Developing My Spring Head For Water Collection

This article is about how we developed our spring head to create a water collection point for our off grid homestead. I have posted other articles that focused around our ram pump and how we built that but this one is strictly about the spring by request.

I do not have a lot of pictures to show you on the step by step process but hopefully you can grasp the concept from what I do have.

First step we cleared out where the water was coming out of the ground and creating a small creek. We dug into the side of the creek follow the water back some and generate ore flow. A simple garden shovel was used for this.

Next we added some fiber shower board left over from building our bathroom and shower from scratch in our of grid cabin. We created a cul-de-sac shape in front of the spring head in order to make a small pool collection point. We dug a little trench in the ground and side walls for the fiber board to shove into. Then we drove a few 3 foot re-bar post into the ground on the dry side of the fiber board in order to help it support the weight and flow force of the water.

Sorry no pictures of the above mentioned...

We installed a vinyl drain tube under the dam wall that rests at the very bottom of the pool and then extends under the wall and out for drainage if we ever needed to empty or clean the pool. This tube is closed off by using a cork.

Now we starting molding the dam catchment area with hydraulic cement a little bit at a time. Hydraulic cement is designed to harden quickly while under water. It gets warm while mixing and you have seconds to set it when it goes under water. It is easy to use and makes the sealing of the pool super easy. But it is expensive.

Slowly Lining the walls and floor with the cement. We kept the drain tube open to allow the water to escape. The head of the drain tube sits about a half inch up off the floor of the pool.

We attach the ram pump line (3/4 inch hose) using a bulkhead adapter for the attachment. Later the hose was replaced with a rigid PVC pipe.

Then we finish the hydraulic cement and it starts to fill up. Now we hope it doesn’t leak. Good thing it didn’t.

Here is a look at the spring head after changing out the hose for a rigid PVC pipe line that runs to the ram pump. Also you see our additional gravity pipe line attached which has no pumps connected to it. The gravity pipe line works on the idea that you start with a large pipe and slowly reduce the diameter of pipe over long distance. This causes a build up of pressure and can transport water fairly effectively over distance and at a point use the pressure to go up hill. The gravity line is our backup water system. It cannot bring water all the way to the cabin but it does get it close enough to access without climbing into the creek. The ram pump brings the water all the way indoors.

Hopefully that was understandable. As always if you have any questions please ask.

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