Clay castle around the well with their own hands. clay castle

The clay castle around the well is a structure that protects the source from the ingress of perched water, that is, dirty water through the walls of the well shaft. With a sufficient depth of the well, it is not necessary to make a clay castle, but if it is shallow, you cannot do without it.

The very process of arranging a clay castle is quite laborious and requires a significant amount of clay. After all the work, you need to clean the well to be sure of the quality of the water.

All measures for the construction of a clay castle can be divided into three stages

1. A recess is made around the well shaft by 150-180 centimeters and a width of 50-60 centimeters.
2. Clay is poured into the resulting trench and periodically compacted.
3. A small tubercle of 15-20 centimeters is made from above with a slope from the well.

Now let's look at some of the nuances associated with the organization of a clay castle.

Is it possible to use other materials instead of clay

For a castle around a well, it is best to use clay

There are now a sufficient number of companies on the market that offer to replace clay with sand or sand and gravel. But, first of all, they want to simplify the task for themselves, and not to help you. Let's think logically. Sand does not retain water, but only passes it through and cleans debris. Further, the water enters the walls of the concrete rings, and if there are cracks in them, then the flood water enters directly into the aquifer.

Now about clay - this is a waterproof material that prevents the penetration of water, but at the same time it can get wet on the surface, therefore, in winter, with significant frosts, a slight movement of the well rings is possible. At the same time, clay prevents the ingress of surface water and soil moisture, which is fraught with serious consequences.

Despite the existing variety of various mixtures for well locks, they cannot replace clay.

How to protect well rings from displacement

To reduce the coefficient of adhesion of clay and the surface of the rings, non-woven plastic materials are used that are not subject to decay.

To prevent displacement of the rings, you can mount an additional fastener, for this, stainless plates and anchor bolts are used. In addition, to reduce the adhesion coefficient of clay and the surface of the rings, non-woven plastic materials are used that are not subject to decay. Their laying starts from the surface of the earth, and ends 20 centimeters below the second seam of the well shaft. Thus, we get additional protection against getting perched, as well as from spilling clay in case of non-tightness of the seams.

We tamp the clay correctly

To achieve the best effect, rammers with a small sole, but with a significant mass, should be used.

This process must be carried out in several stages, after each laying of 15-20 centimeters of clay. To achieve the best effect, rammers with a small sole, but with a significant mass, should be used. There were cases that it was from a poor-quality seal that everything had to be redone anew.

When preparing clay for arranging a castle, pay attention to its moisture content. It has been laboratory proven that clay is most plastic at a moisture content of 15 to 30 percent.

An important point: after you have dug out, you should not immediately equip a clay castle. The soil around the mine must stand and settle. Otherwise, you simply will not close all the cracks in the ground, which makes the clay castle useless.

You can do all the work yourself, but the best option is to turn to specialists or at least get an assistant.

The most crucial moment in the construction of a drinking well is a clay castle!

Rain and melt water should not directly fall into the storage part of the drinking well, as they carry dangerous microorganisms and nitrates from the surface of the earth with them.

The main task of the clay castle is to divert surface water from the well shaft and prevent surface sewage from penetrating into the well shaft.

At young wells, a castle is usually made at the end of May. When the soil around the well sags and dries, you can proceed to the final stage of building the well. If the well was dug in the summer, after heavy rains, the soil around the well sags - this indicates that the well has formed.

To make a castle, you need to work in dry weather. The soil is usually used the one that remains after the construction of the well. Clay should be chosen without sand and stones. It is necessary to remove the fertile layer to the clay, about 1-2 m around the well. The castle is rammed in several stages. Clay should be laid evenly. The thickness of the first and subsequent layers should not exceed 10-15 cm - this will allow you to compact the clay with maximum effect. The first two layers must be compacted as best as possible.

The castle needs to be raised slightly above ground level. Top can be poured with gravel or overlaid with tiles. It is necessary to withstand a slight slope from the well by 2-3 meters.

Wells that do not need a clay castle:

If after the fertile layer sand, peat, stone opens, then such wells do not need a clay castle. It is enough to divert melt and rainwater from the well shaft, preventing surface water from entering directly into the storage part of the well. Water enters such wells and is purified according to a different principle.

Signs that surface water is infiltrating your well:

1. After prolonged rains, the rings in the well shaft below ground level get wet. Between the rings you can watch how rainwater flows.

2. If the water in the well becomes cloudy after rains, the water level rises sharply.

3. When heated, the water acquires an unpleasant odor. This suggests that microorganisms live in the well and in the water supply system. Mucus on the walls in the storage part of the well must be washed off with disinfectants. In the water supply system, for about an hour, pump specially prepared chlorinated liquid for this purpose.

4. If water is not taken from the well for several years and water from the surface of the earth penetrated there, the water will become cloudy and with an unpleasant odor.

P.S. Water from the surface of the earth will fall into the well. But before entering, it makes a long, many-month filtration path from the surface of the earth to the storage part of the well. For example: in 2010 in the central part of Russia from May to August there was a drought, there was no rain for almost 3 months. Only after a 2-month drought, the water level in some wells gradually began to drop - this indicates that the process of filtering water from the surface of the earth takes about 60 days. The level in some wells continued to drop until October, despite the fact that it rained in August and September.

After the well is dug, so that the walls do not burst, it is necessary to complete the arrangement. Masters recommend using a clay castle for a well made of concrete rings. This technology is popular due to the high degree of protection of the reinforced concrete structure in the ground.

Why do you need a clay castle

The difference between concrete well structures is that, unlike wooden, reinforced concrete structures are harder to seal. And in order for the water to remain clean for years, you need to equip a castle for a clay well. Wooden structures are mounted airtight, and after swelling, the wood additionally seals the gaps. With concrete, things are different.

There are special reinforced concrete rings on sale, the design of which has special cavities for filling with waterproof materials. Seams and joints are smeared with mastics.

But clay remains the most popular material because it:

• retains ground and flood waters;
• durable and does not require annual maintenance;
• It is inexpensive and available to everyone.

Clay castles around the well - effective protection of structures from melt water in the spring, rain - during the warm season.

Where are clay castles used?

The technology is applicable to solve a lot of problems, the main of which are:

1. Sealing the walls of wells from the ingress of groundwater containing contaminants that enter the upper layers of the soil. These can be mineral fertilizers, decay products of biological compounds and other harmful impurities.
2. The device of an artificial reservoir. Here another problem is solved. Water from the reservoir does not go into the ground. If it is assumed that people will walk along the bottom, then the construction of a clay castle is necessary so that it is pleasant to walk on it.
3. When backfilling the foundation. This is necessary so that flood waters do not seep through the soil into the basement, and do not heat up the zero cycle of the building. The technology involves mechanical compaction.

In order for the blind area around the source to last for decades, the work must be done two years after the installation of the rings. But during this period, you can use the soft blind area technology. It assumes that the top layer is covered with an elastic material that serves during a period of natural compaction.

Features of waterproofing with a soft blind area

The use of temporary waterproofing in the soft blind area around the well has a variety of technological aspects that must be taken into account during the installation process:

1. The entire structure is laid at the level of the second ring.
2. The materials used are waterproofing film and sand.
3. The edges of the film strips are thrown over the well rings.
4. Decorative material is laid on top of the film and sand.

At the same time, all technological requirements must be met.

Laying technology

Before you make a clay castle, you need to dig the soil to the level of the 2nd ring. The selected soil is no longer used and must be removed and disposed of. A film is laid on the bottom. The size of the site to be closed is at least a meter from the outer wall of the reinforced concrete ring.

One end of the film is thrown over the well over the seam. It needs to be fixed, for which a metal belt, adhesive tape or self-tapping screws are used, which are screwed directly into the concrete. In the case when adhesive tape is used, it is necessary that several turns be wound. After that, the cavity is filled with sand over the film.

Backfilling is not carried out to the very top if FEM or rubble natural stone is used as a decorative coating. When laying, it is checked that there is a slope away from the well of at least 1.0-1.5 degrees. But this is a temporary method, and in order to ensure the tightness of the well, a clay castle is a must. But not every type of clay can be the material.

How to choose clay for a castle

For the construction of the lock, fatty varieties of red clay are used. The deposit doesn't matter. Another thing is the content of impurities. Clay is used, which contains no more than 15% sand. Absolute purity is not required, but an excess of solid particles that cannot serve as a binder in an aqueous solution is a factor sufficient to reject the material.

Clay must be free of stones, debris and other contaminants.

If there is no oily clay, and there is nowhere to bring it from, then you can apply a different type. In preparation, it is soaked and kept. Usually they act as in the old days: they are soaked in the fall, and laid in the winter. At the same time, make sure that the clay does not dry out. So it becomes plastic, and all the particles are combined into a single mass.

Periodic freezing and thawing is allowed during the soaking process. This is even good, since moisture permeates the entire volume. The main thing is to make sure that the mixture does not dry out and does not crack. And in order to improve plasticity, lime is introduced into the composition in a ratio of 1: 5. 5 parts of clay are put on one share of lime.

How to lay a soft blind area around the well + video

Some "specialists" argue that this type of protection against water pollution is an atavism and a relic of the past. In fact, such claims are justified by two tricks:

1. Few people say that you need to wait two years, and then proceed to the improvement of the well. This is to put the source into operation as early as possible.
2. It is beneficial for them that the client turns to them every year. After all, as a rule, the same people are engaged in cleaning the wells from dirt, and it is beneficial for them that the garbage in the water appears as early as possible.

The technology involves laying a film that covers the soil for a meter around the walls of the well. The overlap that fits over the seam between the first and second ring should cover it. The cavity obtained after excavation of the soil is filled with clay. It cannot be simply filled and compacted mechanically. The laying technology is better to see.

Disadvantages of a clay castle

The poor quality of the work performed is due to the fact that people who decide to lay the clay castle on their own do not adhere to the technology.

If the clay is not sufficiently cured, not properly mixed, dry or inhomogeneous, it is impossible to achieve the desired plasticity. People do the backfill as is and just compact it with a mechanical rammer.

As a result, the top water, which lies in the upper layers of the soil, freezes in winter. The resulting ice, when expanding, exerts excessive pressure on the rings and the seam and leads to a violation of the integrity of the structure. Another drawback is the two-year wait for natural soil settlement. But this problem is solved by a temporary castle of compacted sand.

Conclusion + useful video

Summing up all of the above, we determine that all work related to the installation of a clay castle can be done independently. Teams that claim that this is not necessary cannot be considered professional, or they are cunning in front of the customer. The described procedure is one of the mandatory measures for the improvement of sources of natural drinking water.

The only thing to consider is that the clay castle is installed two years later, after the well is put into operation.

This means that in some cases, the decoration will have to be postponed. And during the biennium, sand will be laid instead of clay. Otherwise, there are no difficulties, and the water in the well will remain clean and transparent for years.

Good afternoon. We decided to get our own well in the country. They hired craftsmen who dug out a shaft and placed concrete rings. When compacting the soil outside around the rings, a controversial situation arose. We know that in order to protect the well from perched water and precipitation, an earthen castle is made from above. But the craftsmen said that this was not necessary, and offered to replace it with a soft blind area made of sand, gravel and a waterproofing film. Advise what protects better: clay or the second option?

Disadvantages of a clay castle

If you entrusted the case to a professional team, then it makes sense to listen to their recommendations, and here's why. It is very rare for a clay castle to be made perfectly tight. To do this, the clay must have good plasticity, be crushed in the hands and compacted so tightly that there are no voids and air bubbles inside. In most cases, the owners do not crush the clay, but simply throw it around the first ring and trample it with their feet or with a rammer. With this laying, the clay does not create a solid waterproof layer, but simply blocks the penetration of moisture from the soil surface. But through the voids under the castle, perched water easily penetrates, which seeps through the ground, and not along the surface of the earth, and thus enters the mine itself.

If the sealing of the seams of the rings is well done and all the walls are missed, then the top water is unlikely to spoil your water. The problem is different: the moisture accumulated under the clay castle will turn into ice in winter. And if your area is characterized by heaving soils, then the earth will begin to increase in volume and put pressure on the first well ring with force. As a result, the seams may break and horizontal displacement of the upper part of the shaft may occur. This means that all the garbage brought with precipitation and groundwater will begin to get inside. Clay castles usually have such consequences, not covered from above with waterproof material (concrete, tile), but simply covered with earth.

Apparently, the masters know these nuances and decided to replace the old grandfather's method of waterproofing with a more modern one. Perhaps the quality of your clay is not very good, and the soil freezes a lot in winter. In addition, it is recommended to make a clay castle a year or two after digging the mine, so that the soil near the walls is compacted and settled naturally. And before that, the top is covered with some kind of temporary waterproofing. Your team does not want to wait so much time, therefore it offers a completely reasonable way out - to lay a soft blind area.

Features of waterproofing with a soft blind area

Let's figure out the features of this version of waterproofing. A soft blind area is created around the second ring from the top, because the first one is located on the surface. The width of the structure is 1.2-1.3 meters. The main materials are sand and a waterproofing dense film. The most durable version of the film is the one used to create ponds. Geotextiles and decorative coatings such as tiles, stone, gravel or grass can be added to them. In your case, the masters were going to lay rubble as a decorative top layer.

The waterproofing film is stretched with one edge over the concrete, covering the seam between the first and second rings, to create an additional blockade for the seepage of the top water.

Laying technology

The whole structure resembles a layer cake, where the film is laid out first, then sand, on top - geotextiles (if it is necessary to block the germination of weeds) and decorative material.

Subsequence:

1. The entire fertile layer of the earth is removed (to the level of the depth of the second ring).
2. The film is laid out so that one of its edges covers the soil near the wall (more than a meter), and the second one is wound onto the ring itself, closing the seam between the second and first rings.
3. The film must be pressed against the well so that it does not slip. To do this, cut out a metal tape and wrap it around the wall of the first ring, pressing down the film. Fix directly to the concrete with screws.
4. You can simplify the task: fix it with tape by wrapping it around the ring several times. True, in the second case, it is necessary to hide the pasting place under the decorative material.
5. A sand cushion is poured over the film with a slope from the well and a decorative coating is laid out.

With this method, no heaving of the soil will break the seam, because it is covered with a dense, loose-fitting film that can adapt to soil movements.

After digging the well, the question remains: where to put the clay. It would be best to equip a blind area for the well. You can do the work yourself. So they strengthen the well and make a concrete castle.

Sanitary rules and regulations give an exact definition of a clay castle. This is a structure that is a formwork for a well, the width of which is 1 m and the depth is 2 m. The clay must be tightly compacted. At the same time, the material for arranging the blind area is not suitable for everyone. Clay and greasy loam must be well kneaded. Sand, gravel, sandy loam cannot be used for the castle. The allowable amount of sand in a clay castle is 5-15%.

Discussions constantly arise around the question of the need for blind area equipment. Sanitary standards say that the clay castle should be in combination with other blind areas. They create a ring with a radius of 2 m. 10 cm should be retreated from the walls of the well.

Additional devices for the clay castle:

• A rock;
• Concrete;
• Brick;
• Asphalt.

Before equipping the blind area, the well must stand for at least 1 year. During this time, natural shrinkage of the soil takes place. So in the future there will be no voids and frail areas.

Soft blind area performs not only an aesthetic function. It will protect the lock from defects during use.

In non-compacted areas, water can accumulate in the future. Soil dwellers and rodents fall into such traps and die. So decomposition products can get into drinking water. The duration of shrinkage is determined by the type of soil.

Do not rush to equip a waterproof lock before the water supply is carried out. After that, additional waterproofing should be done. For land prone to seasonal heaving, a clay ring cannot be equipped.

Preparation for arranging a clay castle for a well with your own hands

The main task of the clay castle is to protect the structure from precipitation, groundwater and other contaminants. But at the same time, not only water is protected, but also the well itself. So the construction will last longer.

Pros of using a clay castle:

• Structural strength;
• It is not necessary to process the seams of the well every year;
• Low installation cost, because improvised material is used;
• Clay does not affect the composition of water.

But there are also some disadvantages. The sediment of the castle is significantly reduced by the presence of sand. It is also worth noting that the deformation of the well can be formed by an increase in the clay layer at the level of freezing.

There are a number of contraindications that do not allow the installation of a clay castle. To begin with, you should give time for the shrinkage of the soil. It will take at least 1 year. If you neglect this rule, then depressions will appear in the structure.

It is impossible to replace clay with other types of soil. They do not have the necessary plasticity and will begin to crack over time.

If there are no contraindications, then you can safely proceed to the arrangement of the castle. The material for manufacturing is oily clay with a small amount of sand. To improve plasticity, the primer should be soaked before use. Ideally, the soaked material should overwinter.

How to make a clay castle around a well

Many do not advise performing a clay castle. But you should refrain from performing this design when you do not know how to properly build a castle around the well. Wrong execution technology can really ruin the entire structure.

Clay is an excellent waterproofing material. But at the same time, she is prone to heaving. During freezing, the clay begins to change shape, which negatively affects the shape of the structure. This can lead to deformation of the lock.

Rules and sequence, how to make a castle:

1. We dig a pit from a well with a depth of 30 cm. The distance from the well should be 1-2 m. This site is made for a blind area.
2. We select the earth around the well. We move down 40 cm from the wall of the well. Over time, we begin to make the hole narrower, starting from the junction of the second and third rings.
3. Next, you need to properly install the "shield". To do this, the resulting hole is stuffed with soaked and frozen clay. It should be left on top 10-15 cm to the seam between the second and third ring.
4. Then you should make a shield. This is a fence 180 cm high. The material of manufacture is reinforcing bars and geotextiles. The shield recedes from the walls of the well by 10 cm.

After these processes, they begin to equip the clay pillow. A dense layer of material should be made. It is also important to monitor the width of the pillow and the circumference.

If you do not follow the necessary parameters, then the process will have to be repeated several times until the desired effect is achieved.

After that, it is necessary to make a clay blind area, laying out the material in the prepared pit. But at the same time, the slope from the wall of the well should be observed so that the water flows down calmly. A tile is installed on top of the blind area.

Creating a soft blind area around the well

After the clay castle, they proceed to create a blind area. They perform a protective function so that when wet, the castle does not turn into dirt. At the same time, powdering the structure with sand and gravel will not give the desired effect. That is why it is necessary to equip the blind area.

Stages of creating a blind area:

1. The castle needs to be waterproofed. To do this, use geotextiles or any other material with insulating properties.
2. Next comes the laying of the selected material. In this case, a slight slope from the well should be observed so that the precipitation flows down.

However, there are ways to further strengthen the structure. To do this, after laying the insulation, formwork is installed. After that, a concrete screed is made. And only after the material has hardened do the final work.

The covering is paving slabs or stone. These materials have the best characteristics of strength and durability.

A clay castle is an effective protection for a well. If installed correctly, the design will last a long time. To do this, you must follow all the rules and stages of the execution technology.

Where to use a clay castle for a well (video)

When the well is ready, they begin to think about where to put the clay. For this purpose, a blind area is equipped. The device of a clay castle is quite simple, but it is important to follow all the rules and sanitary standards, because not every soil can make a blind area.