Our New $30,000 Hole-in-the-Ground...

[Dan F]

We live on a small (7.5 acre) rural property. When we bought the place it came with seven years water-right from the place next door. That time came and went, so we had to drill our own well. With estimates ranging from $12,000 to $40,000 dollars (depending on depth) we started drilling...

The well ended up being 550' - fairly deep, but around average for this area. It produces just a little over ten GPM with a two-horsepower pump. While the flow isn't exceptional, we have about 220' of "static head", which means we have a considerable amount of storage in the well.

The final cost came in at about $29,000, a lot more than we would have liked, but just barely within our budget.

On the plus side, the water quality is excellent - pH of 7.2 with very little iron.

Anyone else had to drill a well recently?

 

[Knowdafish]

550'?!!!! The water table is only 60' down here! LOL!

 

[Pharaoh]

The last time I had one drilled, it costs about $8,000.

 

[dudey]

550 feet!!! you know how many guppys yoiu can throw in there!!

 

[Gr8KarmaSF]

Wow, interesting......

 

[fishy12]

My dad does that and my great uncle owns a business. So i watched it one day but there drill is alot bigger. Because they go to 1000 ft

 

[Dan F]

We live in the hills (think "hillbilly", not "The Hills") so drilling a well is a bit of a craps shoot. The neighbor's well that we were using is 635' deep. Directly across the road from that well (maybe 200' away) is a 145' well. Some wells are as deep as 700', but usually only because they are being used for irrigation and they need a lot of flow. Just a few miles down the road (and 1000' lower) the wells average 120' deep or less...

Drilling a deep well up here gets so expensive mostly because of the casing. Because of the type of rock (basalt) and the hydrology they have to case the well above the level of the static head (level the water normally sits at). Casing it involves reaming out the hole to 10" and installing a 6" welded steel casing which is then sealed with grout along its entire length. We had to install 280' of casing.

The casing does two things. First, it seals out any surface water from the well. This is very important because any water from less than around 60' is very iron-rich up here. Second, it prevents a "cascading well" - a condition where water run down along the sides of the well and disturbs the water column causing turbidity.

I didn't mention why I put this in the DIY section - I did all the trenching, conduit, and plumbing. I also installed the pressure tank and the house side wiring (the well guy did the wiring from the control box to the well).

I attached a photo of where I hooked the well line into the house line - doesn't that look fun?

 

[Muni]

I have a pond on my property. We have standing water at about.... 4 feet. Makes it a pain sometimes. But has its advantages.

Shallow well. Good gardens. But no basements allowed /cry.

 

[Conner]

That's some nice red clay there .

 

[JK47]

Wow Dan, that actually make me appreciate my municiple water supply. Nice work man.