Driving A New Well

[Stimw]

Lots of good info here. Going to try putting a well in here. The area is near the gulf coast northwest of Ocala. Existing well is 70 '. Purpose is for watering animals and such. Also if power grid goes down can get some water for me and mine. iMO a hand driven well would be best. Any thoughts from you more experienced folks? Thanks.

I haven't read through this whole thread but I am in St. Johns County between Jax and St Aug. I have washed down close to a dozen wells and it's amazing how easy is is with our soil. I have gone 42' with just a garden hose. You DO need a state license to go farther than 50' just so you know. My water table starts about 2' where I am now.
Some simple tips-
get 2" PVC 10' long and glue Female fittings on each end, give the glue plenty of time to dry. Make up a short section (so it can be changed quickly) of 2" with two 90's (like a "J")so when washing fitting is pointing down so it dosen't kink hose.
Join together when washing with Steel Close nipple (a lot stronger connection)
Cut notches in plain bottom 10'er so it can cut as you wash.
Best bet is to use 2" gas pump (I bought one at H F around $200.) If you don't have a good source of water to pump, I dug a hole and put a piece of plastic in it and recovered my water as it came out of the hole to reuse.
Once down you can drop 1 1/4" PVC with at least 10' PVC well point in the 2" and remove the 2" casing to reuse next time, or sell as a kit to someone else.
Make sure 1 1/4" couplers/fittings fit inside 2" , I have had to grind some nubs off of fittings.
The only expense is a pump, PVC is SO cheap!

 

[HiTechTed]

I drove a well last fall after reading foggy's thread on his well adventure. With the rocks and soil here I couldn't wash one out, but I was able to drive one. I used a fence post driver (one of those that is a 3" pipe with a bottom in it, with handles on both sides). I welded a 3/4" bolt to it and stacked some barbell weights on there, to add a little force. It helped a lot, but boy it was one heck of a workout! I stood on the end of a trailer, lifted the driver up and then dropped it down onto the drive cap. It would move about an inch or two at a time. I checked all local tool rentals, none of them had even heard of an attachment for a jackhammer to do this job...

Prior to using the driver, I tried hitting the drive cap on the well pipe with a sledge hammer...being inexperienced I didn't know that the term "drive cap" doesn't mean you literally hit it with a sledge. Long story short, it doesn't work like that...

Anyway I drove the well in about 18 feet and there's about 8 feet of water in the pipe, so I considered it to be a success. It puts out about 10 gallons/minute. I can post pics if anybody needs to see anything for reference purposes...not trying to hijack the thread here!

 

[bp fick]

Update

Well, it is a year later, I finally got back to the well. Last year, we got down about 20 feet and the driving was difficult and the water was mediocre at best, in volume.

This year has been an awful drought and record breaking heat. True of most places in the center of the country. This has given me the impetus to get back to making this well work. Got another 5' section and decided to have at it. The longest living resident of our 80 acre parcel, an old fellow who is a joy and who really knows his stuff, said "go to 26 or 27 feet".

So, with a little more pounding, we drove the well point down to 24' and began pumping with the pitcher pump. It pumped very hard, but we were drawing a bit of water. Drove it down another foot and pumped some more. Sure enough, it began to pump easy and the muddy water began to pour out. Stuck a cheater pipe over the pump handle and now it is really gushing and the well is getting developed.

Plan is to drive it another foot or two and clear the well. I am very pleased. There was a definite layer of clay between 16 and 22 feet and the driving was very difficult. Not impossible, but hard. Once that layer was penetrated, the old guy thinks we should be entering a rough gravel layer with good and abundant water.

I'll get some photos up later today, if I can. Can't wait to start putting this well to work.

 

[Brake Weight]

Can you hook up on your pipe and pump into the well? It may help with driving the last little bit.

 

[Carl_NH]

Excellent news BP - glad you are getting into a good water seam now. Especially with the drought and getting water should bod well for good producing well for a long time..

It also sounds like you have an old feller thats done one or two of these in your area!

 

[jinman]

You know, those "ol' fellers" are hard to replace. Without his advice, you might have given up. I had a buddy who washed a well in VA near Portsmouth. He went down 27' and had plenty of water to keep his small lawn and flower beds happy. He sure had a muddy mess in his back yard until he finished, but he put it in over a weekend with no problems.

 

[bp fick]

You guys are sooooo right. No spring chicken myself, of course, but ol' Pete was truly a confidence builder. Been on this land for a long time and just had the confidence I was lacking, I guess. I've driven a few wells downstate, so some or maybe a lot of what I had learned applied, of course. But, there's no substitute for "local knowledge".

Here ya go!!! Felt richer than Jed Clampett. :laughing:

 

[bp fick]

Let's see if I can get that photo upright.



Now to get the pump hooked up and run it for a few hours to clear things out.

 

[chad22]

Great Job. Glad you didn't give up and found water. I love those pitcher pumps. I have one that am contemplating driving a well for someday.

Chad

 

[bp fick]

I know this is an old thread, but I thought to update it a bit.

Last summer was a horrid drought and by my estimation, i pumped around 31,000 gallons out of that little ol' driven well. It never sputtered one bit. Amazing. Would've lost the entire operation had it not been so darn effective. What a blessing.