During your standard home inspection, I evaluate all visible and accessible well system components for their safety, operation, and condition. These components include, well head and visible casing, soil landscape and grading around the well head, proximity of the well head in relation to an onsite septic system if one is present. Inside the home we evaluate the related well components including storage/bladder tanks, well system pumps, gauges, and related plumbing piping.
Superior Quality Home Inspections performs well water flow tests and water quality testing on your private well generally in conjunction with a home inspection as part of a real estate sale or purchase. We work closely with several different NY State accredited labs in central New York. There are many contaminants in the water supply that can be tested, however we generally test for Bacteria (coli-form & e-coli), Lead, Nitrites, and Nitrates. This is referred to as a Multi-Part test and is mostly used to complete FHA/VA requirements. We can test for any one and all of these contaminants depending on your needs. Multi-Part water tests may have a week or less turn around time for the lab results. We use high quality water tests with EMSL Laboratories. This lab generates a high quality water test report as part of this service that states the levels, what the thresholds are for the levels and also provides additional info as what each contaminant is.
For an additional charge, a well-flow capacity test can be performed on the private well. This provides a basic understanding of the well’s current water capacity. Water pressure and gallons per minute (GPM) are maintained for one to two hours. This provides a pressure test on the well and its components by achieving 3 GPM for one hour minimum. This achieves a yield of 180 gallons minimum approximately determining if the well can provide an adequate water supply in a short amount of time.
