Drilling/digging a water well

[Pioneer_Living4us]

Hello my friends,

Ok, I have yet another question for you.

Does the class go over how to drill/dig your own well? My Husband and I, along with my father in-law plan to do all aspects of our build ourselves. My Husband and his dad have extensive experience in all aspects of construction
(excavating/landscape, septic systems foundations, masonry work, framing/trim, electrical, plumbing, roofing etc) I know a little bit too. However, one thing I'm wondering is if we'd be able to do our own well. Is that something covered in class? My Husband's grandfather put in a hand well, which they can do also but I'm wondering about a deep water well...not really a shallow one. Or is that the only option we'd have if we did that ourselves, a shallow water well?

Any good sites you can lead me to would also be appreciated.

Thank you!!

[rreidnauer]

Nope, that won't be covered in class. Don't know where to send ya either. My water is obtained exclusively by rainwater catchment.

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[Pioneer_Living4us]

I believe I answered my own question - Maybe we can, maybe we can't. Like my Husband just told me " Well babe, it depends on a lot of variables..such as soil content, soft rock or hard rock and so on.

http://www.deeprock.com/HD/ I'm researching...

[Pioneer_Living4us]

Nope, that won't be covered in class. Don't know where to send ya either. My water is obtained exclusively by rainwater catchment.

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Thank you for your reply. We're discussing that too!

[rreidnauer]

Actually, do you know what type of strata lies beneath where you intend to build. A lot would depend on that, if you were to tackle it yourself. For example, say Nebraska, you could probably do a driven sandpoint type well pretty easy. Solid bedrock pretty much rules out self performed well construction.

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[AkChas]

I believe I answered my own question - Maybe we can, maybe we can't. Like my Husband just told me " Well babe, it depends on a lot of variables..such as soil content, soft rock or hard rock and so on.

http://www.deeprock.com/HD/ I'm researching...

Pioneers. Welcome! Nearly every conceavible question has been asked by nearly all folks that have come through the LHBA public forum door. If you do a quick search on a subject that you are wondering about, chances are, you'll find a Few threads, that address your question or are on-topic enough to "resurrect" the thread to post your own specific question in. Give it a try -- it's a great tool for finding a TON of information, on nearly every imaginable question :confused: :)

Having said that, I did remember this topic having been discussed and searched the public forum for Water Wells. Sure enough, a number of them came up, but here's the one that I had remembered from not all that long ago....
http://community.loghomebuilders.org/showthread.php?7793-Digging-a-well&highlight=Water+Wells

Best of Luck!

[Pioneer_Living4us]

Actually, do you know what type of strata lies beneath where you intend to build. A lot would depend on that, if you were to tackle it yourself. For example, say Nebraska, you could probably do a driven sandpoint type well pretty easy. Solid bedrock pretty much rules out self performed well construction.

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Yep! That's exactly what my hubby was telling me as well.

[Pioneer_Living4us]

Pioneers. Welcome! Nearly every conceavible question has been asked by nearly all folks that have come through the LHBA public forum door. If you do a quick search on a subject that you are wondering about, chances are, you'll find a Few threads, that address your question or are on-topic enough to "resurrect" the thread to post your own specific question in. Give it a try -- it's a great tool for finding a TON of information, on nearly every imaginable question :confused: :)

Having said that, I did remember this topic having been discussed and searched the public forum for Water Wells. Sure enough, a number of them came up, but here's the one that I had remembered from not all that long ago....
http://community.loghomebuilders.org/showthread.php?7793-Digging-a-well&highlight=Water+Wells

Best of Luck!

AkChas - Thank you for your help !

I did try to do a search but it asked me to be more specific. I suppose I should have used those two key words " water well" instead of "drilling a well". ; ) Learn something new every day ! Thanks again, much appreciated.

[loghousenut]

I say, unless you have ground water within reach of a backhoe, you oughta hire a guy/gal with a drilling rig to get water. As for building a home for your great grandkids to inherit... You oughta do that with your own two hands.


Take the class.

[LogHomeFeverDan]

Call me old fashioned. Call it just getting back to our roots. I know even here there are many detractors. The question like you Pioneer, I asked myself is, how did they do it before the days of all this expensive machinery?

Well like you I've scoured the net. I've been all around the site you posted. Here's what I found.
http://shop.hoopbenders.net/drillyourownwaterwelloncddrillingguide.aspx

Now again, I know there will be detractors. That's ok I'm kinda a "go against the FLOW" mindset. In North Carolina we can dig/drill/install our own water well as long as it's for residential use and you live on the property for 12 months. I ordered the guy's cd. I've watched it. It makes sense. Is it doable?? I dunno. I'm going to give it a shot. Here's the defining question in my mind. What's your timeframe? Our build is going to span a couple years or more. Could I "drill" a 400 foot well with this method? Given enough time and a long enough rope, I believe I could. Do I want to? Dunno yet I've not had the "drill" welded up. Will it get thru bedrock? The guy claims it will. Given enough time, you can "drill" through anything with a percussion drill.

Don't get me wrong, LHN and rreidnauer are GENIUSES (you'll understand that better on the member's side) and you can't go wrong listening to their sage advice. I'm just putting in a novice's two cents. If you want to do it, you can. As the cliche goes, if there's a will there's a way. Lastly, I'll just say we're extremely adamant about our drinking water. For the last four years we've had nothing but artesian well water for drinking. Two years ago I was driving about 40 miles to the well. Since we've been here in Hartsville, I drive about 12 miles to the well. I know the water quality we'll be able to get on our property in NC will be awesome. I just don't know how deep we'll have to go. I've spoken with a number of "locals", some have said they went down 700 feet. IF that's the case on our property we'll hire someone. Just don't be discouraged if you want to DIY your well!

[TheBeak]

In a potentially related question, does anyone ever use flowing surface water, collected way uphill and gravity fed as their water source (assuming it is tested for potability, of course)?

As we look at properties, we are looking for one with a year round stream, to allow for pico hydro power, could this be used as a house water source as well?

How about just for "grey" water duties - washing, showers, etc. ?

[rreidnauer]

For washing laundry & showering, just fine. (outside the days of heavy rains turning the stream brown) For potable, not unless you treat it. Flowing water does not equal clean water. Filtration and UV sterilization is probably the easiest course to make it potable. Regimented maintenace to the filters and lamp is what will keep it safe, so don't get laxed on your maintenance schedules

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[loghousenut]

Call me old fashioned. Call it just getting back to our roots. I know even here there are many detractors. The question like you Pioneer, I asked myself is, how did they do it before the days of all this expensive machinery?


Don't get me wrong, LHN and rreidnauer are GENIUSES

Lastly, I'll just say we're extremely adamant about our drinking water. For the last four years we've had nothing but artesian well water for drinking. Two years ago I was driving about 40 miles to the well. Since we've been here in Hartsville, I drive about 12 miles to the well. I know the water quality we'll be able to get on our property in NC will be awesome. I just don't know how deep we'll have to go. I've spoken with a number of "locals", some have said they went down 700 feet. IF that's the case on our property we'll hire someone. Just don't be discouraged if you want to DIY your well!

Dan, When you ask the question "How did they do it in the old days?", don't you also wonder how they went 12 miles to the well? They didn't have all that expensive equipment to just drive there.

I think before all that expensive drilling equipment came along, folks didn't spend their nest egg building a 2,000 square foot log home on a chunk of ground that didn't have water. Things was different then and there were fewer families that needed water and folks had to live with whatever water solution they could manage. There were a lot more families depending on creekwater and there were a lot fewer 20 minute showers. In the days when you'd go out to "a rope winch and a bucket" for your dishwater, nobody had a 300' well and dishes weren't washed in a machine in the kitchen.

I'm one genius who'd love to punch my own well but I've watched the man with the big truck as he went through 200' or more of slow, solid rock as he drilled at our place. I know a guy who made a derrick and drilled his own down in the Valley, 30 miles from me, but his water was at 75' and he had only glacial gravel to contend with. There's a pretty good thread on the subject on the members side (sorry Pioneer) for you Dan.

I think I'm glad that a drilled well at my place only costs a month or two of our family income. Now lets get back to building our log home like they did in the old days.... Where's my ax?

[Pioneer_Living4us]

Hey all.

Thanks everyone for your input. Dan, thank you for your link. I'll read up on that. We would love to do our own well, if we can. That's something we'll have to find out but we're certainly going to look into all of our options. Once we are closer to purchasing property we'll look up the surveys for that area, we'll find out how deep the local well is on average for the area and we'll look into the tools that may be able to help us get the job done with what we have to contend with and see if they are within a price range we can afford. After carefully reviewing all of the above, we'll then make the best choice for us.
Which is all any of us can do.

LHN, you're correct too. Sometimes thinks don't always go as you'd like them to and you just have to do what you can.

I believe we all have that DIY mentality within us- or else we probably wouldn't be on this website, then again...you can't really fight mother nature and always expect to win! Sometimes you have to pick your battles.

I, too, agree that LHN and many, many more on this website are pure geniuses. ;)

[LogHomeFeverDan]

I'm also still in the "research" stage. I need to speak to the locals in the direct area of our property to get some idea of how deep their wells are. I just cringe at spending close to 10k to dig a hole in the ground for water. We have a very low flow spring on the property. I'd even consider a cistern then pumping out of their for potable water. Just have to know if the spring continues to flow in dry conditions.

If I think we can get water in 100 feet or so I believe I'll give DIY a shot. We aren't in a rush and if nothing else I'll *learn*. (-;

[BoFuller]

I'm also still in the "research" stage. I need to speak to the locals in the direct area of our property to get some idea of how deep their wells are. I just cringe at spending close to 10k to dig a hole in the ground for water. We have a very low flow spring on the property. I'd even consider a cistern then pumping out of their for potable water. Just have to know if the spring continues to flow in dry conditions.

If I think we can get water in 100 feet or so I believe I'll give DIY a shot. We aren't in a rush and if nothing else I'll *learn*. (-;

10K? Man are you lucky. My estimate was just shy of 40K! We need to go 1,000 feet.
I have a friend (a rather wealthy friend) who had two dry holes before he hit water, so he spent about $120,000!
I'll haul and store for awhile. :)

[LogHomeFeverDan]

10K? Man are you lucky. My estimate was just shy of 40K! We need to go 1,000 feet.
I have a friend (a rather wealthy friend) who had two dry holes before he hit water, so he spent about $120,000!
I'll haul and store for awhile. :)

Egads!!!!! I'm hoping we don't spend 40 k to get dried in. 1,000 feet??? Yeah I'd be doing rain catchment,hauling in, cistern etc etc etc.

If we're going to spend that kind of money digging holes in the earth I'm getting one of those permits for Alaska or South America and pulling gold out not water.

[rreidnauer]

It's news like that which makes me glad I live in the East.

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[dvb]

Our well was 250 foot deep and cost $7,500. They wanted another $3,000 to set the pump and put water to the house, if I did the excavation work. I did it myself for about $600. I don't mind people making a living, but $2400 for a days work?

[LogHomeFeverDan]

Our well was 250 foot deep and cost $7,500. They wanted another $3,000 to set the pump and put water to the house, if I did the excavation work. I did it myself for about $600. I don't mind people making a living, but $2400 for a days work?

Precisely. I can even respect highly technical or skilled work, but not at $2400 a day when DIY can come in at $600.00. If I can't do it or it's a huge headache, I'll pay someone to do it.

[mario kadu]

our well hit water at 65 feet - final depth drilled to 300 feet w/11 gal per min - cost $3k

[WNYcabinplannin]

One thought-
An advantage of having a pro is his licensed and rated well. I have my drillers sheet: we went 35' and got 30G/min (yes, very lucky!)
It lists what rock types he encountered on the way down. Here in NY, licensed well drillers report their action/results to the DEC (dept enviro conservation).
IF WE EVER SELL- one would be hard pressed to sell with an unrated well.
It also allowed him to search the neighbors' records and that info showed all were 50-120' deep with good flow rates. We used that as a benchmark to guess high/low on cost. He actually didn't 'drill' it, used an old school pipe-hittin' rig. Well.. That's my ramble


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[mario kadu]

completely agree - our well was permitted with the county and a certified report is permanently on file - and as WNY said, it is thorough and lists each type of rock/soil at every elevation - very valuable info for future prospective buyers.

[Pioneer_Living4us]

I Agree with DVB and Dan, I can completely respect people trying to make a living but that price was a bit much. I agree with you Dan, as long as we can do it ourselves that's exactly what we'll do. We just have to do our homework ( surveys, neighbors, etc.) on the area and such and see what we'll be dealing with.
We're not concerned with future buyers, this will be our homestead for years and years and years to come and hopefully our great grandchildren will feel the same way ; ) However, if that weren't the case and we could see ourselves selling at some point than yes, I agree that would be something to think about.

[Pioneer_Living4us]

I might " then".

[Pioneer_Living4us]

meant. lol...I love being OCD. :mad:

[BarstowRat]

I don't know what the big deal is. I saw these couple of Mexican guys hand dig a well on youtube in like 7 minutes, busting rock and then bricking it in. Seems pretty easy. lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuzDyFquyqw

[loghousenut]

Yeah, but they neglected to dig the last 635' of it.

[BenB]

The Mexicans have this ability to work longer and harder than any "gringo" I have ever known.
If they needed that last 635' I imagine in some manner they could get it done. ;)

So Mr. Nut - how you been? Behaving??
Hope you all had a Happy Memorial Day and enjoy what still remains!

[loghousenut]

So Mr. Nut - how you been? Behaving??
Hope you all had a Happy Memorial Day and enjoy what still remains!

Mr. Nut, as well as the Mrs. and Little are doing well and behaving. We are enjoying the annual Memorial Day rain and wishing the same for the rest of you all. Thanks for asking.

[trampster]

We just completed the class and are looking for land near a stream/lake/water. One lot we looked for would require a gallery well about 15ft. down to reach good water. Cost is about $12K!! So I am trying to figure out if I could do something like this myself, or if I could just pump water to a cistern and then use some type of purification system before it reaches the pressure tank? All of this is so new to me, but I am willing to learn and try, especially if it saves money and I can meet codes(-:

[rreidnauer]

I have no idea what a gallery well is, but something 15' down costing $12k!?! Geez! I can dig down about that far with my backhoe for free. Heck, I could hand dig a well that deep pretty easy with just a few basic tools and a little ingenuity. (I recently chiseled down through three feet of solid ledge rock in a hole measuring 3' wide by 6' long in two days, using just a demo hammer)

With UV sterilizers and on-demand pumps available, just about any decent water source can be made potable affordably.

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[trampster]

So how hard is it to do the excavation and to set pump and put water into the house. And then what did you have in the house and how do you keep in all from freezing if it is not in hour heated portion? We are thinking a pier foundation so I'm wondering where the pressure tank and all ends up if you have no basement or crawl space

[rreidnauer]

Umm, assuming we're just talking about a simple shallow surface well, a day with an excavator could get your hole dug, place a stack of concrete riser rings, and backfill. Then renting a Ditch-Witch to trench a water line between the well and the house if your ground isn't too rocky. In the house, I would put in a three stage filter, (I use a 3 micron particulate, a 3 micron carbon, and a 1 micron particulate in that order) and finally a UV sterilizer sized at least as big as the GPMs of the demand pump. The accumulator tank can be placed anywhere you want, and it doesn't have to be very big. (all my filters, sterilizer, pump, and accumulator are all housed under the bathroom vanity) To prevent freezing, some heat tape on the water line riser, and a little insulation wrap will do the trick. Use PEX for the water riser. In the event the heat tape should fail, the water will freeze, but PEX tubing can expand without rupturing.

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[trampster]

Thanks rreidnauer. Now I have a lot more to research more specifically which is just what I needed. That PEX was talked about in class and seems like some really nice stuff to work with. Sure am enjoying all the info!!