Water Well shared between 3 houses: Lime Filter & some other filter thing reqd €2k/h?

We have sunk a water pump between 3 houses, myself, the sister and Dad, all looks lovely.

We got the water tested, high in lime so apparently we all need some huge filter installed in each of our houses so we can drink the water from the tap.

Some other filter thing is req'd also (forget what exactly) anyway we've been told to expect a cost of about €2k each.

Is this the case in anyones opinion, is there a cheaper way, can you recommend a filter that'll do the job.

Many Thanks

It would be very unusual to install a filter to take "lime" from drinking water, it would be more common to remove lime from non-drinking water for use in washing machines, showers, immersion heaters. I suspect you may have the wrong end of the stick here.

As you can't say what the "other filter thing" is needed for, it'll be difficult to guess at "a filter that'll do the job" and put a price on it.

Did you get a written report on the state of your water supply?

moved from Sites, planning, self-builds and extensions to Homes and gardens.

Please post in the correct forum

You need to get the raw water from the well tested at a reputable, independent accredited laboratory. You should then show the results to several reputable water treatment contractor and get them to quote for a system to bring the water up to EU drinking water regulation standard. (and provide soft water if that is what you want). Make sure that the contractor sizes the system properly to account for the total consumption of the three houses.

hanorac [you're not Bertie Aherne are you?]

You come to AAM with some information but not the important stuff.

Who has tested the water, designed the system and recommended the solution?

What exactly have they recommended - it should be on their letter to you or the plans.

ONQ.

You should not need to spend 2K per house for this problem.
A water softener at each house would allow you to have both softened and un-softened water available at each house. A reverse osmosis filter at the kitchen would allow you to remove the sodium from the softened water, for drinking . Whether you need to use reverse osmosis will depend on the level of lime you start off with. The limit for sodium is 200 mg/l in the treated water. About €1700 per house would be a more likely price for both softener and Reverse osmosis unit, or just €1050 for a good size softener on its own per house.

water1 said:

You should not need to spend 2K per house for this problem.

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Without getting your water tested at a reputable independant accredited laboratory it is impossible to estimate how much it will cost!

As stated above get your water tested and show the results to several reputable water treatment contractors.

Ensure that any proposals are sized correctly and get guarantees/warranties from the contractor. Also get an indication of the the annual servicing costs and the level of after sales service you can expect.

hanorac said:

Some other filter thing is req'd also (forget what exactly)

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What is the other "filter thing"? Perhaps its a UV filter for baceria?

ajapale is right on the ball here.


water1 ...

"You should not need to spend 2K per house for this problem.
A water softener at each house would allow you to have both softened and un-softened water available at each house. A reverse osmosis filter at the kitchen would allow you to remove the sodium from the softened water, for drinking . Whether you need to use reverse osmosis will depend on the level of lime you start off with. The limit for sodium is 200 mg/l in the treated water. About €1700 per house would be a more likely price for both softener and Reverse osmosis unit, or just €1050 for a good size softener on its own per house."


After testing if the water is hard, with just a small bacteria risk, then the above proposals for the best equipment available, should be nearer 1,300 euros per household nowadays, some good firms even going lower, 1100 to 1,200.

For 1,300 per house for 3 houses, you should easily be able to negotiate a deal to throw in 3 good UV 5gpm sterilisers as part of the whole package, plus a 10 year on site printed warranty, firm with WQA credantials, local, good references etc.

Also a central softener system and one larger UV with 3 separate RO systems could also be done at an even better budget, with 3 house sharing maintenance costs.

arn't grants still available for water softeners?

No, there are no grants availiable for water softeners.

Wait on !

The grants available, at least in Galway offer 2,031 euros or there abouts towards 75% of the cost of a water treatment system.

This can include any equipment needed to directly address any health related issues of water contamination namely parameters that exceed EU limits.

Hard water or the parameter Total Hardness is not included, but you can still get funding towards types of water softener that also act as iron or manganese removal systems, if the level of iron or manganese exceeds limits set by EU Drinking Water Directives.

Sometimes the problem can be, that you may have very hard water that is going to do some real damage to all plumbing long term, but things like iron and manganese are borderline just below EU limits, such as 199 mg/L for iron, or 49 mg/L for manganese.

Concentrations of iron or manganese can vary from lab to lab, and from month to month, so maybe it would be best to retest the water every so often using a HSE lab or HSE authorised lab, as the grant authorities would use these labs also.

If you have high bacteria and need a UV system, these do not work well on hard water so a polymer resin based water softener is recommended prior to a UV if hardness is below 435 mg/L to keep final sodium levels below the strict 200 mg/L limit.

Sodium levels can be checked after treatment to see if softened water and background sodium in the raw water are below limits combined. Generally anything below 400 ppm hardness is oaky to soften and still have low sodium for general adult use, or nearer 300 ppm if using an alumino silcate (or sodium alumino silcate) based media water softener, as these yield a slightly higher level of sodium after softening.

gws said:

Wait on !

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Hard water (on its own) does not breach the EU Drinking Water Regulations indeed some public water supplies in the West and Midlands supply very hard water.

Hanorac,
Can I ask how much it cost you to install the well between the 3 houses. I am contemplating a replica job between 3 houses.

Can anybody outline estimated costs involved (initial site assessment, testing of water, pump drilling, electrical costs to run. In my case 2 of the houses are within 50 metres of each other with the third being about 300 metres away.