Well Underway !

[NSBound]

I am officially one step closer to home building and rural retirement! After much chasing of one of the few "cable reel" well drillers in the province, he located his gear at my property and got set up!

Day one he got down maybe 20 feet. The reason I selected this method of "drilling" is that many local area farmers and residents swear by the "pounding" method over high-speed drilling. The local lore goes that the high-speed drills often go right by a good water seam, and seal it off, and the automatic minimum depth is 140' and all the costs associated with extra depth.

Day two, I left around 1:30 pm but he was down maybe 35' and into bedrock already. He's pretty sure he'll be done today, so I'm posting this now and heading up for a look-see (maybe a 100 miles north of my current home).

Wish me luck! He drilled a neighbour's well last week a half-mile or so away, and got 5 gpm at 96 feet. This area has many wells with low volumes, and many end up being salty.There is a large salt seam underground throughout the county, and Windsor Salt has a huge mine a few miles away. Not to mention the salt water river a hundred yards from where the well is being drilled. So, it's largely the luck of the draw for good water at a reasonable volume. My fingers are crossed!

 

[Jagmandave]

That's pretty interesting that he's drilling so close to the house............I don't know why, but I always imagine the well being hundreds of feet from the house.............

Good luck, hope you find good clean water!

 

[gordon21]

Can you put the casing/liner down past the salt seam and keep going deeper with the well? My drilled well on the top of the mountain is 208' deep and the casing goes only the first 100'

 

[NSBound]

That's actually just my garage, and I asked him if he could put it there, just for convenience. He then witched the area and said there are 2 streams of water crossing there anyway, not too far down.

I guess he could put the casing down to span the salt seam, IF he hit it. BUT THE GOOD NEWS IS that he went down 42 feet and got 10 gpm of water! He doesn't think it is salty. He went through the rock, and then into some more clay, so what he plans to do, and he says he has done this many many times, is to stop the casing at 42 feet, and pack it inside with clean 3/8" gravel. He says the water will filter up through that to within 8-10' of the top of the tube, and he is very confident that will produce excellent water, and plenty of it. He said that if he keeps going down to the solid solid bedrock, the salt seam will show up and cause problems. SO, for now I am rejoicing!! He says he should be done totally tomorrow. Whew! Next big step after he's gone will be the water test.

 

[mjarrels]

Title had a whole different meaning in the Navy!

mark

 

[gordon21]

10GPM at 42' You are lucky! Why does he use rock instead of coarse sand as a filter?

 

[BTDT]

Interesting, and good luck. Nothing like "free" water.

 

[AndyM]

That's pretty interesting that he's drilling so close to the house............I don't know why, but I always imagine the well being hundreds of feet from the house.............

After seeing the well at a friend's house put in the middle of the front yard, right next to the front sidewalk, I asked our builder if they could put it behind the house... they put it immediately behind the house.

Our well is 190 feet deep... the records for ours are online on the Ohio Department of Natural Resources website. It shows the depth of the well, gallons per minute, depth of the casing, and what type of earth was encountered during the drilling at different depths.

 

[BTDT]

I think years ago (so I've been told, I'm not that old), people would put down wellpipe, install pitcher pump, build house around it so it would be inside the house. Seems like the "Rifleman" tv show had theirs in the kitchen by the sink.

 

[NSBound]

10GPM at 42' You are lucky! Why does he use rock instead of coarse sand as a filter?

I have no idea why the gravel instead of coarse sand. Just the local way, I would guess. He has been successful in his business for many years. Here's how he located my well........it's a bit fuzzy as it's a capture from a DVD movie....

 

[johnk]

Looks like a guy from CSI. If it works... Go with it. A little humor. Good luck with the house
and well.

 

[Egon]

Aah - relief - the well is good!

 

[Steve_Miller]

Ian,
How did you find Tony? Word of mouth? He's quite the character but very knowledgeable, he did my well at my cottage in River John four years ago. Found water where he said he would and at a certain depth. His drilling gear might look a little ragged, but he gets the job done very well.

Steve

 

[NSBound]

Hi Steve, yes word of mouth was how I found him. He has a great local rep and once you finally get him to actually be on your job, he seems to do great. He even has new divining rods he sent away to Poland for (similar to bent-over welding rods), but he still tended to use the forked branch. He seems to work pretty hard, his wife is his assistant. Has a second rig but it kept getting damaged by a helper so he just has the one now and he works on his own. Claims to work 7 days a week but they're short days (!).