How to Restore a Spring in basement of old house?

The house I live in has a spring in the basement as it's water source, it is a very old house. The spring flows directly through a stone lined pit approximately 2 to 2 1/2 foot square and about 2 feet deep. It has no cover and due to its location in the corner of a stone basement I am having some difficulty figuring out how best to maintain and cover it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, especially any links or sites that might show how to repair a spring...

It has a lot of flow, my parents have lived in this house for 40 years and the spring is always full, in fact we continually siphon water out of it and have backup pumps to keep it from overflowing into the basement. Power outages have caused it to overflow and fill our entire stone basement in 6 inches to a foot of water, so that's fun!

The water has tested as safe from lead, we have installed a filter for the occasional silt and a uv treatment unit and it tests as safe to drink after that.

I want to shore up the walls of the spring without damaging it, and I need to figure out how to cover it to keep critters out. I will attach some photos as soon as I can.

Here are some photos of the water spring. It seems to slightly undercut the foundation wall, Perhaps from years of eroding by the water flow. I have titled things in the Photos hopefully it is readable if not I can post descriptions.
Edit: I reduced the photo file size. they were a bit too big to load well..

What a great thing to have.
You could install a stainless steel Ramset bolt [ expanding bolt] into the stone work for the timber section to sit on, or be bolted to the wall with.
Once you have a stable and strong timber beam, the rest should be straightforward in terms of covering.
The curb you speak of is actually concrete, cement is an additive to concrete- thats the civil engineer in me coming out.

Bolting the wood to the wall is a good idea. I would assume it would need to go into the grout between the stones?

Lol! Ah yes the "concrete curb"... I even know that and I still always say the wrong thing...

Any stone masons, or engineers..., here who have any thoughts on the eroding stonework inside the spring?

No! put the bolt which has an expanding end into solid stone or concrete. If you put it in the grout, it will break the grout and be loose.
Get back to me if you cannot find them, and I will find the name they are called in your area.

Ah I see, would it be something like in this photo? They also had ones with plastic sleevs.

That photo is spot on.
Do not use any plastic sleeve.
Since it will be in a continual moist region, hang the expense and use stainless steel ones.
You ail not need many, maybe 2 per wooden piece only.

Thanks so much for the advice! Now I have a plan of attack! I will feel much better about the continued safety of our water quality after there is a proper cover to keep out any little critters who may be thirsty.

I think the generic name in your area is "compression anchor bolt" Get stainless if you can they are available. The one you showed may be galvanised which is not as good for your situation.

Update on project...

A friend is helping me to build a wood frame and plywood cover. He thinks we should use spray foam to fill the gaps between the stone and the wood frame. I'm not sold on that idea...

Does anyone have any thoughts on how best to fill the gaps between the wood frame and the stone?
It needs to be able to keep out insects snakes and mice...

I don't think its needed.
You have holes for chains etc through the top anyway!
If you decide to seal it, maybe some foam rubber would be better value, since foam is a one use item.
But I would not worry about it

Suzanne Perrin wrote:Update on project...

A friend is helping me to build a wood frame and plywood cover. He thinks we should use spray foam to fill the gaps between the stone and the wood frame. I'm not sold on that idea...

Does anyone have any thoughts on how best to fill the gaps between the wood frame and the stone?
It needs to be able to keep out insects snakes and mice...

How did you come out on this? Putting mortar on the stone and then bolting the wood to the stone while still wet would have given you the most durable seal. Any other issues after that could be sealed with 100% silicone caulk, preferably food grade.

If, during power outages, the basement always floods precisely 6-12" deep, why not build the walls of the spring higher? Wouldn't that keep the water out of the basement?

Looks like a blessing to have a house with that in the basement. I'm sure I could put in a sand point in my basement if I wanted to, the water table isn't much more than 5-10 feet under the floor where I live.

I finally got the spring covered with a tight fitting wood lid.

The friend who helped me cut and assemble everything came up with using a 2" pvc pipe as a brace for the back corner. He cut and flattened a 3" section at the end and predrilled holes to attach it to the wood frame. It extends to the floor of the spring.

We used plumbing foam strips (not spray foam) to seal off around the chains and hoses that suspend the pumps. I have been meaning to post some photos but have not been able to take any.

The wood frame fits very tightly to the rock wall and the floor, so only a little strip of foam backer rod was needed to seal it all up. I had gotten some food grade silicone but it was not needed.
Thanks all for suggestions. Hope this helps someone else with similar issues.

We have a spring exactly like this one in the basement of our church (it used to be a cheese warehouse and was built around 1900) in Crewe, Cheshire, England. Please could you tell me whether it should have any ramifications regarding buildings insurance.
Joanna Dunn

I know little about Building Insurance, but I can say , if you are making the building safer it should not work against you.
As a Civil Engineer, I can say, that unless you are structurally damaging the building you should be in a safe place.
Maybe ask the insurers in writing?