New Well
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BillG_in_TX
Veteran Member
Steve,
Good luck on your well. I recently got a quote for a well on our property in central Texas. The driller is a geologist who used to drill oil wells and now douses with welding rods and drills for water. I asked him if he learned how to douse at Texas Tech. He said no, and they'd probably want his sheepskin back if they found out.
For a 400' well, he quoted $6.50/ft for drilling and $3.50/ft for casing. Seems to be the going rate around here, but I'll be getting a couple more quotes before I start drilling. One neighbor had 2 dry holes before they let the driller pick the spot.
Good luck on your well. I recently got a quote for a well on our property in central Texas. The driller is a geologist who used to drill oil wells and now douses with welding rods and drills for water. I asked him if he learned how to douse at Texas Tech. He said no, and they'd probably want his sheepskin back if they found out.
For a 400' well, he quoted $6.50/ft for drilling and $3.50/ft for casing. Seems to be the going rate around here, but I'll be getting a couple more quotes before I start drilling. One neighbor had 2 dry holes before they let the driller pick the spot.
Latest update. (as of 11:00 AM)
Second hole is 205'. Casing goes down 58'. Sides of the well (below casing) are unstable and will collapse in time. Only way to use what we have is to install sediment screen casing below the steel casing and backfill behind the screen casing with filter gravel (this will add $2366 to the price). Total cost for this hole will be $4866.00 + hook up and pump and tank. Total cost for first (dry) hole will be $1720. (He's giving us a break, $4 a foot instead of $8 and $100 to fill and seal)
If we decide to stop all work at this point it would be $2640.00, and we would be back to using the hand dug well, waiting between toilet flushes for the well to recover. I am told that once the rainfall gets back to "normal", the hand dug well should recover.
But will we ever get back to normal???? And what about the "next time".
Second hole is 205'. Casing goes down 58'. Sides of the well (below casing) are unstable and will collapse in time. Only way to use what we have is to install sediment screen casing below the steel casing and backfill behind the screen casing with filter gravel (this will add $2366 to the price). Total cost for this hole will be $4866.00 + hook up and pump and tank. Total cost for first (dry) hole will be $1720. (He's giving us a break, $4 a foot instead of $8 and $100 to fill and seal)
If we decide to stop all work at this point it would be $2640.00, and we would be back to using the hand dug well, waiting between toilet flushes for the well to recover. I am told that once the rainfall gets back to "normal", the hand dug well should recover.
But will we ever get back to normal???? And what about the "next time".
TresCrows
Elite Member
I am sorry to hear you hit dry holes. Around here it is 12 dollars a foot, 6 if dry and most water is hit before 80 feet.
Geologist and witchcraft--nah---various oil companies have over the years studied the phenomena and found that the succes ratio of the dowser is equal to random chance. Statisitcally it is pure horse pucky.
J
Geologist and witchcraft--nah---various oil companies have over the years studied the phenomena and found that the succes ratio of the dowser is equal to random chance. Statisitcally it is pure horse pucky.
J
TerryinMD
Veteran Member
Steve,
Geez.... sorry to hear about your problems. Hope it all turns out well. (No pun intended!! /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif)
Have the well drillers had similar problems with other new wells going in? Especially with our current draught....
Terry
Geez.... sorry to hear about your problems. Hope it all turns out well. (No pun intended!! /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif)
Have the well drillers had similar problems with other new wells going in? Especially with our current draught....
Terry
Strange you bring that up. The douser (my Uncle insisted I get one) used two copper rods, 3/8" diameter and 20" long, bent in the shape of an "L". This guy did dousing for a local town who hit three for three wells pumping 100 or more gallons per minute.
He walked all over the property marking where underground water was flowing. One of the spots (the one that hit) was directly under a 220 VAC 60 Amp service feeding our pole barn. This is the spot I wanted but a Blue Spruce tree and overhead lines were in the way. The tree is gone, the lines have to be re-strung, and the water will be flowing very soon (we hope).
Me, being more of a logical thinker thought it was strange that these copper rods could be sensitive to water +50 feet down or deeper and yet not be influenced by overhead power lines 15' away.
I gambled to family pressure and lost.
He walked all over the property marking where underground water was flowing. One of the spots (the one that hit) was directly under a 220 VAC 60 Amp service feeding our pole barn. This is the spot I wanted but a Blue Spruce tree and overhead lines were in the way. The tree is gone, the lines have to be re-strung, and the water will be flowing very soon (we hope).
Me, being more of a logical thinker thought it was strange that these copper rods could be sensitive to water +50 feet down or deeper and yet not be influenced by overhead power lines 15' away.
I gambled to family pressure and lost.
MarkV
Super Member
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2000
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- 5,698
- Location
- Cedartown, Ga and N. Ga mountains
- Tractor
- 1998 Kubota B21, 2005 Kubota L39
Oh Man Skent, I feel for you./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif In an earlier post I mentioned that my first drilling experience did not go well and we had to redrill. We now have marginal flow, but it has been working for us the last 5 years and the water is good. It still makes me nervous as Georgia continues to be in drought conditions.
I sure do wish you luck and hope you will let us know how it all turns out. You would think that with all the high tech stuff out there, someone would develop something that could tell where water was.
MarkV
I sure do wish you luck and hope you will let us know how it all turns out. You would think that with all the high tech stuff out there, someone would develop something that could tell where water was.
MarkV
BWa
Silver Member
We had a well drilled this last summer , The state health laws state you must be no closer than 100' to the spetic system and 20' from a property line , The well digger Eye balled the distance to the spetic system and went 285' and got 40gpm but found out that it was only 85' from the system , He has a hearing with the board of health this apirl and I think he will be drilling a new well at the correct measurements . There is no hard feels on this , in that he did not look at the second cover , that is at 85' and took his eyeball measurement at the first one and that was at the 100' foot mark ....
Hope you have better luck and find all the water you need .
Bill G.
Hope you have better luck and find all the water you need .
Bill G.
TresCrows
Elite Member
See, the problem with saying that he hit two out of three is that that is meaningless because I could have drilled 3 out of 3 in the same place with a blindfold on. All that means is that it is easy to get water there or at least in that particular area the law of averages are in your favor. Since I am a scientist I dismiss such foolishness as irrelevent becasue it was not a meaningful data sample. In double blind studies the dowsers perform about equal to random chance. In this case random chance was 2 out of 3.
However, this comes from a guy who has 3 crows for friends that only I can see, well the Medicine Man in Arizona and a witch lady from Jamaica saw them as well but that is another story for another time.
J
However, this comes from a guy who has 3 crows for friends that only I can see, well the Medicine Man in Arizona and a witch lady from Jamaica saw them as well but that is another story for another time.
J
I did a site survey and have a very accurate and detailed map of the property. Stuff was hooked up and disconnected (property has been in the family since pre-civil war days) and there are pipes, wells, cisterns and old foundations here and there. Up until I started caretaking the property, everything was word of mouth. I started documenting everything. There was a drainfield on the other side of the pole barn that was never recorded and now not used. Stuff like that can cause problems. I was sure the closest possible source was the present drainfield at 139' (MD requires 100' from any source of contam. and 30' from any building or property line.
Yesterday morning they checked what they had drilled on friday. The 130' shaft had filled in 10' on the bottom and in order to make it usable, a silt screen had to be installed and backfilled (between the stone and silt screen) with filter gravel. They drilled deeper to get a bigger reserve. The well is now 205' deep with 58' of solid casing and the rest (to the bottom) is the silt screen. Well has 175' of water standing in it and last night's pump test yeilded somewhere between 10 and 12 gallons per minute.
The first (dry) hole is 405' and driller is only (?) charging me $4 foot (vs $8) plus $100 to seal it. ($1720)
The second well was 205' ($1640) with 58' casing ($290) plus internal silt screen and filter gravel ($2366) plus grouting ($175) plus pump test ($200) plus well cap ($35) for a total of $4706.
Entire project is now to $6426. I guess it will be a while until I can afford some tractor accessories.
Next stop - plumber-ville. He will be out Wednesday to see what we need.
Monday I'm going to try and convince the county to allow me to keep the old well open - or al the very least give me more time to fill it in.
I can see lots of seat time on the Kubota cleaning up all the stone dust from operation.
The first (dry) hole is 405' and driller is only (?) charging me $4 foot (vs $8) plus $100 to seal it. ($1720)
The second well was 205' ($1640) with 58' casing ($290) plus internal silt screen and filter gravel ($2366) plus grouting ($175) plus pump test ($200) plus well cap ($35) for a total of $4706.
Entire project is now to $6426. I guess it will be a while until I can afford some tractor accessories.
Next stop - plumber-ville. He will be out Wednesday to see what we need.
Monday I'm going to try and convince the county to allow me to keep the old well open - or al the very least give me more time to fill it in.
I can see lots of seat time on the Kubota cleaning up all the stone dust from operation.
This is what I hope is the end to the story.
Plumber was out yesterday. 150' of ditch & pipe, .5 HP pump and tank, Electric line and pitless adapter, and labor to hook up to house and yard hydrints: $1800.00.
Total price for this whole nine yards is going to be $8400.00.
I'll still have cleanup of the diggings and spoils from the dry well, plus the cost to fill in the old hand-dug well. Good part of this is the tractor time involved!
I'm guessing this was not a worst case scenearo since we finally did get water. . . . .
Plumber was out yesterday. 150' of ditch & pipe, .5 HP pump and tank, Electric line and pitless adapter, and labor to hook up to house and yard hydrints: $1800.00.
Total price for this whole nine yards is going to be $8400.00.
I'll still have cleanup of the diggings and spoils from the dry well, plus the cost to fill in the old hand-dug well. Good part of this is the tractor time involved!
I'm guessing this was not a worst case scenearo since we finally did get water. . . . .
MarkV
Super Member
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2000
- Messages
- 5,698
- Location
- Cedartown, Ga and N. Ga mountains
- Tractor
- 1998 Kubota B21, 2005 Kubota L39
Steve,
Glad to hear you have the water up and running, or is that flowing./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Hopefully a good deep well will last the rest of your life so maybe the price wasn’t that bad. I know those kind of bills are a big hit when there are so many tractor attachments to buy. Our final bill was right at $7500 so I can feel your pain. The one that got me was the septic. We spent $10,000 but it was steeeeeeeep and rocky. The septic guy is driving a new truck though.
MarkV
Glad to hear you have the water up and running, or is that flowing./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Hopefully a good deep well will last the rest of your life so maybe the price wasn’t that bad. I know those kind of bills are a big hit when there are so many tractor attachments to buy. Our final bill was right at $7500 so I can feel your pain. The one that got me was the septic. We spent $10,000 but it was steeeeeeeep and rocky. The septic guy is driving a new truck though.
MarkV
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