driving a point well

I am looking to drive a point well. I know they talk about driving em in sandy soil. I have more clay soil. My water table is very high so I would not need to drive it real deep. can you drive one in clay soil? Has anyone done it. I know when i dig a good depp hole I usually find water. My current well is still producing but the well was wood lined and its affecting the water quality. Any help/ suggestions? I am trying to avoid an expensive drill job. This would be a for a home I only use on weekends, Its not a high volume water use home

Thanks

Bill

Whether or not you CAN drive one into clay soil, you may not get very much water. You might find that you pump the driven well dry pretty fast, and then have to wait quite a while for it to recharge. The reason these are most often driven into sand is that the sand will yield sufficient water to a small diameter well.

I dont think that the water will be able to get into the well point fast enough thus you wont be able to pump off of it because the volume of water wont be there. Dave

Yep, what the others said. Sand acts as a reservoir- water flows through it so fast that you can continuously pump it at moderate volume. Clay is a different story- the skinny well point pipe has no reservoir capacity itself, and water will infiltrate so slowly that you won't be able to pump slow enough to have the pump continuously supplied.

Even conventional 6" casing wells don't work well in clay, because of slow infiltration in relation to the reservoir capacity of the pipe. Most wells go right on through the clay to a better water bearing strata further down. The old hand dug wells worked, because of the large reservoir capacity.

Bill. I have driven several well points in CLAY AND SAND SOIL. Lost several to rocks and BLUE CLAY FORMATIONS. Suction so great that it was impossible to recover the points for re-location. I have always soaped the screen area on the point screen before driving. reduces the sand/dirt from completly pluging the point screen area. If you are determined to drive a point.-- I suggest driving a 2" well point for more water recovery.Drive couplings are a MUST!!!!!!.The well at our first cottage(yearround home) was 30 some feet deep. Supplied water for the family of 6. Showers. dishes yard watering etc. The next thing to consider is the storage tank. Make sure it is insulated tank, large enogh to supply water drawn off at a good rate. I liked the cast iron pump assembly from Sta Rite Corp from Delevan Wi. Grate pumps/ still use a multi stage here at the home on a drilled 6" well ( for the last 24 Years,) with out a pump problem. Be sure and add a check valve at the top of the well pipe when you hit the water table, along with a pitcher pump to wash the well befor installing the perminate Electric driven pump.Wish you luck with your project and get lots of helpers during the driving of the well. Keep lots of various sizes of gloves handy to ward off BLISTRS for the driving crew. Regards LOU & VICTOR.

Thanks to all that makes sense, i would not get enough flow, thanks to all who took the time to answer

Bill

I have put many inch and a quarter and 2 inch wells here in Mi. I have 45 ft. of clay and then it goes into water sand gravel. I auger the holes by HAND so I know exactly when I hit gravel. I use 1/2 inch pipe on an auger and just work my way down--after about 20 ft. of pipe I have to take pipe apart to get it out. YES HARD WORK.
Next I set up my backhoe and use it as a tri-pod with a pulley and use the rear pulley of my 9N with a rope going to the top of the backhoe pulley. Have a very heavy weight with a stem going down inside pipe.
With this setup I can hit the pipe about 80-100 times per minute--only problem is the rope will get hot and burn thru.
50ft. well with a water head of 35 ft. I can pump with a shallow well system. A lot of fun bringing in a well.

I have been down in a dug well and saw the water gush out of seams of coarse sand.It comes out of clay very slow.Well points are usually driven close to brooks or ponds.I saw a well point that had been driven in a brook with a cast iron pump that could fill a pail in a short time.There a 4 springs that flow year round on my place in a small area.You need a heavy pipe cap to stand the pounding.The search for water has fascinated me for years.

You say your water table is very high, have you considered a dug well?

That is my next area to explore....

Damn you guys are lucky. We have to go a minimum of 160 ft to get potable water here. My big well is 390 ft with screens at 165-185 and 340 to 380 to pick up the formations. It has a 7 horse 48 stage turbine pump and develops 120 gpm at 80 psi. Turn it on and watch the electric meeter spin. We have two wells that if there is so much demand on one the other will kick on to make up the difference. It services 3 houses, a 26 horse barn and a 4 acre sprinkler system for one of the pastures. But still, 30 feet to potable is amassing with today's pollutant levels. You guys are so lucky. LarryT

Check out this link. I might try this myself.
Drill your own well.