Just got the phone call...

[RayH]

having a well drilled can give you that sinking feeling. When we had ours drilled it just kept getting deeper and deeper with no water. We eneded up hitting about 3 GPM at 450'. At that point I had decided in for a dime, in for a dollar. I told him to keep going. At only 3 GPM I wanted a good reservour at least. I stopped him at 700'. We did get another 1 or 2 GPM out of it.
He came back a week later to drop the pump in and the water level had risen to 150'. He said that happens sometimes, seams open up after the well has sat for awhile. I dropped my pump in to 600'. 600' was the most he could go without splicing wires for the pump. I decided to give up some depth so I wouldnt have to worry about a splice going bad.
Ive got about 5 GPM with about a 400-500Gal reservour with good quality water. A couple years ago we had a dry summer. People all around me were running out of water but not me. I paid alot for the well but it was worth it when I saw everyone else drilling second wells and conserving water.

 

[stumpfield]

Tom,
Tomorrow he will get nearer the quartzite rock and soon you'll have water. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you. His drilling rig looks pretty new. The guys who did mine had an old 1974 rig. BTW, your road looks great!! Did you do that with your new bulldozer? Nice work.

Thanks Rob, We need to get you and Loretta out there so we will share a little bit of your good luck. If I get 1/5th the gpm you got, I'm a happy camper. I'm keeping my fingers crossed too.... There's more rain in the forecast, I hope the weather will cooperate....
The road work was done by the grading contractor before I got the little dozer. I haven't any "real" work yet

 

[3RRL]

Man, I can't believe you haven't done any work on it yet? If I had that dozer I might give up the tractor for a while. LOL...I'd be dozen the heck out of everything just for the fun of it.
You got a lot of rain already? I wish it would rain a little in Three Rivers. Not too much, but just enough to get the ground wet and get rid of the dryness. I have some burn piles that I need to get rid of but need the rains to start so we can get a burn permit.
You did a good job getting that trailer load up there. I hope your next post shows us the water from your well. Maybe soon Loretta and I can come visit your land for a day?

 

[stumpfield]

Man, I can't believe you haven't done any work on it yet? If I had that dozer I might give up the tractor for a while. LOL...I'd be dozen the heck out of everything just for the fun of it.
You got a lot of rain already? I wish it would rain a little in Three Rivers. Not too much, but just enough to get the ground wet and get rid of the dryness. I have some burn piles that I need to get rid of but need the rains to start so we can get a burn permit.
You did a good job getting that trailer load up there. I hope your next post shows us the water from your well. Maybe soon Loretta and I can come visit your land for a day?

Rob,

The weather didn't cooperate. Got an inch of rain yesterday and more rain in the forecast. The road to my property was so bad that not only he can't drill when it rains but have to wait a day or 2 for the road to dry up. That means may not be any drilling until next week. We are at 225ft and only about 1.5gpm. He thinks we should only go another 100ft. Whatever it ends up, that's what I will get or try a new hole if I want more water.

The average annual rainfall here is about 35". Last year we got 80". I have a lot of burn piles too. Over here, we have "burn days". No permit required as long as I burn during those days.

Love to have you and Loretta come visit. You can try out the little dozer. I hate to admit this but the dozer still in Claremont. I'll bring it up there the next trip.

When are we going to do the ?barn talk" and start the design of your barn?

 

[3RRL]

Tom,
That rain is a killer for him. How are your roads doing? I saw those pictures of when they were muddy and I wouldn't want to negotiate them lke that.
Maybe 1.5 gallons might be enough if you have a storage tank, but I'm pretty sure (hoping for you) he will hit more flow than that. He sure seemed pretty positive about where to drill. Just go deeper at that spot for now. Maybe you'll hit more water then?
My barn is still on the back burner with the house construction coming to the front. But I appreciate the offer. We will soon visit ... if you ever get your dozer up there...LOL
What's with all the rain in your area? We still don't have any. Prediction is maybe this weekend for us?

 

[stumpfield]

My well driller quit! Got a call from him yesterday said he stopped drilling at 245' with about 2gpm. He said there's no more water source and there's no point to continue drilling and wasting money. The strange thing was... at 225' and 1.5gpm the day before, he said we should go another 100' or so. I don't know what changed his mind. He went another 20' and decided to quit. I asked him to go another 100-200ft but he said no, don't waste your money. There's no water unless you go below 1000'.
I also ask to drill another hole nearby or a different location. He said no. He already look and witched the entire accessible area. It's the same fracture. I will get the same thing and would not be happy with it. There's no more water! He said I should live with the 2gpm. May be next year, he will come back and explore other areas of my property and try to find another location. That's very strange? I'm very surprise with his refusal to drill another hole since I'm willing to paid for it and make clear to him that I assume all risk. If there's no water, that fine with me. His rig already there. It would have been much less effort for him to earn the same $ per foot. Very strange but I appreciate his honesty and integrity. However, is he right? How does he know for sure there no more water? Any comments?

 

[Dargo]

Yikes, that sounds odd. I have very limited experience with water wells and not much luck. When I bought my first house I was 23 years old. I didn't know anything about bleeding the pressure tank and my pump was shot in just over a year. It cost me about a thousand dollars (to me, that seemed like 3 months of pay! ) to get another 1 hp pump put in at 180'. All was well (ha, nice word play) for nearly one month. Then guess what!? We had an earthquake and my well casing was crushed at about 100 feet and I lost my well and brand new pump!

Although this was twenty something years ago I think it cost me almost $3000 for a new 250' deep well and the driller made this HUGE mess with all this white lookins stuff all over my lawn that killed my yard. This well gave plenty of water, but all my faucets seemed to get covered with this white crusty crud about every month. So, doing what I was told, I called the "Culligan Man". He put it to me for some freakin' deluxe system that worked great, but cost me about another $1500 and, I had to add all this stinking salt to it every other week. I never figured where the darn salt went. But, we did have plenty of water and we seemed to never be able to get the soap off of us when we took a shower and a bottle of shampoo seemed to last for a year!

After that soaking of all my funds for water, I ran a 2 1/2" water line back to where I live now that has right at 60 psi of pressure. No more getting scalded in the shower when somebody flushes! Is that common with most wells, or did I get screwed on something else on that? There seemed to be no way you could get out of the way fast enough if someone flushed! I think the memory of that is why I went a bit overboard on my water now. Heck, I don't need a power washer; my hose will almost knock you down, but they only last for about one season. They grow goiters and burst from the pressure before they are too old.

Anyway, good luck with your well! I was young and dumb and I strongly feel that I got taken by all involved in my search for water.

 

[HomeBrew2]

I don't know what I can tell you that you'd like to hear. Can you get a certificate of occupancy with 2GPM and a storage tank? If so, get on it. Deal with other options later. I do wish you the best.

 

[dubba]

I've only ever seen two scenario's that would stop a driller from drilling. Lack of cash (not your problem), and a broken bit in the bottom of the hole...

Seriously though, get it fracked. I had a 4gpm well into solid granite (driller started on a ledge outcrop, 2ft of casing) that was 320ft deep. Driller came & drilled it out to 600ft. Nothing but dry stonedust every time he shut off his water flow. They came back & fracked it the next week. Went from 4gpm tp 25 gpm constant flow with <50 ft of drawdown. your results may vary...

 

[stumpfield]

After a long talk with my well driller, I agreed with his decision and convinced that he's an honest man with great integrity. He protects the interest of his client and his reputation of not to drill a totally failed well. His reason was at 225' when we 1st hit water (1.5gpm), he plans to go at least another 100'. However, at 245' he has a very strong feeling of a dry fracture not too far below that. He didn't want to take the risk. I really don't want to speculate how the heck he know there's a dry fracture below???

He's a water witcher. He was absolutely right about water at 225'. He just didn't know how much water. He thinks there's more water at about 1000' but his drilling rig can't reach that. Besides, it will bring the water level much deeper if we hit this crack or could lose our 2gpm.

Although we only got 2 gpm, the water level in the well raised to 20'. There's about 300gal of standing water in the well. He didn't want to risk losing that.
I can easily get 1000gal of water per day with a solar or small hp pump. This setup is a tiny fraction of the cost of a 1000' deep well regardless of how much water I got. So, this guy had the opportunity to keep drilling and make his $/ft and sell me a very expensive pump system, wiring, piping...etc. He chose to do what's best for me.

When I hire him to drill the well, I told him to just drill like he would drilling his own well and decide what's best based on his 30+ years of well drilling experience. He did!