As part of the renovation effort, with the deck torn up we decided it would be a good time to fix the problems we’ve been having with our water supply. This past spring we noticed that after a nice long, hot shower, there would be a little pond in our backyard right around our well head. After about 20 minutes the water would seep back into the ground. It was so reliably consistent after running water that we deduced there must be a leak from the well. Also, over time our water pressure in the shower and from faucets was slowly getting worse and worse. I was starting to think that in addition to the leak, the pump, which is probably original to the house, was also starting to die as it worked overtime through this leak.

We had the well company folks come out after the old deck was ripped off but before any substantial work started on the new porch, and they ran a new line from the well to the house. Fortunately for us, in the end the leak was due to a hole in the pipe right where it connects to the well, rather than anything inside or structural with the well or pump itself. They also concluded that the pump itself was in good shape, which saved us a pretty penny.

They were nice enough to leave behind a little memento, which I took a picture of just to be able to show how such a little hole can cause such annoyance.

Note, the full picture is pretty large, but I’m sharing it and happy with it because I shot it using a technique known as “painting with light.” I took the pipe into a room, set my camera for a 30 second exposure at f/29 (tripod, natch), set it on a 10-second timer, pushed the trigger, and then turned off the light. Using a small maglight, I illuminated the pipe from different angles during the exposure. Sometimes I lingered a little long in one spot, which is why you can see some distinct shadows. But the image has a lot of good detail in closeup (thanks to the aperture setting) and is illuminated mostly evenly throughout. I did this 3 or 4 times, and this was the one with the best results.

Anyway, see the little black hole right where the pipe connects? That was hurting our water pressure by about a gallon per minute during showers. With the changes the crew made, after turning on 4 separate faucets I clocked a 6 GPM rate through our water softener. Yes! Now I just need 3 separate nozzles in the shower and I’m good to go.