A well in the country, and sometimes near the house, is a necessary thing. But just a concrete ring with some kind of cover sticking out of the ground is not very pleasing to the eye, and the comfort of use is below average. To correct the situation, it is necessary to improve it and install a gate that will facilitate the rise of water. Ready-made well fences are sold - with a roof and a gate, but they either have a hefty price or look pitiful. Therefore, most often a house for a well is built with one’s own hands. Then you can use your imagination and arrange everything the way you need.
Types of well houses and their tasks
The primary task of a well house is to protect water from various substances - dust, leaves and other similar contaminants. This requires a tight-fitting lid. Open wells are only possible for technical water - for irrigation. Water from them cannot be used for other purposes. So if you plan to at least wash dishes, the well must be closed tightly.
The lid on the well must lie tightly
Protection from precipitation of any kind is also necessary: rain and melt waters carry with them very dirty water with fertilizers dissolved in it, animal waste, various debris and impurities. If it gets into the well, it can cause serious contamination. To protect against precipitation, they make a canopy, most often a gable one - this makes it easier to remove precipitation.
Another purpose of the well house is to protect from strangers or, in any case, to ensure safety for children. To do this, they make latches or cut in locks.
Option for a closed well house
To make it easier to raise water, they install racks and gates - in the simplest case, a rotating log with a handle to which a chain is attached. And all this together should still please the eyes of the owners, but at the same time require minimal care.
Open or closed
As you can see in the photo, the well house can be open or closed. It’s cheaper and easier to make an open one: the well ring can be trimmed with stone or wood, the lid, racks and canopy can be made of wood or metal - whatever will cost less. A minimum of materials is required for this structure. There is only one “but” - in winter the water in such a well can freeze. If you don't plan to use it in cold weather, no problem.
But for winter use, an insulated well house is required. But even then it can be made open:
- buy a polystyrene foam “shell” for the well - they are of a suitable size, secure it, and then lay the finishing on top of it;
- The overlap of the ring and the lid should be made of several layers of wood, and the boards should be laid in different directions, overlapping the joints.
Closed well house
Another option is to make an enclosed house. It is slightly larger in size than a well ring. The existing air gap is already a good heat insulator, but the protection can be further improved by filling the gaps with foam, for example.
What to make from
Choosing an appearance sometimes takes a long time. The fair half of humanity especially “suffers” from the desire to decorate a well, going through numerous design options and spending a lot of time doing this. In fact, everything is simple: if you have a house and a well is located nearby, you should decorate it in the same style and, if possible, in the same color. Agree, it looks good.
It is better to decorate the well in the same style as the house
What to do if the house is brick or plastered? Choose a finish that matches the style of the site. If this is one of the first buildings on the site, just do it as you like.
The question often arises: to make it from metal or wood. Wooden ones certainly look beautiful. But without proper care, they quickly lose all their attractiveness and become gray and ugly. If you are not afraid of the prospect of regularly, at least once a year, updating the protective coating (remove the old paint, then paint it again), make it from wood. If this is not for you, make it from metal. The entire structure or just the frame is your choice. What’s bad about this option: a frame made of galvanized metal profiles, covered with siding. Especially if the house is decorated in exactly the same way.
Siding well house
As you understand, there are a lot of options. First choose the type - open-closed, then materials and finishes to your taste, understand the design, make a house for the well with your own hands.
The organization of water supply from a well is described here.
Choosing a well house design ↑
When starting to develop the design of a house, first of all they make a sketch of the future structure. It can be stylized as a fairy-tale hut, a medieval tower, a stone well, a mill, a house for a gnome, a giant mushroom - it all depends on your imagination and design abilities. It is important that the future building fits harmoniously into the site and does not stand out from the overall architectural ensemble. A graphic editor will help with this. After taking a photo of the well location, experiment and choose the best option.
It’s better to cover up this kind of “beauty” by building an original house
Canopy for a well with a lid - an open house
Structurally, the device is simple: there are two racks located one opposite the other. They serve as a support for the canopy, and also a gate is attached to them - a device for lifting buckets of water. For a drawing of an open house with dimensions, see the photo below.
Drawing of a well canopy with a lid and a collar
Please note that the posts can be dug in after the well ring has been finished. Depending on this, the order of work changes, but the design remains the same in any case.
The posts supporting the canopy can be located inside the lining of the well ring or outside
It is written about making paths on the site here, and you can read about benches here.
How to make a canopy
First, the canopy is assembled. Make two side triangles according to the required dimensions. The drawing above shows only the approximate spread of the two extreme points. If necessary, it can be made more. The length of the canopy depends on where the posts will be placed - close to the well ring or behind the casing. The approximate dimensions of the canopy with a ring diameter of 100 cm are shown in the photo below.
Dimensions of a well canopy for a diameter of 100 cm
The structure can be assembled from a galvanized profile, a metal profile pipe or a wooden beam. To prevent the profile from bending, it is reinforced at the door fastening points - you can put a wooden block or a metal corner inside.
To ensure that rain does not get inside, the expansion must be made much larger than the size of the ring - at least 20 cm on each side.
The roof over the well should be much larger than its diameter
If the racks will be attached directly to the concrete ring, the order of work is slightly different. First, a frame is assembled that covers the ring. In the photo it is made from a 30 mm thick board. The racks are also made of the same board, the place of attachment to the concrete is reinforced with overlays. They also play a decorative role.
If the canopy turns out to be heavy, it is advisable to use timber of greater thickness, otherwise it will not withstand the load.
Frame for well head
Afterwards, the previously assembled roof is attached to the racks. You can make triangles right on the spot, but it’s more convenient to prepare them in advance, assemble the rafter system, and place them ready-made on racks.
Assembled but not finished
Next is finishing. Sew up with boards, clapboard, roofing material. Just keep in mind that if you use raw boards, they will dry out after some time and gaps up to 5 mm thick will form between them. There is no question of any hygiene then: rain and dust will fall in... Using a dry board is also not very good - in wet weather it will swell, the flooring will “go in waves.” In general, if you want to have clean water, build a house with doors - closed. There are more chances to protect moisture from contamination.
Do-it-yourself roof for a well: drawings and dimensions
Read how to build a woodshed with your own hands here.
Options for the contents of the house
Of course, the most logical option would be water - for example, a traditional well made of concrete rings or the external part of the equipment of an artesian well.
However, in the absence of such an opportunity or in the case when there is no desire to arrange something in this spirit, you can limit yourself to purely decorative elements.
Suitable examples include a small bucket on a “toy” collar, a compact sculpture, flower pots or flowerpots.
Do-it-yourself indoor well house
We are talking about this type of shelter for a well - with a door. If you also make a lid inside, dust will definitely not get in.
Closed well
A frame is built, then it is put on the head of the well and secured with anchor bolts.
DIY well house
- support post made of 100*200 mm
- short support posts made of the same timber 100*200 mm
- fastening beam 30*60 mm
- triangular beam
We assemble the frame and attach it to the ring using short bars. Then we begin assembling the pallet. Assemble the flooring from a board 30*100 mm or so. The frame is sheathed with boards or sheet material, such as waterproof plywood.
The procedure for assembling a house for a well
To ensure that the doors hold well, you can install additional jibs. We hang doors - one or two, as desired. To make it easier to navigate, below are drawings with dimensions.
DIY well house, drawings with dimensions
Using the same scheme, you can make a roof for a metal house. If you have a welding machine, you can use a profile pipe. It is easier to attach finishing material to it.
How to make a completely closed frame
You can also hide a concrete ring in the house. In this case, the gate posts are usually installed separately, and then the frame is assembled. Choose the dimensions so that the design freely covers the ring. The height is 20 centimeters higher than your height: so that you can calmly bend down and get the bucket.
Such a shelter for a well made of galvanized profile for drywall, metal tiles and siding
We take the profiles from thick metal, galvanized. From the guide we assemble two identical frames - the “floor” and the upper level of the ring. They are connected by racks (profile for racks). The result is a cube with filled sides.
Frame assembly
We cut off the sides of the guide profile, leaving the “back” intact. This way you can make a triangle. We attach a stand that is equal to the height of the entire house. If you want to have equal slopes, the rack is attached in the middle. You can make the far slope steeper, then the stand moves 15-20 cm from the center.
We attach the notched profile to the fixed rack. We get one of the elements of the rafter system. We perform the same operation on the other side. We connect the resulting tops of the triangles with a crossbar.
Preparation for the door
On the side of the door we add racks - on both sides. It is better to strengthen them - put wooden blocks inside and fasten them with self-tapping screws.
Start of roof installation
We fasten the roofing material, for example a profiled sheet, and cover it with plywood. Then soft tiles are laid and nailed onto the plywood - who has what technology. The “foot” and sides of the roof are finished with any material. If you want, you can use wood - clapboard, imitation logs or timber, or you can use siding.
In this case, the same materials were used as when cladding the house: so that everything looked like a single ensemble.
Siding well house
Another video example of assembly from a drywall profile in video format.
The construction of a metal gazebo is described here.
What materials are best to make a house from?
To make a house for a well with your own hands, you will need the following materials and tools:
- woodworking equipment/electric plane;
- electric jigsaw;
- Circular Saw;
- hacksaw;
- Phillips screwdriver;
- device for pulling nails;
- hammer;
- marker;
- building level;
- beam;
- edged board;
- fasteners;
- sheets of slate/metal profiles, metal tiles, roofing material;
- door;
- door latch/latch;
- awnings (hinges);
- pens.
Making a well ring with your own hands
If a head or canopy is made, the gray concrete ring remains visible. The view is not the most attractive, I just want to decorate it.
Stone finishing
The most popular way to decorate a well is to decorate it with stone - pebbles or small crushed stone. If everything is more or less clear with the finishing material - buy or assemble, then the question of what to attach it to remains. There are several recipes:
- A bag of adhesive for tiles and natural stone 25 kg + a bag of dry mixture 300 - 50 kg. Mix everything in dry form, dilute it with water to a paste. Soak the stones in water. We apply a thin layer to the ring - a vertical stripe from top to bottom, select and place the stones, sinking them into the solution. When a piece is made, before the solution dries, the stones are cleaned and the seams are rubbed.
Well lined with stone
- M500 grade cement - 1 part, sifted medium-grained sand - 3 parts, PVA glue - 1/3 part, water - about 1 part. Work at approximately +20°C, wearing thick rubber gloves: corrosive to hands. Mix a small batch of solution at once: 1 part is a 500 ml jar. This amount can be worked out before the solution sets. The technology is similar: the stones are soaked, but the well ring is also wetted. Then a layer of mortar is applied to it, and the stones are pressed in.
We offer the third recipe for how to line a well with stone in video format. The composition of the mixture is very similar here, but before applying the solution, a mesh is fixed to the ring. With this technology, nothing will definitely fall off.
An interesting version of a hinged lid for a well is proposed in the following video: it hinges almost completely, but whether such a device is needed is up to you to decide.
How to build a well house in the form of a decorative well ↑
The concrete ring does not require a foundation. It is installed on a caisson made of the same rings (connected with locks or fastened with cement mortar), or slightly buried
The basis for such a “house” will be a concrete ring buried in the ground around the well. A mesh for plaster is attached to it, then river or decorative stone is placed on the cement mortar. The top of the concrete ring is covered with a metal or wooden shield with a hole for a hatch (door). The shield is faced with the same stone or painted. The hatch cover is made of boards and lined with moisture-proofing material. If the door is stylized and is an additional decoration of the “well,” then it is varnished and waterproofing is done from the inside.
A shield with a door can be made from leftover floorboards
Such a “well” will organically fit into the landscape of a site with an alpine hill, a Japanese rock garden, a pond or a waterfall, and will complement the composition of the original flower bed.
A small flower garden looks harmonious on a decorative structure
Material selection and design
Before you get to work, you need to decide on the design option and prepare the necessary tools and materials. Thanks to this, the decorative house will turn out elegant and practical. The construction of the house must meet the following parameters:
- safety;
- technical literacy;
- compliance with the surrounding design.
Proper arrangement of the frame for the well will make this structure the “pearl” of the farmstead.
Step-by-step do-it-yourself instructions instruct you to choose environmentally friendly materials for such a structure that cannot spoil the composition of the water source. Therefore, most homeowners make these well buildings from wood (lining). The advantages of this structure are:
- environmental friendliness;
- ease of installation;
- respectable appearance.
In addition to wooden structures, the house over the well can be made of iron or brick. Such structures are also capable of protecting wells.
Manufacturing and installation of doors
A hinged door can be installed on the roof of the well, which facilitates access to the equipment. For production you will need boards. Their length should be 86 cm with a width of 21 cm.
Step-by-step door installation instructions:
- First, install the frame (frame).
- The door assembly is carried out taking into account the size of the resulting frame.
- At the bottom and top of the board, the doors are connected using bars.
- When the door is in a diagonal position, fix 1 more block, which will add reliability and strength to the door.
- Then the hinges are installed on the frame and door itself, after which you can hang the door leaf on the frame.
At the final stage, you need to install the handle, the valve and check how well the structure works. The door should open and close easily and not cling to the frame.
Door to the well house.
Construction of a brick house for a well ↑
Construction stages:
- make markings;
- dig a trench;
- install formwork;
- lay a shallow strip foundation, having previously filled in and compacted the drainage material (sand, crushed stone, gravel);
- the foundation is covered with film and left for a week;
- carry out waterproofing and begin bricklaying;
- boards of the appropriate width are fixed to the last row along the entire perimeter.
The roof/cover is insulated and sheathed on the inside
Then they build a gable roof (see above), which acts as a lid, and place it on hinges. For ease of opening, you can use a lifting mechanism, such as a gas elevator.
