DIY water well

Been looking at the DIY water well drilling videos on YOU TUBE. Have any of you drilled your own well? Like the pvc and water flush system or maybe just driving a point and pipe by hand-not with a truck mounted or commercial rig. The drinking water around here is about 30 feet down in the summer but will rise up to about 20 feet in winter. Most of the irrigaton wells are around 90 feet.

have fun.

It might work I you have sandy soil. I tried it. No dice

It all depends on what you have between surface and water table.I have driven a few well points to that depth in sandy to medium clay ground.Take your time and take a break when you start getting tired.Not worth blowing a shoulder out trying to save a few bucks.
If you got access to a good portable pressure pump to jet a casing down,it makes job alot easier.

My dad drilled one with a twist type post hole digger, just kept adding pipe. I am not talking about a tractor mount but one of those twist by hand jobs.

My well is 180 feet deep, drilled, lots of bed rock around here, it's $5000 for a drilled well, I'd rather just pay to have it done. Good luck if you try it.

I've driven points, it worked, but I was a lot younger. I tried jetting one in, but you need quite a bit of water to do it, and a pump.

I've drilled two to the twenty six foot depth in medium clay also. Used a tripod with the pulley and weight that has the guide rod. Did them in spring before the clay got too hard. A short day's work for two of us.

I've washed in quite a few sand points. We have a pretty high water table around here. Most of them end up around 20 ft or so.

If you can supply enough volume of water with a trash pump, you can wash one in in less than a minute. I dont know why anyone would drive one in.

We also have issues with the metal points clogging from the minerals in the water. Plastic eliminates that.

I put in a 2" point 5' long on a 3 hp sprinkler pump and can pull over 30 gpm. A normal 1.25" point on a 1/2 pump generally will get 5 - 7 gpm.

I pounded ours down back in 1989. It's a 2 1/2' and we live on a pure sand "dome" about 3/4 of a mile across and abt 25' deep. I witched it and even with my eyes closed and wife spinning me around still hit on same 4'dia area. Water (which tested perfect) was at 22-25'. Cleaned up with about 1 minute of pumping. Used it to wash cars, wet sand, houshold, watering flower beds etc. Still plenty of flow and still clean after all these years. Local well drillers said that is right where the best water is and that they can't stop there by code so advised me to pound it myself as it would be better water than they could get me going on down. They were spot on. What works best is a tripod with a pully at top and heavy weighted driver attached. Even in sand that big of pipe drives hard. Keep tightening pipe every 5' or so as it will loosen as you drive. Have a heavy nut on a string to put down into pipe to check water and how much. When you hit what I call "water sand" it will be a lot more dense and will feel like you are hitting cement. three feet into that and you should be good but all situations vary. Talk to some well men in area. Most will tell you to put a 1 1/4" or 1" suction pipe down into the 2 1/2 so you aren't sucking on the joints of the 2 1/2 and possible contaminants. Probably is the way to go since you only need a 1" suction line anyway to supply a houshold 3/4 line. Put a ;lot of teflon tape on joints and by all means get a point from a top name well service supply house rather than the cheap China hardware stuff. Have fun. My total cost 24 years ago was $ 500 for well , pump , bladder tank , fittings/pipe , and material for well pit. Never freezes and have only replaced 2 pumps in that time. At the time I put it down, all relatives said " well it'll do until you can afford a real 5" submersible well " . Ain't heard no more from them after 24 yrs.

Be careful. Many shallow well pumps will not draw beyond 20 or 25 feet. Make sure to check the pump for that before purchasing one. The manufacturer will be very clear about that.

I just put one in one of my barns this past summer. 1 HP, 25' draw because is near a river, and at 25' is about 10' below the river, using the river as the water table. 25' of good pipe, not the made in China pipe you get at Lowes, Menards, or Home Depot. You have to get the good stuff, because if you break off a well head, you are screwed. Same with drive couplers between pipes and well head. You will NOT get quality pipe for driving at Menards, Lowes, or Home Depot. Maybe 20 years ago, but not now so do not waste your time or money on them for pipe or drive couplers. 3' well head, maybe you can get from them for under $100, but nothing else unless you want headaches. I went 6' well head from plumbing supply, so my point is down 31', but the well point screen starts about 27'...for my shallow pump that doesn't like more than 25', but handles it. I went 2" diameter.

Make sure, extra sure that each section of pipe and coupler is TIGHT. I got one somewhere that loosened up and loses prime after a few days if isn't run. In the past, I've always driven them by hand using a 100 pound block of steel welded to a car axle that went into the pipe for a guide, and hand lifted the block over head, and kept slamming it down on a DRIVE coupler that knew was going to be scrap when the job was done so pipe sections didn't get ruined while driving them. Thats a lot of work when only going 20' and a short well head, 25' overall. The difference this time in the barn, rented a nuematic driver and tow behind compressor. Driving the well was quick work, but the nuematic driver itself was well over 200 pounds, and with a huge air hose. Try lifting that over your head to get it up onto the pipes without losing fingers or flesh. Ended up using a tractor loader to lift it and set it on the pipe. It sure drove quick, but I think the hard, rapid beating actually losened one of the drive couplers, hence loss of prime. Now I've gotta pull it and correct that. If you choose to use a nuematic driver like I did, use a good 3' piece of pipe that you don't mind becoming scrap, because it will. That nuematic driver will absolutely beat, smash, mushroom, and destroy your drive pipe. Lifting and dropping a 100 pound weight to drive it will not, but it will wear you and another guy out.

After you drive your well, you will need to prime the pump to keep it from burning up, and chances are real good that you will also have to run water down the outside of the pipe to get a seal between the pipe and dirt, or you will be drawing air. Don't forget your check valve, or a cap below it that you can open to fill the pipe below it and cap off, and one above it to water (prime/lube) the pump.

All in all, its not that hard, but sure is labor intensive. Its a workout. MAKE SURE your pipes and couplers are tight. This will be the first one I've ever driven that will have to pull because something loosened up, but its new and I can. I just don't want to, but have to. My screwup.

Be careful of what pump you get. There are 3/4 and 1 HP pumps that will not draw over 20', and 1/2 HP that will. Consider going Flint and Walling because they can be rebuilt. Try to find someone that will rebuild another brand, even Wayne. Wayne makes good pumps, but try to find someone that will rebuild one. You will NOT buy a pump at Menards, Lowes, or Home Depot that can be rebuilt by anyone. They are throw aways.

You know? I was shy a drive coupler when I drove mine in the barn, and it was on a Saturday and the plumbing supply closed at Noon before I came up shy. I did run to Menards to get a drive coupler from them, because I needed one desperately. Never ever have I had a well loosen up and lose prime before this one. Now I wonder. Oh well, it was the last drive coupler for the last section. Maybe I will get lucky.

Good Luck

Mark
F&W Pumps

Lot of dern work. We put in 2 at the hunting club. One with a hand auger that we kept adding pipe. Foot caved in and next one we jetted, pounded, cursed etc. Got it in but only like 30' so I am sure it will collapse in time.

Have fun!

Here in what use to be the black swamp,, we have limestone 2 to 3 foot thick.
I had the pros come in and drill the well, put in a submerged pump and wired it for about $2300.

NO way was I going to hand drill through 2.5 foot of limestone.