How to drill your own shallow water well

[TheGoose]

Stumbled across this while treking through the web.

Note: This will not work in rocky or hard soil. There are some good ideas on here as well.

I would suggest buying a small trashpump and recylcing the water through a hand-dug pit. As you recycle the water you will accumulate mud which cakes the side of the borehole and helps keep it open. Once you get the well drilled I would remove the drilling casing and install a screen. This guy is just installed a 1-1/4" sand-point screen into the 2" and then pulling up the 2". You need a 2" casing to fit in a standard 1" footvalve or use a packer jet.

How to Drill Your Own Water Well

 

[jinman]

When I was in the US Navy stationed in Norfolk, VA and living in Chesapeake, VA, I had a shipmate who bought a new house and washed a well in his back yard to use for watering his lawn. He did it over one weekend and used it successfully to water his yard and save money. I was transferred after 6 mos. and don't know how it worked long term, but he and I carpooled to our ship and he was quite proud of his well. I think it was about 24' deep.

 

[Western]

24'! wow, wish we could get "close" to that here in Wise county.

 

[jinman]

24'! wow, wish we could get "close" to that here in Wise county.

I didn't have city water like my shipmate. My well was only 27' feet deep and water as hard as rock. Without treatment, it would turn everything in the kitchen and bathroom bright red. I lived near an area called the Dismal Swamp in Deep Creek, VA, right along the Intercoastal Waterway Canal. The water table was extremely shallow. For homeowners to put in a septic system with leach field, many/most had to raise their lot elevation at least 2', some were raised as high as 3'. You never had to water your yard, you just planted grass seed and it grew.

 

[jimjo2]

I have driven two irrigation wells here in northern Indiana the first a 2" and the second a 1-1/2". The 2" took me about half a day and I went 21'. The 1-1/2" took 15 minutes and I went 15'. Pounding down through sandy loam by hand usually is an easy job.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

About 20 years ago we decided we were going to put a well at our hunting camp, after the 3rd attempt we had about given up, 23' and no water in 3 different spots, an older man whom I had had the privledge of knowing most of my life came up and we told him our dilemma and he said sit tight and he would be right back after about 20 minutes he showed back up with a forked stick and walked around a few minutes and said the water is right here, I said that spot aint 15' from where we already tried, he said if you want water put it here, we did and at 18' we hit it and until I got out of the hunting lease last year it was still pumping water, down here in Fla there is an art to it sometimes, some may not believe about the forked stick, but I told it to you just like it happened.

 

[EddieWalker]

I did this last year, but only got about a dozen feet when I hit rock.

Eddie