Plumbers in Florence, Texas

Keeping an old windmill well working for cattle

A windmill well that still turns is a genuinely useful thing to keep, and it is also decades past any maintenance it was designed to need.

The pump rods and leathers wear out on a schedule, not on a whim. A windmill that suddenly stops delivering water is usually a worn leather seal rather than a well problem, and it is a straightforward part to replace on most designs.

The tank and trough matter as much as the pump. Sediment, algae and a stuck float valve are more common causes of a dry trough than the well itself, and checking the tank first saves a wasted trip up the tower.

Test the water if cattle have been refusing it. An old well that has sat unused for a stretch can pick up minerals or bacteria that make animals reluctant to drink, and that is worth knowing before assuming a mechanical fault.

Distance is the other factor worth planning for. A stock well can sit a long way from the nearest road, and a service call out there is worth scheduling alongside anything else that needs doing on the same piece of land, rather than as its own trip.

Retiring one properly when the land changes use

An old well that nobody is using is not harmless just because it is quiet. An open or poorly capped well is both a fall hazard and a direct path for surface contamination straight into groundwater, and it does not become less of one just because the windmill above it looks decorative.

Plugging a well is regulated work, not a weekend project. Texas requires abandoned wells to be plugged by a licensed water well driller or pump installer, with the casing removed or filled and the hole sealed properly.

Do this before subdividing or building near it. An unplugged well discovered during a survey or a foundation dig is a far worse problem than the same well found and dealt with in advance.

Keep the windmill if you want it, plug the well underneath it. The tower and blades are just steel and can stay as a piece of the land's history. It is the open hole beneath that has to be closed properly.

How we work

We service working windmill pumps, test water that animals have started refusing, and arrange proper plugging for wells that are done being used. Tell us which situation you are in and we will treat it accordingly.

We cover Florence, Liberty Hill and the rest of northwestern Williamson County, and old stock wells on working land are a routine part of what we see out here.