# Anyone ever put in their own well?



## MJuric (Jul 12, 2010)

Not sure if this post fit here or not...but it does have to do with getting water to my gardens 

I had planned on putting in a drive well, hooking up a pump and off I would go. Sounded easy enough 

So I made a tripod/driver, bought the well point and pipe blah blah blah. Well...no pun intended, about 12-15 feet in progress got REALLY slow and yesterday after doing some driving it would appear that I had a coupling give way.

So now I have to pry everything back out, replace the coupling, and possibly start over.

I'm guessing I'm still a good 10 feet above water. I'm also guessing that the point wandered, which put the pipe at an angle that contributed to the coupling breaking.

Has anyone tried other methods like auguring and casing? I was thinking that driving would be easy enough especially with the driver I have but I'm thinking my soil conditions are making it much harder than some areas for some reason and that auguring might be a better option.

Anyone?

~Matt


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## kwest (May 16, 2009)

I would hire a well driller.  after all i am one so i am biased. but anyway if the water in your sand point well is much deeper than 20 feet im guessing that your single pipe jet pump wont suck it from that depth. here at our elevation if the water in a well is around 20 feet the single pipe jet pumps wont work. max depth to water that they will work is 25 feet. I have never put in a sand point and i dont work on them but you need to use a pipe nipple and a coupler on the end of your pipe that are sacrificial so if you wreck them you just screw on a new one. good luck i hope it works out for you.


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## kwest (May 16, 2009)

also i know my cousin's helped a guy put one in they used scaffolding and a jack hammer. i guess i was alot of work but it worked okay.


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## MJuric (Jul 12, 2010)

kwest said:


> I would hire a well driller.  after all i am one so i am biased.



I'd love to hire a driller, but at present I can't seem to find one that will put in a shallow well. I think it may be an Illinois law issue that all wells must be certified and thus they want to put in a 200 foot well and charge between 5-10K. Not really worth it for a garden plot 

The water table is the other issue. I think I may be around that 20-25 foot mark. My hope was that the driving would go smoothly and if there was no water at 20-25 feet not much lost. However it's not going so smoothly, again I'm guessing because of soil conditions. Definitely not "Sand".

At this point I'm wondering if I'd be better off abandoning the driving attempt and go some other route. I'm at around 13-15 feet with no sign of water. 

~Matt


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## 2Tall (Apr 18, 2010)

The coupling needs to be a drive type or they will not hold up .I have driven several in my area years ago but its sand and the water is only 21 ft.
Might want to check with those in area who would know the depth to hit water if its down more than 20 ft or so thats alot of work.


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## MJuric (Jul 12, 2010)

2Tall said:


> The coupling needs to be a drive type or they will not hold up .I have driven several in my area years ago but its sand and the water is only 21 ft.


Yeah I used drive couplings. I actually am not sure if the coupling gave out or the threads on the pipe gave way. I just know I have a 15 degree angle between two pipes 




2Tall said:


> Might want to check with those in area who would know the depth to hit water if its down more than 20 ft or so thats alot of work.


Well I know it's deeper than 13 feet and my guess would be 20-25 range by surrounding wells and such. 

Soil is definitely not sand which makes it even worse.

~Matt


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## kwest (May 16, 2009)

get a backhoe or excavator, dig hole, put in a piece of culvert with tons of holes drilled in it and backfill the hole with washed rock. that will work if the water table is high enough. also you can hang a submersible pump in it which is much nicer than a jet pump.


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## MJuric (Jul 12, 2010)

kwest said:


> get a backhoe or excavator, dig hole, put in a piece of culvert with tons of holes drilled in it and backfill the hole with washed rock. that will work if the water table is high enough. also you can hang a submersible pump in it which is much nicer than a jet pump.


Well that's kind of where I'm going. I think I have to go ~20-25 feet so I'll probably do most of the digging by hand or powered post hole digger and then use PVC. 

Either use a jet pump or a DC powered well pump since I have no access to electricity in the area so will have solar panels.

~Matt


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## davejw (Aug 9, 2008)

Got a pick up truck or trailer? I haul creek water from a stream from a few miles away using a sump pump, 300 gallon plastic tank and either generator or large inverter and I filler-up. Gravity does the rest when I get home. During the warm/dry months I go 2 or 3 times a day. Forget the well.


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## swatkins (Jun 19, 2010)

About 30 years ago I helped drill a shallow well in Houston.. I was shocked at how easy it was and the simple tools it took to have a good well for watering the grass... Drinking water is another matter and you do need to go a lot deeper...

My friend had a auger that was about 2.5 inched in diameter and about 16 inches long.. It was threaded onto the end of a 10 foot long 3/4" pipe. We had an extension ladder leaning up against the side of his two story home and rigged a block and tackle to lift the pipe out of the hole.. 

We " Drilled " by turning the pipe with a pipe wrench and winding it into the ground about 6 inches. Then we hauled on the block and tackle, lifted the pipe out of the hole and cleaned off the soil with a screw driver.. We were digging in heavy clay soil so it was hard going and stuck to the auger.. About 6 inches was all we could screw the auger in and also be able to lift it free from the hole .... 

Drilling 24 feet took about 4 hours and then we stuck in a length of 2" PVC pipe for casing.. A pump was mounted on the top and he had no problems pulling water up the well....


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## MJuric (Jul 12, 2010)

swatkins said:


> Drilling 24 feet took about 4 hours and then we stuck in a length of 2" PVC pipe for casing.. A pump was mounted on the top and he had no problems pulling water up the well....


Sounds pretty close to what I'm thinking except I'm contemplating using a 6" post hole digger with an auger end and dropping in 4" PVC as a casing. 

I can then use a regular pump if I have to because the water table might be lower than 25', max for most jet pumps.

As long as I don't run into any major rock layers or sand layers that collapse it should be pretty easy....famous last words 

~Matt


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## swatkins (Jun 19, 2010)

That 2.5 inch auger nearly whipped us! It was all we could do to pull it up after screwing it in just 6 inches... I would really hate to tackle a 6 incher... 

Tool rental yards sometimes rent Bobcats with a drilling attachment on the front end... I have seen them used to drill pier holes for foundations so they are made to drill deep.... Maybe a way around breaking your back


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## Brent Bean (Jun 30, 2005)

If your water is at 25 ft you really need to go 28 feet to have the water above your point. We have a 2 inch sand point in 20 feet. And get the max output of the pump which is 12 gallons a minute. But then we are in sand and three miles from Lake Michigan. 
But to help pounding in the point I used a 6” auger and added ten foot piece of pipe and augured down until I hit wet sand and the point hammered in much easier.


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## Kingfisher Apiaries (Jan 16, 2010)

http://www.howtodrillawell.com/

Our friends own this company, have really good plans.


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