A lightly edited transcript of Henry’s spoken instructions. Obvious transcription and spelling errors have been corrected; the instructional meaning has not been rewritten.

0:09 Understand the contamination problem

Hi, welcome to Country Life Projects. I’m Henry Reinders. Today we are dealing with a contaminated well shallow well and we’re going to show you a quick fix on how to prevent little critters from getting into your well especially mice small ones and if you take a look here this is the well that we’re dealing with and this is from previous owner built this you can see it’s pretty rough there’s lots of areas here where animals can get in so what we’re gonna be doing is we’re gonna take all this out of here this is a galvanized culvert we’re gonna remove all that’s around here we’re gonna show you a really quick easy way to seal off a shallow well culvert with a lid and only take about an afternoon to do this is what we’re gonna be building it’s a fairly simple.

1:04 Review the cover design

Design we have a 2 by 12 base we have a 2 by 4 with a half inch plywood top plus a half inch layer on the inside we’ll be going through all that you can see how we build it and we’ve got the turnbuckles to hold it down that keeps it tight and you’ll see how we do the inside with our concrete and how the concrete’s kept in place as well and holds everything together so let’s get on to the next step and start cutting the parts. Okay, and the next couple pictures we’re just gonna pop up here we’re gonna show you what the well cover looks like pretty straightforward this is not a complicated project so we’ve gone ahead and cut all the pieces for the project we.

Got these here which are the base the plywood ever going to work on top of initially is part of the cover and the parts that we have over here on the wheelbarrow or the cover frame and the inside of the cover that will allow us to insulate the cover if you want to so we’re gonna.

2:01 Build and square the base

Start by putting together the base we’re gonna use these brackets here to hold the corners a little bit tighter together but also square up the base which is important so that component so we’re gonna start doing that next and when we get that done we’ll be right back. Okay, so I’m just starting to put together the base here two important things one is you want to make sure that the lumber you pick for this is I just nice and straight on the top here and the reason for that is when you put the lid on you want the lid to be nice and tight to this frame to make sure small creatures insects cannot get into your well the other thing you want to make sure of quite.

Often with 2 by 12 which is what we use for the base they’re gonna be slightly different widths so what you want to make sure of is that the top are lined up so there’s no space when the lid is put on here I’m gonna go ahead screw this together and we’ll get on to the next step oh yeah one more thing with pressure-treated lumber you want to use coated screws or galvanized nails ok so we have the frame put together 5 screws in each corner 3 inch screws I’m just gonna measure across diagonally and square it up roughly for. Now we’re gonna put some brackets in the corners here around well we know that it would be square or the lid it doesn’t change much when you put concrete.

So we’re gonna put the corner brackets in. Now it’s gonna help keep the units square when we put it in place above the will around the well and also it’s going to help strengthen up these corners so that over time they won’t so that’s the base pretty much wrapped up it’s pretty.

4:42 Build the lid frame

Straightforward all we have to do. Now is put some two in a quarter inch galvanized nails around the inside that’s going to allow the concrete to bite in and hold it in place around the well you don’t really need a lot three queers keep them closer to the base because that’s more than likely where all your Walker’s gonna be just repeat that process process all the way around and the base was ready to be installed so we’re just doing a basic 2×4 frame my joints on the corners and a half inch plywood pressure treated plywood top and bottom bottom will actually be set inside though and that’s gonna allow the two by fours so overhang on our base which you’ll see in the pictures that we have we’re gonna start putting this together.

You so we’re using three-inch coated screws for all our framework and we’re going to using.

7:04 Add the plywood lid layers

One five-eighths coated screws for screwing plywood to the frame and we’re gonna stick the plywood underneath with the frame on top and screw from underneath this makes it a little bit easier you can line it up see how it’s looking you you know what I did but I just screw the corner now that way if there’s any mortgage in the 2×4 underneath I can pull it out or push it in screw it in the middle it just makes everything look a little bit better you I’ve got the top completely screwed off here we’re ready. Now we’re going to flip it around we’re gonna line the inside the 2×4 frame which is not allow you to insulate this well ours is actually in the ground you’ll see how it works in those two purposes the 2×4 frame here one it.

Allows you to put insulation inch-and-a-half styrofoam we also have a nice solid surface that’s gonna sit on our base which will give us a tight fit not allowing any critters or insects to get into the well we’re going a screw it in place we’re gonna screw it through from the plywood underneath we have a few long screws through the side just to strengthen it up a bit we’ll get that done there are make sure this is sitting flat on the plywood so I’m gonna screw up from underneath first just a couple screws just to make sure it is because that is nice and flat this way these two white boards are straight so we have that tight to there we know all that is nice and flat so we’re gonna put in this cross brace before we put our piece of.

Plywood on the inside. Now you might be wondering why we’re putting plywood on the outside and the inside and so we’re working principle that when you laminate where you put two pieces of plywood or two substrates on either side of a frame they help stabilize each other so by putting plywood on the inside and outside you’re helping to keep the lid nice and flat piece in the middle is just so that you have a solid bar in the middle because the span is close to four feet you want to put something in the middle to keep that together in the middle as well and if you insulate it you don’t want to separating here in the middle so that’s what that’s gonna do put that on we’re gonna put our piece of plywood in and then we’ll get onto the next step. Okay, we’ve.

Brought the completed lid down to the well. As you can see, we have everything on here we have the turnbuckles already installed and if you do this at the house or in your garage and you put the base on the lid like this it’s very easy to put your turnbuckles on beforehand when you get.

12:04 Install the turnbuckles

This down to the well you won’t need any power tools down here other than what’s required for your cement that’s it and on the inside. You’ll notice, here with the turnbuckles you can see in here and we can really tighten this down no small critters are going to get into the well highly likely that insects won’t even be able to get through there we put this around the well and pour concrete and we insects are going to be able to come up from the ground so we’re gonna go to that step next. Okay,. As you can see, we got the turnbuckle on here the size that you get should fit comfortably between about an inch and a half from the bottom of the base here to the bottom of.

The 2×4 it here and still have room to tighten it up ensures that you can’t work the lid down or on top of the base here these hooks here the eyelet here should be fairly strong we tried to get galvanized but wasn’t available so we just went with the regular steel here the turnbuckle here is galvanized and you’ll also see down here we have about a half inch space that’s all the way around our plans do show all the sizing for that so we’re gonna put this over top of the well now. Okay, we have our base in place there’s just a couple things I wanted to go over first thing you may notice we have it on a little bit of an angle it’s about an inch out level maybe.

A little more has to allow rain to run off or after winter for snow melting for the runoff to run out the top of the lid so it doesn’t draw it as fast even those pressure-treated you don’t want that the other thing you’ll see here is that we have the culvert about three to four inches below the top here if your culverts about 12 16 inches high you may have to.

14:03 Seal the base to the culvert

Go with a higher base but for us we’re able to get away with a one layer of two by twelve and I’m gonna show you inside here what’s important inside here you’ll see that we have grooves on the culvert here and we have our nails inside here we also have about a two inch space here more than likely you’re probably gonna use a ready-mix concrete and the minimum thickness for ready-mixed is two inches that’s why this base is two inches bigger all the way around and the size of our culvert now this will all bind together once concrete hardens our gonna have a complete seal around your culvert and the base is not gonna separate it all stay as one piece one thing about the design of this lid cover for your well is that your well itself the culvert.

Does not have to be level ours here is actually on quite a bit of an angle it won’t matter at all the base itself is gonna be on a bit of an angle and no matter what the angle of your culvert is the base will be high enough that it covers it completely won’t matter one bit you notice that we got our pump hooked on to the side of the culvert here we’re gonna be changing that so that we actually have it hooked on to this metal bar just it’s just not that great of an idea so I hooked on there it’s not that solid so we’re gonna put this bar across here our culverts on a bit of an angle so by putting it close to this edge here it’s actually maybe.

Fairly close to Center down at the bottom or it was just drill holes through on both sides we’re gonna run the pipe through and when we hook the pump on to this bar it’s gonna help hold our base down when we pour the concrete. Okay, we got our support bar in place for our pump. As you can see, the pump is pulling down on the bar which in turn is pulling down on our base which is going to hold it down and we pour the concrete in which we’re gonna do next. Okay, we’re pouring the concrete we have a I would say a moderate medium sloppy mix not terribly water but it’s watery and you want to be careful that you don’t drop it in the.

Well and excited it might be the end of the world but do your best not to get any in the well and you just want to go all the way around and then. Once we get some more concrete in there and we’re going to tap the sides a little bit to make sure that the concrete settles all until all the crevices around the culvert or the curve you know the ribs. Now we’ve got four bags are ready next year which is about two cubic feet and we have one extra just in case that’s not enough well you figure that’ll be enough how much you need will depend on the size of the culvert that you have and how high you have to build the base keep in mind when you’re pointing it.

In it does not have to come right up to the top edge of the culvert as long as you have about a minimum of the four inches of thickness you’ll be fine so if your call for sticking eight inches out of the ground and there’s four inches above the concrete and not a problem [Music] [Music] [Music]. Okay, we just finished putting the concrete in. Now we’ve accomplished a number of things here. You’ll notice, around the perimeter on the ground we have no concrete losing out at the bottom of the base that’s part of it because we have this bar in here and the pump is going on down it did work quite well and as you can also see with the concrete here probably not.

A hundred percent but enough this is completely sealed. Now the next thing we’re gonna do is put the lid on put the next thing we’re gonna do is put the lid on tighten her down and you’ll see exactly of good this lid is for keeping out any kind of critters any large insects and so on. Okay, we’re just about done here we’ve got the lid ready to go on now looking at the lid some of you might think it’s overkill but one thing about having a double layer of plywood and the frame inside or I should say two things one you can insulate it secondly it makes the lid heavy and you want a heavy lid heavier it is tighter is going to sit on top combined with.

The turnbuckles it’s gonna be a really tight fit so we’re gonna put the lid on now and wrap it up get them all snug to start with nice thing about this is you don’t need put stones on top of your lids anymore and these keep pretty much every single creature and little kids from getting into your interior well if there’s any kind of warpage on your lid that matter these are going to keep it tight we have one on every corner so just make sure you get these all nice and tight but there’s no play in your lid I guarantee that it’s tight all the way around and you’ll have a completely tight critter free shallow well from now on so we’re done we got our lid completely on here we’ve tightened up all the turnbuckles.

Nothing is gonna get in here the only thing we have left to do is we got a shock the well.

21:57 Inspect results and add ventilation

Because we did find some dead mice in here that’s what started the whole thing but she’s good to go you’ll never have a problem with mice or insects or anything like that anymore about two months after we put this well cover cap on we found out that it was so airtight that we weren’t getting proper ventilation and the moisture from the water and the well was accumulating on the lid so what we did I’m gonna pull the lid off here and show you we put these vents in here we got one on each side and that solved the problem the other thing I want to show you after eight months is that inside the well here in the top there’s no insects there’s not even spider webs in here so I’m going to pull this off I’ll show you the.

Vets show you how clean it is so we’re all dry in here and we’re gonna come in close there with the camera and then I’ll show you the vents and I’ll show you the inside here so we got the vents installed we just used aluminum round vents they’re two inch and we have them silicone din so there’s no way any insects can get in through here and. You’ll notice, with that two inch spacing all the way around the where it’s narrow here we’ve had no concrete cracking and there’s no bugs no insects inside here so this design has worked very well and the ventilation or the vents have prevented any kind of moisture from accumulating so we just wanted to do a recap show you just how well the well how well this well cover works.

You.