one "after" the conditioning (the usual place to sample for this is at the kitchen sink). If there is no conditioning or treatment of the water, then you'll take it at the kitchen sink. A comprehensive scan should cost about $250-$300 (and if you're testing both sides of a conditioning system or filter, it would be double that cost.)
Note also that some towns now require water testing during transfer of ownership. Check with the town your home is in to verify if you need to do this, and what tyoes of testing are required.
When was this well put in? Was it installed at the original build of the home, or is it a replacement well? Wells can last a long time (30 years or more) but as they age, the chances that there may be issues increase.
You'll want to check the flow and pressure. How many GPM (gallons per minute) is the well providing? What is the pressure (psi= pounds per sq in.), and how is the capacity? After two hours you ideally want 3-5 gpm (5 gpm min requirement for new wells), and you should have 40-60 psi at all times when running water.
This is the part of the well that runs into the ground, and where the piping and pump are typically located. Some well companies will provide a camera inspection of the interior of the casing. This is suggested so you know if you have any issues with the casing or unwanted material inside the casing. Also, where is it on the property? is it accessible? Is the well cap visible and out of the ground? A well testing professional will locate this and make sure it looks okay.
The pump may have issues, but it would be hard to know until you've done this testing. If there are issues found from the testing, you might have an issue with the pump. The pressure tank helps maintain water pressure in the home, by storing water at a certain pressure, so the pump is not reliant on providing the pressure. This tank needs to be sized to your needs, pre-pressurized appropriately, and set to provide the pressure you want in the home.
Water systems often have some type of filtration or conditioning, to filter out certain things, or to condition the water to balance a certain element in the water (like iron). If you have these components in your system, you want to know what they are doing, and if they are doing it well or poorly. That's why you'd ideally want to take two water samples: One on the side before any conditioning has occurred and then another on the side after any conditioning has occured. This way you'll know exactly what any device(s) are doing to the water.
Most often, yes. It is typical to see homes where the well water is conditioned with a water softening system, for example. We also see other systems, including radon reduction systems that remove radon from the water. But you'll need to have the water quality test report from your well reviewed by a water conditioning professional to determine what needs to be done to bring any issues to within acceptable limits.
As you can see this is a lot of basic stuff that goes into a private water supply system, and it is important to have expert eyes on this system. We typically recommend that you have a well testing and installation professional inspect and test the well, and not just do a water quality test. Sometimes this can be coordinated at the same time as the home inspection.
Contact MKC Associates to schedule your home reinspection and keep the purchase process moving quickly!
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