Building a shallow well

[mike194]

part of my land consists of a marshy area, my plan is to dig a hole close to the marshy area about 8 feet deep and then insert a culvert with holes drilled in it and then backfill around the culvert with a bunch of misc sized rocks from a rock pile and then about a foot from the surface backfill with clay.

has anyone made a shallow well like this.

my plan is to pump out of the hole with a gas pump to water about a half acre of corn.

 

[EddieWalker]

When you say "marshy area," do you man that it's muddy or is there standing water? My guess is that if it's muddy, you might have issues getting enough water into the culvert to keep up with the pump.

One of the reasons a water well works is that it's deep enough to allow water from much higher up to fill up the casing with enough water to keep up with the pump.

If you can keep the culvert full, it sounds like a great idea.

Eddie

 

[shvl73]

I dug one about a year ago. Works great. I used a 24" plastic culvert, I cut it in half and used one of the 10' sections. I didn't drill any holes or use any stone to backfill and it fills just fine. I imagine you would get a faster recovery time doing it your way. I just use it to water a couple steers so, I don't need much volume.

 

[mike194]

the area is very muddy at this moment, but it is only maybe 25 feet away from an area that has about an inch or two of standing water.

 

[mike194]

well i started digging the hole and right around the seven foot deep mark i started to get a little clausterphobic sp? . Also i now cannot bail the water out fast enough so i think this is all the deeper i can go.

 

[bigtiller]

My hat is off to you!! I know how much extra work it is digging a narrow, deep hole.

 

[Adam23]

Did you dig that hole entirely by hand!?!?

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Too bad you don't have a long post hole digger with a good sized bit on it to punch a little deeper to get further into the water layer. I would think if it is too shallow it still might silt up. Looks like fun though

 

[EddieWalker]

Since your standing in the hole and not swimming in it, I have my doubts as to how much water you will get out of it. That clay holds the water like a spong and isn't letting go of it. In time, you'll get water in the hole, but it's going to be a slow process.

Since you're willing to try different methods, have you considered geting or creating a drill bit that you can attach to a length of pipe? I've been playing around with this idea myself with terrible results. My last attempt failed miserably, but I have a new thought on it that I'm going to try.

While growing up, I was forced labor for my dad in digging several wells with a twist type post hole digger. We added lengths of pipe, got a winch and had scafolding to pull it out of the ground. We went thirty feed down with this method and had good water for watering the lawns in California during the dryest of years.

There is always a way, you just have to keep trying different ideas.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[Renze]

For cattle self-drinkers, we water jet the wells with a manure tanker. You can go quite deep, untill you hit a gravel layer... We've been to 10 meter, but the average cattle drinking pump can get its water in any season from a 6 meter well.

 

[mjarrels]

Around here its called a basement!

mark

 

[Egon]

Shoring???

 

[mike194]

well i stayed around 7 feet deep, i would fill about 5 5 gallon buckets with water for ever 5 gallon bucket of dirt. i just could not keep up with the water coming in the hole. so i went and got a 10 foot piece of 6inch PVC and drilled holes in it and put it in the hole. My first choice would have been a 15" plastic culvert but i could only find them in 20' sections and that was way more than i needed. so i backfilled with rock and then about 8" of dirt/clay on top of the rocks.

then i hooked the pump up and ran one garden hose wide open for about 35 min. and then it dried up, i have to wait an hour or two and then i get about another 35 min. the flow is less than i hoped but I was pretty uncomfortable with the hole being deeper than i am tall.


i would really like to use my post hole digger by adding sections of pipe. I just have not figured out the how i am going to do it.

all in all it is an alright well for $20 and 4 or 5 hours of my time.

 

[mike194]

I was really hoping someone would give me some crap and say "why do you need a well when you could use the frost free hydrant in the first picture" . well that water is pretty expensive around here, but now that think of it so is gas to run the pump i am using.

 

[MikeD74T]

Mike, I generally think the safety police are too cautious but you are pushing your luck in that unsupported hole. A cave-in in a 4' hole can be fatal.

Anyway, I dug a well like that in my basement by digging as far as I could until I couldn't keep ahead of the water. Was in gravel & only 4' deep. I stacked up 3' tall concrete perforated drywell tiles one at a time as needed then got inside with my pressure washer & a diaphram type mud sucker pump. Ended up 12' deep. As I washed loose the gravel the pump sucked it out & the tiles settled into the hole. MikeD74T