Drilling a water well

[C4Ranch]

My place didn't have a water well rather 2 1.5k gal storage tanks for the small house and another one for one of the barns.
I'm thinking about replacing with a well. Is there anything I should look for in a driller? Any time of the year that is cheaper? Figure I'll have to go 350-400'.

TIA!

J

 

[Soundguy]

talk to some neighbors and see who did theirs.. and how deep they are.

deffinately choose someone who drills in your area.. not a out of town, slightly cheaper guy.

drillers that have been around or in business longer is usually a good sign too.

 

[creekbend]

talk to some neighbors and see who did theirs.. and how deep they are.

deffinately choose someone who drills in your area.. not a out of town, slightly cheaper guy.

drillers that have been around or in business longer is usually a good sign too.

I agree wholeheartedly with your post. I would like to add this point. There are requirements regarding GPM flow in providing adequate water for the size of the Home. I think that 15-18 GPM flow is the least that One should have for a 3 bedroom home. Check with your driller. Just a thought. Best wishes.

 

[idaho2]

C4Ranch,

Find a dowser who can help locate a water source in stead of drilling blindly. Then find a driller in the area. Get an itemized cost break down to everything that the driller will do to drill to your water supply satisfaction of gpm. This includes travel time for the rig, fuel for the drilling unit, casing, liner, well casing sealer, etc. If the driller breaks down for any reason who pays for the down time. After the well is drilled - Who is going to insert the pump, type of pump and hookup to power source, pressure tank and now a pump house. My son went thru this last Sept. and we hit 60gpm @ 185'. We did our own dowsing. Hope this helps

idaho2

 

[stuckmotor]

First: I'm curious to know how you fill your tanks.
As to the drillers: In my area, one driller is significantly more expensive than the other and they both stay in business so, you might, talk to the locals about the kind of work the drillers do, get estimates from the ones that have good references, and then make your decision. Angie's List might save you some time in checkig references. Angie wasn't around when I had a well drilled.

 

[TnAndy]

I think that 15-18 GPM flow is the least that One should have for a 3 bedroom home. Check with your driller. Just a thought. Best wishes.

Nah.....5-8gpm is adequate.....and less if you have enough reserve in the well.

 

[J35]

Make sure there is water, some places there is none, I have seen 800 ft holes with dust in the bottom.

Also make sure if there is water that it is palatable .

Storage tanks that are filled by a truck are a ominous sign to me.

Good Luck---J

 

[bigballer]

I had mine done 7 years ago and tgey used a rotary air drill. Got most of it done ine one day came back the second day to finish it up. 120' deep. I doused and glad I did because where I orignially planned the site would have been a bad choice. I get 20-25gpm and no issues yet. Having to run power and waterline 300' feet was a pain in my rocky soil but worth not having to stress about runnimg short on water. Rates at the time were $35/ft plus a few hundred for setup and permits. I had another guy do the pump and cost on that was about $5k. He talked me into a constant pressure system which works ok but could have lived with traditional style and saved some money.

Good luck. The driller told me that drilling was like going to vegas and putting money down on the craps table. Sometimes you win sometimes you don't..luckily we won.

 

[bigballer]

Also check the county well reports. Youd be suprised what you can find out. I found copies of my neighbors wells, depths, types of soil at each layer, and gpm. This also helped in determining best location. South side reports had much better results than those on the north side.

 

[dmccarty]

I agree wholeheartedly with your post. I would like to add this point. There are requirements regarding GPM flow in providing adequate water for the size of the Home. I think that 15-18 GPM flow is the least that One should have for a 3 bedroom home. Check with your driller. Just a thought. Best wishes.

Most of the wells that I have heard about in my county are 5 GPM. Many are lucky to get 5 GPM. One nearby lot has over 30 GPM, which is amazing, while we really got real lucky with 15 GPM.

Our well has 223 feet of standing water which means we have almost 1,300 gallons of water in the pipe! Pi * R squared * depth = 3.14*.25*223 = 174 cubic feet. 174 cf * 7.5 gallons per cubic feet is 1297.5 gallons!

My best guesstimate is that we use at most 200 gallons a day and I think we really use close to 100 gallons a day. Our well pump is no more than GPM, so in theory, we could run the pump constantly and not run out of water since the well is 15 GPM. Not that I would ever Ever EVER try such a thing. That well is precious.

We were at a friends house and their neighbor came over and asked if they had water since the neighbor was not getting water from her well. The neighbors boyfriend had run the well dry by watering the lawn. City boys. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[Furu]

Our well has 223 feet of standing water which means we have almost 1,300 gallons of water in the pipe! Pi * R squared * depth = 3.14*.25*223 = 174 cubic feet. 174 cf * 7.5 gallons per cubic feet is 1297.5 gallons!

Dan

Unless my math is wrong or you have a 12 inch casing then you only have 327.3 gallons not 1297.5 gallons of water in your well casing.
Pi * R squared * depth = (3.14) (.25)(.25) (223)= 43.76 cu ft then (43.76)(7.48)=327.3 gal
6in casing is .25 radius in ft or 3/12 ft
12 in casing is .5 radius in ft or 6/12 ft
You may have a 12 inch casing but in our area than would be very abnormal.
Sent from a junky iPhone

 

[creekbend]

Most of the wells that I have heard about in my county are 5 GPM. Many are lucky to get 5 GPM. One nearby lot has over 30 GPM, which is amazing, while we really got real lucky with 15 GPM.

Our well has 223 feet of standing water which means we have almost 1,300 gallons of water in the pipe! Pi * R squared * depth = 3.14*.25*223 = 174 cubic feet. 174 cf * 7.5 gallons per cubic feet is 1297.5 gallons!

My best guesstimate is that we use at most 200 gallons a day and I think we really use close to 100 gallons a day. Our well pump is no more than GPM, so in theory, we could run the pump constantly and not run out of water since the well is 15 GPM. Not that I would ever Ever EVER try such a thing. That well is precious.

We were at a friends house and their neighbor came over and asked if they had water since the neighbor was not getting water from her well. The neighbors boyfriend had run the well dry by watering the lawn. City boys. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

We had our well dug around 15 years ago. It is 442 feet deep. The County employee told me that at least 15 GPM was needed for a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home. Our GPM flow is 24. The well was drilled through solid Granite and Limestone. It was in July and the granite dust, mixed with my sweat, was like concrete. I had to wash off outside of our daughter's home using a water hose.

 

[dmccarty]

Unless my math is wrong or you have a 12 inch casing then you only have 327.3 gallons not 1297.5 gallons of water in your well casing.
Pi * R squared * depth = (3.14) (.25)(.25) (223)= 43.76 cu ft then (43.76)(7.48)=327.3 gal
6in casing is .25 radius in ft or 3/12 ft
12 in casing is .5 radius in ft or 6/12 ft
You may have a 12 inch casing but in our area than would be very abnormal.
Sent from a junky iPhone

Nope, my math was wrong. Well, no the math was right, the R was wrong. :laughing: I used .5 not .25. But even with the right R, , we have more water in our well than we use in a day.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

We had our well dug around 15 years ago. It is 442 feet deep. The County employee told me that at least 15 GPM was needed for a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home. Our GPM flow is 24. The well was drilled through solid Granite and Limestone. It was in July and the granite dust, mixed with my sweat, was like concrete. I had to wash off outside of our daughter's home using a water hose.

I can't believe the county requires 15 GPM. If my county required that GPM we would only have one family near us. One of my neighbors uses the grit/dust/gravel left over from his well being drilled to fill pot holes in the road. It works real well.

Later,
Dan

 

[creekbend]

I can't believe the county requires 15 GPM. If my county required that GPM we would only have one family near us. One of my neighbors uses the grit/dust/gravel left over from his well being drilled to fill pot holes in the road. It works real well.

Later,
Dan

They did 15 years ago. I don't know if it has changed or not. Our property is surrounded by parcels of Caswell Game Lands. I do know that the County was attempting to reduce the amount of dwellings in our area back then. Perhaps the County employee was using this tactic to further their agenda?

 

[jinman]

I think some older Eastland County wells were in the 200' range, but your 300'-400' is the depth of the best water in my opinion. The Trinity Aquifer is available in the southern part of the county and that's good water. I don't know that there are any seasonal deals on water well drilling, but there is a great difference in the quality of drillers. If you were closer to Wise County, I could give you some suggestions, but I'd say check around with neighbors.

 

[dmccarty]

I think some older Eastland County wells were in the 200' range, but your 300'-400' is the depth of the best water in my opinion. The Trinity Aquifer is available in the southern part of the county and that's good water. I don't know that there are any seasonal deals on water well drilling, but there is a great difference in the quality of drillers. If you were closer to Wise County, I could give you some suggestions, but I'd say check around with neighbors.

What Jim said. Your county might have well records which might show how far down the wells had to go to hit water, GPM, well driller, and maybe water quality. I would stay with a local company since you might need service one day and that service might require an ASAP response.

Later,
Dan

 

[Rainbody]

http://www.tceq.texas.gov/gis/waterwellview.html
This may help. It's searchable by county and should allow you to price it out by depth.

http://www.tceq.texas.gov/assets/pu...dwater/pgma/2007_centex_pgma_report_final.pdf

This may help as well to give you some background and projections for water levels in the future.
Hope you strike water.

 

[tow653]

Just had a well drilled in Missouri,400' deep,180' casing,pump set at 300'.first ground water at 220.static water level,180',25gpm. Glad its that high,because we are using it for open loop geo thermal heat/cooling. All that info came from report driller had to file with state.