Questions to Ask When Buying a House With a Well
Questions for buyers of a property on a private well, covering well type and depth, yield, pump age, what the water has been tested for, treatment equipment, distance from septic, shared well agreements and what a replacement would cost locally.
20 questions, each with the reason to ask it · includes a conversation guide
The questions
Open any question to see why it works.
- 1
What kind of well is it: drilled, bored or dug, and how deep?
Dug and bored wells are shallow, draw water that is influenced by the surface, and are far more likely to go dry or test positive for bacteria. Construction type and depth together predict most of what the rest of your questions will turn up.
- 2
How old is the well, and do you have the driller's log?
The log records depth, casing length, the rock or soil the well passes through, and the yield measured on the day it was drilled. Many state agencies keep copies. No record at all usually means the well predates local permitting.
- 3
What is the yield in gallons per minute, and when was it last measured?
Yield is measured at drilling and drifts downward over decades as the well silts in. Below roughly five gallons per minute a household needs storage, or a habit of not running laundry and showers at the same time.
- 4
Has the well ever run dry or run low?
Ask about particular years rather than in general terms. Owners remember a bad August, and neighbors remember it more accurately. A well that struggled in the last drought will struggle in the next one.
- 5
How old is the pump, and has it been replaced?
A submersible pump typically lasts fifteen to twenty five years, and replacing one means pulling hundreds of feet of pipe with a rig rather than an afternoon of plumbing. Its age tells you whether that bill is yours in year one or year fifteen.
- 6
When was the water last tested, and can I see the report?
Ask for the laboratory report itself rather than a summary. You want the date, the lab name and the exact list of analytes, because a clean bacteria result says nothing at all about arsenic, nitrate, lead or radon.
- 7
What has the water been tested for beyond bacteria and nitrates?
Lender-required testing is usually the bare minimum. What matters is local: arsenic and uranium in certain bedrock, nitrate near farmland, manganese in some areas, and industrial or firefighting foam contamination near specific sites.
- 8
What treatment equipment is installed, and what is each piece there for?
A softener, an acid neutralizer, an iron filter and a UV lamp each point at a specific problem in the raw water. The equipment is itself a disclosure, so ask what the untreated water tested at before any of it was installed.
- 9
What does the treatment system cost to maintain each year?
Cartridges, salt, media replacement and UV lamps all run on schedules, and owners quietly stop keeping up with them. Ask when each item was last serviced as well as what the schedule is supposed to be.
- 10
Where exactly is the wellhead, and how far is it from the septic field?
Required separation is set locally and is often around a hundred feet from a leach field. A wellhead sitting downhill of a septic system, a barn yard or a neighbor's field deserves an opinion from someone who does this for a living.
- 11
Is the well shared with any other property?
A shared well needs a recorded agreement covering costs, access and what happens when one owner refuses to pay for a repair. Without one, some lenders will not close and disagreements have no process to resolve them.
- 12
Is the wellhead sealed and above grade, away from where water collects?
A cap at or below ground level lets surface water run down the casing, which is the usual reason a well keeps failing bacteria tests after being chlorinated. You can look at this yourself in five minutes.
- 13
How much storage and pressure does the system have?
A pressure tank buffers short bursts of demand; a cistern buffers a weak well. Ask the tank size and whether the pressure switch has been replaced, since a waterlogged tank makes the pump cycle rapidly and wear out early.
- 14
Can I have a flow test and a full water analysis done during my inspection period?
This is the most useful contingency available on a well property. A proper draw-down test runs water for hours and measures how fast the level recovers, which a few minutes at the kitchen tap cannot show.
- 15
What do the neighbors' wells do?
Wells drawing on the same aquifer behave alike. Neighbors will tell you about seasonal drops, orange staining, a sulfur smell and which driller they call, and none of them have a sale riding on the answer.
- 16
Has there been drilling, quarrying, spraying or new development nearby?
Water level and quality change when the surroundings change. Ask about new subdivisions on the same aquifer, agricultural spraying, commercial water withdrawal, and anything that has been dug or blasted in recent years.
- 17
Does the water stain fixtures, smell, or leave scale?
Iron leaves orange marks, manganese leaves black ones, hydrogen sulfide smells like eggs, and hardness leaves scale on kettles and glass. None of these are hazards on their own, but each one names the treatment you will end up buying.
- 18
What happens during a power cut?
No power means no pump, which means no water for drinking or for toilets. Ask whether there is a generator inlet and whether the pump circuit is wired to it, because that determines how long the house stays livable in a storm.
- 19
What does the local health department require for wells at a sale?
Some jurisdictions require a permit, a registration, a test at transfer, or periodic testing afterward. Finding out which applies keeps the requirement from surfacing a week before closing.
- 20
If the well failed tomorrow, what would a new one cost here?
Drillers price by the foot and then add casing, pump and hookup, and typical depths vary enormously between areas. Knowing the local number tells you what risk you are accepting and what a poor test result is worth in negotiation.
Buying on a private well
Practical guidance for the conversation itself.
Testing during the inspection period
Testing during the inspection period
- 1Order the water test through a certified laboratory rather than accepting a seller's older report.
- 2Ask the lab which contaminants are common in that county and add them to the panel, since standard panels are short.
- 3Schedule a flow or draw-down test on the same visit, with the pump run long enough to show the recovery rate.
- 4Have the pump, pressure tank and wiring looked at by someone who works on wells, not only by the general home inspector.
- 5If treatment equipment is present, ask for a raw water sample taken ahead of the treatment as well as a treated sample at the tap.
Reading the equipment in the basement
Reading the equipment in the basement
- A water softener means hard water, and the rate of salt use tells you how hard.
- A calcite or neutralizer tank means acidic water, which corrodes copper plumbing over time.
- An iron or manganese filter means staining, and often a smell as well.
- A UV lamp or a chlorine injector means bacteria have been found at some point.
- A reverse osmosis unit under the sink means somebody did not want to drink the water as it came out of the tap.
- A sediment filter that is filthy has not been changed, which is a fair proxy for how the rest was maintained.
Warning signs
Warning signs
- No well log, no test results, and no idea how deep the well is.
- A well cap at ground level, or sitting in a pit that holds water.
- A shared well with no recorded agreement.
- Treatment equipment installed recently, with no explanation of what problem it solved.
- A seller who suggests testing after closing, or who has already chlorinated the well this month.
- Neighbors who deepened or replaced their own wells in the last few years.