Water Well Help

[timberwolves]

My buddy got an estimate for a well dug on his property, $11.00 per ft. estimated water level at 220'. So for $2500.00 he signed a contract and the well guy started digging. Right now he is up to 460' & $ 7500.00. They are only getting 1 gallon per min. at that depth not enough gpm. The well guy wants to bring in a pounder and pound at that depth he says it may open veins to supply the well with more water, but the pounder is $ 1800.00 for the day ? My friend has no idea what to do? Does anyone have any experience with wells or anybody in the business ? Any advice would be great thankyou John

 

[Mousefield]

Our well came in at ¾ gallon although I am sure it is producing more than that now. We put in a 2,000 gallon storage tank and it is on a float system. When the tank level drops the well pump will come on and top up the tank. So if you use lots of water during the day it will get topped up over night. We have our well pump set at 1 gallon per minute, partly due to the type of filter system we have. Our well is about 160 feet down and the water level is only 20 feet from the surface.
Also how much water (feet) there are in the well can make a big difference to your needs.

 

[tommu56]

My cabin is 20 gallons per day at 450ft
Although we don't full time there we do spend many continous weeks in the summer

I use rain water to flush the toilet, no rain I go to nearby creek with a tank and bring water back to fill rain water tank.
1200 gallon bruiser cistern under ground for drinking and washing dishes and bathing.
I pump 2 x a day to the cistern till well dries up every day even while we aren't up there.

This is all off grid.

tom

 

[dave1949]

My buddy got an estimate for a well dug on his property, $11.00 per ft. estimated water level at 220'. So for $2500.00 he signed a contract and the well guy started digging. Right now he is up to 460' & $ 7500.00. They are only getting 1 gallon per min. at that depth not enough gpm. The well guy wants to bring in a pounder and pound at that depth he says it may open veins to supply the well with more water, but the pounder is $ 1800.00 for the day ? My friend has no idea what to do? Does anyone have any experience with wells or anybody in the business ? Any advice would be great thankyou John

I have heard of the pounding technique, and fracturing. A co-worker built on top of a tall, rocky hill and had all sorts of trouble getting a producing well. His theory was the pounding doesn't seal off the well bore like drilling. I am not sure if he ever did get a good well. I remember he said the pounding went on for weeks with not a lot to show for it.

Dave.

 

[tommu56]

I forgot to mention that the whole 450ft was pounded with a cable rig

The down the hole hammers should do the same thing on a rotary rig.
A rotary rig dosent have to have a hammer

but the pounding and the hammer should get you the same result

fracturing the well might help but it is costly too

I just gave up and put the cistern in

tom

 

[gauthier]

If you hit 1 gal a min at say 200 feet,than anymore you drill will be a under ground cistern,so,you would have what ever amount of water a 6 inch [or 5 1/2 or whatever] pipe held,if you went 200 feet more your cistern would be 200 feet of pipe storage,something like that I think,not an expert in water wells,never heard of pounding.[just looked it up,6 inch pipe holds 14.5 or so gal in 10 foot of pipe],so in 100 ft of pipe that would be 145 gal?How many gal cistern would a house need?

 

[tommu56]

If you hit 1 gal a min at say 200 feet,than anymore you drill will be a under ground cistern,so,you would have what ever amount of water a 6 inch [or 5 1/2 or whatever] pipe held,if you went 200 feet more your cistern would be 200 feet of pipe storage,something like that I think,not an expert in water wells,never heard of pounding.

good point about over drilling for extra pump down

link to cable drilling

http://www.agwt.org/info/pdfs/welldrilling.pdf

YouTube - Cable tool Drilling Method

tom

 

[towmotor]

A question:
Who says that 1 gal/minute isn't enough at 460 feet?
The state? The bank? The driller?

My well is 500 feet. The state (a small, over-regulated, oppressive New England state) required 1/2 a gallon/minute at that depth.
The well produced 3/4 after hydrofracturing to 200 feet, (I'm confident it's opened up and flowing more, 14 years later).
The state was satisfied, I've always had plenty of water.

 

[Botabill]

If you hit 1 gal a min at say 200 feet,than anymore you drill will be a under ground cistern,so,you would have what ever amount of water a 6 inch [or 5 1/2 or whatever] pipe held,if you went 200 feet more your cistern would be 200 feet of pipe storage,something like that I think,not an expert in water wells,never heard of pounding.[just looked it up,6 inch pipe holds 14.5 or so gal in 10 foot of pipe],so in 100 ft of pipe that would be 145 gal?How many gal cistern would a house need?

This will only be work if the well casing is perforated where the 1 gallon come in. If not the only flow will be from the bottom of the casing.

 

[Egon]

Think hard about a large holding tank and a pump that is well below the rate the well flows.???