Anybody ever put in a shallow well?

B21nut · Feb 7, 2005

Hey guys,
I'm looking into putting in a shallow well for farm animals closer to the barn without tapping in to the house well. I saw in the lehman's catalog a drilling point, pipe section and a hand pump. I'm wondering if anybody has done this and could give me some tips. My property is not high off the water table and I think I could hit a decnt water supply within the 10-30ft range. Any comments welcome. Thanks
John D.

Jimbrown · Feb 7, 2005

How about this:

http://weather-mirror.nmsu.edu/hydrology/wellpoint.htm

Egon · Feb 7, 2005

10 - 30 Ft. Could probably do it with a hand auger. Use 4 foot pipe extension pieces for depth and rig up a hoist to pull it up from the deeper depths. May take a little time but you will get there.

Egon

ByronBob · Feb 7, 2005

Sir not to put the flame out on your idea but I'd just get a well driller in there. It's about 25/foot to drill it. He'll do the job right.

jinman · Feb 8, 2005

( My property is not high off the water table and I think I could hit a decnt water supply within the 10-30ft range. )

Back in the mid-'70s, I was in the US Navy in Virginia. I owned a house and had a shallow well. One of my shipmates bought a house about 5 miles from me and decided to drill a well for watering his lawn. He used a water hose hooked to pipe sections and "washed" a well down to about 25 feet. He used a shallow well self-priming pump and didn't have any major problems that I remember. His biggest headache was the muddy mess he made while washing the well. I don't know all the details, but he did the job in one weekend and had plenty of water to keep his grass very green.

I do believe you can't use a self-priming pump if you go down much over 30 feet. Good luck. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

EddieWalker · Feb 8, 2005

( He used a water hose hooked to pipe sections and "washed" a well down to about 25 feet. )

Wow, I never thought about doing it that way. It's brilliant!!

When I was a kid, my dad decided to drill a well in our backyard to water the lawn. We spent more weekends then I care to remember working on it.

We used a bucket post hole digger and kept adding lengths of pipe to it to get it deeper and deeper. We hit a layer with small rocks in it that just about stoped us, but Dad kept at it. Then when we got down to water, we had to keep digging up the mud until we couldn't get anything more to come up.

My brothers and I would help lift and balance everything pulling it up, and haul off the dirt.

As we got deeper, it got so heavy that Dad built a tripod and borrowed an electric winch to lower and pull it up. 30 feet might not sound like allot, but it gets real heavy very quickly.

Never, in the rest of my life, do I want to do anything like that again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ByronBob · Feb 8, 2005

My neighbor had his well collapse on him last fall and i couldn't imagine digging by hand a well only to have it collapse.
If a well driller comes in to do it, he'll put a casing in for you and do it right with the right equipment. It just doesn't seem like the best thing to try to me.

Good luck which ever way you go.

B21nut · Feb 8, 2005

Byron,
I have spoken to two well guys in my area. Minimum charge is two thousand dollars just for 25ft,thats without the electrical to run the pump. Sounds like alot don't it just for water for the animals. I am going to try drilling a point using the stuff from Lehman's. You don't dig anything. Simply spin or pound the well point in then blow out with compressor when you hit water. There is a mesh filter in the deepest pipe.
I'll try as soon as the frost goes away.
John D.

EddieWalker · Feb 8, 2005

( I am going to try drilling a point using the stuff from Lehman's. You don't dig anything. Simply spin or pound the well point in then blow out with compressor when you hit water. )

John,

You have me interested. Can you explain more about this system. Do you know of anybody who's done this?

Thanks,
Eddie

SPIKER · Feb 8, 2005

these types of systems usually do not put out a LOT of water unless you have a very wet/sandy soil down there to pull it from. the well point is a steel hardened arrow looking thing which has a center opening/hole (hunk of heavy wall pipe) with slots cut in it and screens on it. the screens keep debris out of the pipes inside and the water is susposed to flow in through the screen center of pipe. the water table height will determin how much you can get form it untill you have to let it set and re-fill. suction on the pipe will HELP pull water into the well BUT as soon as the water drains away from the well point then the suction is lost and the prime is lost. these types of pumps need to run on small timer so they are on for 5 min off for 20 min then back on for 5 min, the water is pumped into a holding tank and that holding tank is used to water the stock...

they DO work and work quite well for some areas and it is a luck of the draw unless you KNOW you have a very sandy/gravely water bed down there some place and they will not drive through stone or bedrock or even soft sandstone. remember it is simply a point and you drive it in using a hammer and in some cases you can use a powered rotary driver (think lawn mower engine on top of the pipe sections twisting the pipe and use pressurized water forced down the pipe to help wash away the center point dirt/debris so that the rotating point can drop under it's own weight and weight of engine... again this works well (usually beter than the hammer method BUT you need the engine and fixtures to hoist & attach it.) anyhow you may be able to find one for sale on ebay ? egarbeaver "spelling?" I belive was one brand name others can be found in backs of solar wind or other power off grid living books/mags.

markM /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif