O T well drilling costs

Sorry for the long disseratior that follows but it appears that some folks have never seen a shallow bored well with a jet pump.

Bored wells are done with a auger bit that takes about 15-18 inches deep each time. You come up swing it over, dump the auger drum, drop it back in and take another cut.

When the dirt starts coming out moist (it takes a good feel for this) you stop. Usually 40 to 60 ft around here in west central Georgia. They you act quick, and start setting concrete casing sections, each about 24 inches high and with male/female bevel on the end (very much like concrete culvert sections). You have to act quick as the water intrusion will start the walls caving in. Once the casing reaches the surface another smaller auger bit is dropped down inside and the bottom is cleaned smooth. After that, usually the top is capped with a concrete slab and the pump and a very small tank are set on top and another casing section is set to surround this and a round concrete top is placed. If you want a bigger tank, you put in in the house, or elsewhere. Ocassionally someone wants the pump suspended inside the top of the well casing by three chains and hooks. I don't care for this, hard/dangerous to work on. The casing slowly fills with water that rises up from the dirt bottom and you have a reservoir of standing water. Generally the pump is a shallow jet type with two pipes down. It jets water down one pipe and uses this as an ejector or venturi to siphon more water up. Drive thru the counrty side in these parts and virtually everyone has one. Many of the older homes in town nearby still have the wooden shed roof and the rope winding drum with a galvanized bucket tied to it. Just drop it in and reel up a bucket of cold water to sip on.

Deep wells pass thru the bedrock and the casing is set to the bedrock. Deep water is drawn from the aquifer below the rock and sometimes you hit an underground stream, sometimes it requires a extreme high pressure cracking of the rock to get the well to flow. This type of well has a pump at the bottom of the casing pushing water up the pipe.

My private subdivision has three deep wells. all have 8 inch steel casings and five horse pumps with inch and a half pipe. Two of the wells have 1500 gallon pressure tanks with an air head on them, the third has a barely workable system with four huge bladder tanks plumbed together. This well had problems from the get go. It has so much iron in it that it looks like red mud coming up. We use a unique sand filter and aeriator system to remove the iron and it works well. This well has a 600+ ft hole. The other two are each around 500 ft and one I know has 17 sections of pipe, 21 ft each (357 ft) in it, I watched them put it in.

Bored wells are very suspectable to going dry or very low levels during droughts as they depend on surface water filtering thru the soil directly to the well. Deep wells are more stable water level wise as they depend on the deep aquifer which here at least is fed from the appliachian mountains, hundreds of miles away.

Charles

We drill 36" dry wells for our spetic systems or did as now they require leach fields. Thats a heII of a auger to drill a 40ft hole and is something to watch.

T_Bone

$4500 to $6K here, depending on extras needed.

We usually drill to 180 feet, static water level is at around 60.

Allan

A 30 in well around here is common old one is 36 in they usually hit water at 25-25 feet, The rest is a reserve we have a lot of shallow aquafers in IL some are more like under ground lakes. In Havana IL in 93 during the great floods water was pouring out of ground covering hundreds of acres , up there you hit water at 2-3 feet all good water all sand 2-300 feet deep. A archeologist once told me the OHIO river ran way up here but a earthquake changed its path to 300 miles south just like the missisippi river went 100 miles west part of the Ill river from peoria south is the ole miss so water is abunbant here just have to pay thru nose to get it.

t

Drilled well, usually a fixed price, depth doesn't matter, runs $4500 to $5500 including casing, pump, etc. Could run anywhere from 200 to 600 ft., guaranteed water, so depth doesn't matter.

I've talked to several well companies in the past couple of years. I am on a private community water system but still considering my own water source as a backup.

Charles

Charles