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can.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONSI started drilling and everything went fine until I got down to about X feet (x= 10 to 20). Then suddenly the water stopped coming back up to the top. You have hit a soft spot. If you were a little deeper I'd suggest you consider setting your well screen at that level. Since you are so shallow you need to get past that soft spot. Mix up some bentonite slurry and re-drill through that soft spot while adding bentonite. It should harden up the sandy sides of your hole so you can get deeper. Please check out the modified drillhead on the "Making the Drillhead" page for an easy way to add bentonite to your drilling fluid.
How do I know how deep I have to drill? You need to drill deep enough so that the top of your well screen can be 10 feet under the standing water level. For example, say your standing water level is 12 feet down and you are using a three foot long 1.25 inch diameter well screen. You need to drill down 25 feet. This puts (starting from the bottom) three feet of 1.25 inch well screen followed by 22 feet of 1.25 inch PVC. The top of the three foot section of well screen is at the 22 foot level which is 10 feet below your standing water level of 12 feet.
How do I know what my standing water level is? You might be able to check with neighbors who have wells. If there is a lake or a stream nearby the standing water level is probably close to the level of the lake or stream. Unfortunately the only really reliable way to tell the standing water level is to drill a hole and leave it alone for a couple of days and then measure how far down to the water.
OTHER QUESTIONSHi
Mike; Ronald, Gainesville Florida Thanks Ronald!
How deep can I drill using this method? Most wells drilled using this method are two or three inch wells from 25 to 30 feet deep. With enough patience you could go a little deeper but not much. It isn't that your pipe won't drill deeper - it is that the sides of the hole collapse on your drill pipe. If you add a mixture of bentonite clay with water you can probably get another 10 feet, maybe a few more.
How do you put the well screens into place? I would think that I would need to use the drill head to carve out the bottom of the hole, then start from the bottom and start filling in gravel by dropping it down the center of the PVC pipe. Then drill back down through the full gravel and insert the screen. Please correct me. Also, are you more concerned about natural water pressure, or more concerned about water temperature for your geothermal installation? WITHOUT AT MUD PUMP: To put in a well screen with no gravel pack - Dill the hole with a 2.0 inch drillpipe. Then drop the 1.25 inch wellscreen pipe down through it and pull the 2.0 inch drillpipe out of the ground, leaving the 1.25 inch wellscreen pipe in the ground. That is the well. This is how most wells are done with the technique described in this website. Be sure and seal the well at the top 15 -20 feet with cement or bentonite. To put in a wellscreen with a gravel pack - Drill the hole with a 3.0 inch drillpipe. Then pour a few inches of gravel down the 3.0 inch drillpipe for a base of gravel. Then put the 1.25 inch wellscreen down through the 3.0 inch drillpipe. Then pour gravel down between the 3 inch drillpipe and the 1.25 inch wellscreen pipe as you slowly pull the 3.0 inch pipe up and out of the ground. This leaves the 1.25 inch wellscreen pipe in the ground with a gravel pack at the bottom. Be sure and seal the well at the top 15 -20 feet with cement or bentonite. WITH A MUD PUMP: Use either a 2.0 or 3.0 inch drillpipe to drill the borehole. Mix in bentonite with your water during drilling so the hole will not collapse. Drill the hole. Pull the drillpipe out of the ground. Then pour a few inches of gravel down the hole for a base of gravel. Put the 1.25 inch wellscreen down the hole. Pour gravel down the hole to form the gravel pack. Fill in the hole with clay and be sure to seal the well at the top with 15 -20 feet cement or bentonite. Regarding the geothermal issue - any groundwater is going to work just fine. You just need enough GPM to support your heat pump. For most residential heat pumps, 10 GPM is adequate.
I would like to try your method to drill a well near a pond where I am currently getting water from for a pond house to take showers and so forth, not to drink. The water has a pond smell of course and I hope a well would not. The streams flowing into the pond put out about 20 gallons a minute. My question is how far should I drill away from the pond not to be contaminated by this surface water and how far down do you think I should drill. My house well is about a half mile away and it is around 100 feet deep. I see on your great website that one cannot go over 35 feet with your method. I live near Columbia, SC. The land is hilly where I want to drill also, but I am hoping the water table is not so deep near this pond. That is hard to predict. Best thing I can tell you is drill a hole and see. It is pretty cheap to try. If you can possibly get your hands on a mud pump (trash pump) you can drill quite a bit deeper. How do I know when I have reached the water table ? Good question! The only sure way to tell is to drill a hole, let it sit for a day and then measure how far down to the standing water. Your neighbors might be a good source if they have wells. The county agent might know. The USGS has a lot of data about it at their site too. Its a bit obtuse (at least to me). What type of pump would I use to pump water out of the well if I drilled down deeper than 35 feet with a mud pump. Thanks for replying to my e-mails. If the water table is lower than 25 feet down you need a pump that pushes the water up from the bottom. It can not be sucked up with a suction pump from those depths. There are several ways of doing this. The most common for commercially drilled wells is to use a submersible pump. This generally requires a four inch well casing. There are some specialized submersible pumps that can fit in a three inch well casing. The other option is to use a jet pump. Jet pumps pump water down the well through one pipe to a jet, where the water is sprayed upward and used to push additional water up while at the same time suction is being applied to the top of the second upward flowing tube. It might not sound like it but it works very well. Most jet arrangements require a four inch well. There is a jet pump arrangement designed specifically for two inch wells. It is called a packer jet.. I have used one and it worked well for me.
I need to use a submersible pump. Can I drill a four inch well with this method? The simple straight answer is "no" - or at least I don't think so. I have never tried it. It would be awfully hard. The surface area of a four inch hole is four times as much as a two inch hole. It would be tough. [update - 8/2010 take a look at Ed's idea on page 2 of this section] Thanks for putting up this site. You're welcome! I made a bunch of mistakes learning how to do this myself. I thought a site that was basically a tutorial on the method might be useful. I hope folks like it. What type of pump do you recommend? I am no pump expert. I have just used the shallow well pumps that Lowes and Home Depot sell. They are certainly not premium pumps but they are readily available. You might look at the "from a REAL Well Driller" page. The fellow who I have linked to is a pump expert who sells good pumps that won't crap out on you in a couple years. My water table is at 90 feet. What pump should I use? First of all, you are not going to be able to drill to 90 feet using this method. If you did, theoretically speaking, you'd need a packer well jet. Water is easy to push and hard to pull. Suction can only pull water up 25 feet at best. From 90 feet you'd need to either have a submersible pump or a jet at the bottom of the well. The only jet that will fit in a two inch pipe is the packer jet. I have used one before with a convertible jet pump and it worked well. I drove one wellpoint down to 40 feet and washed another down to 27 feet and got nothing. I am trying to use a shallow well pump. To advise you, I need to know what the level of your water table is, i.e. how deep your standing water level is. Find out from neighbors/drillers/County Agent where your water table is. In many areas the wells you describe are plenty deep enough. If your water table is below 25 feet, this technique won't work for you. No amount of suction will bring up water from deeper than 25 feet. Drop a string down the 40 foot wellpoint and measure how far down your standing water level is. Another thing: when you use a shallow well pump, you have to fill up the pump and the well casing with water before you start trying to pump. The pump must be primed both above and below the check valve. Make sure you have the well primed properly. I really appreciated your videos showing how you flush a well. It looks like you are using 3" PVC to drill with. Have you tried this with 4" PVC? Thanks! You are absolutely right. That was three inch PVC I was using on that particular one. Usually I use two inch because it is easier. I have never tried four inch.
Does the well screen need to be open ended or closed off? It should be closed off at the bottom end unless the well is an injection well. Most well screens come with points on the bottom end that are perfect for the job. Do you make your own well screens or do you buy from Campbells? Is it worth it to make you own well screen? I buy them from Lowes or Home Depot. They are pretty cheap. Not as cheap as making one though! If you are going to make your own get a very skinny saw... It is hard to cut a very narrow slot. I am in south central Arkansas and we don't have flat land... but it isn't hilly either..... Do you know of any sources for seeing what the expected water table might be in a given area as well as rock problems? My main question though is this: I saw some illustrations where there was more than one water bearing sand pocket. Once you hit water bearing sand how far should you continue to dig into that sand? When do you know to continue through that pocket down to another? The only way I know of (other than drilling) to find out how far down it is to the water table is to ask around - drillers, County Agent, neighbors. There are usually multiple layers of water bearing sand around here (Coastal Alabama) with clay and darker sand in-between. I have no idea what you will encounter. Generally, it is best to go as deep as you can. My experience is limited to this area and we have a high water table. You can be guided somewhat by how far you are elevated above any nearby lakes. Also, be aware that water runoff occurs underground just like it does at ground level. If you are between a high elevation and a river, it is likely that there is runoff occurring underground that you can tap into. This method of “drilling" will only take you down about forty feet at best. Thirty to thirty-five is more typical. You’d be surprised at how often that is deep enough for an irrigation well. The beauty of it is that it is really cheap to try compared to hiring a driller. On your site you say a 35 foot well, about how long did it take you to drill it and what soils were you drilling through? That looks like a lot of twisting. Water bore drilling, using this technique, typically takes about 10 to 12 hours. Here, in South Alabama, I typically encounter a couple of kinds of sand and multiple layers of clay. This will vary by your geographic location. It is a lot of pipe twisting! Do I need a license or permit to drill my own well? This varies by jurisdiction. Be sure and check with local authorities on this issue. I live in NC near the big water where there is plenty of water about 12-15 ft down, I am however going through the four hole thing like you did and this is not my first rodeo neither. my question is how do you get the screen down in the sleave and then put stone in around it I am trying the fourth hole on sat. but would like to do it the better way instead of just a foot valve. HELP ME PLEEEEASE. A couple of others have emailed me about this. I have not made it sufficiently clear on the website and I apologize. Pea gravel will not fit down a 2 inch pipe that has a 1 ¼ inch pipe in it but it will fit down a 3 inch pipe with a 1 ¼ inch pipe in it. So… For a two inch drill pipe: 1. drill the 2 inch hole down to whatever depth you are going to. Let’s say, for purposes of this example, 30 feet. 2. When you get to 30 feet work the pipe a lot up and down to every side. What we are trying to do here is wallow out the bottom of the hole so it is significantly bigger than the two inch pipe. The larger the diameter of the wallowed out area at the bottom of the well is, the better. 3. Have a 1 ¼ three foot well point attached to 30 feet of 1 ¼ inch pipe already glued up or glue it up while you are still washing out the bottom of the hole. The well point must have a pointed end. Practically all do but make sure you have one with a point. This will give you a 33 foot long piece that you can put down the well at one time. 4. Stop the water and remove the well head, or the piece with the hose attached, from the top of the drill pipe. Pour pea gravel down the pipe until you can feel about three feet of pea gravel. As you are pouring the gravel into the pipe work the pipe up and down so you can tell how much you are filling the bottom of the hole with pea gravel. When you get three feet of fill, stop working the 2 inch pipe. You’ll know when you have three feet because the 2 inch pipe will be three feet higher than it was. You won’t be able to push the 2 inch pipe down through the pea gravel so as the bottom of the well fills up with pea gravel you can tell how much is down there 5. Put the entire length of the 1 1/4 inch pipe down through the 2 inch drill pipe. The 1 ¼ inch pipe will stop when it hits the gravel. At this point the bottom of the two inch pipe and the bottom of the 1 1/4 inch well point are at the same depth. 6. Slowly work the well point into the gravel at the bottom of the hole by twisting and applying downward pressure. Don’t get in a hurry. It will take a while and will slow up as you get deeper but getting three feet in should not be a problem. If for some reason you can’t work it down three feet you'll probably be OK. Just raise the 2 inch piece some more so the entire length of the three foot well point is exposed at the bottom of the well. For a three inch drill pipe: 1. Drill down to 30 feet. Have the 30 foot of 1 ¼ inch PVC already attached to a three foot long well point. 2. When you get to 30 feet work the pipe up and down and side to side until it is good and loose in the hole. 3. Take the well head off the top of the drill pipe. Insert the 1 ¼ piece in the 3 inch pipe all at once. Put the well point all the way down to the bottom of the hole. 4. Pour pea gravel in the three inch pipe slowly. Work the three inch pipe up and down while someone holds the 1 ¼ pipe so it does not raise up as well. Keep pouring in pea gravel and working the three inch pipe up until the three inch pipe is up three feet. This way you will have, at the bottom of the well, all three feet of the well point surrounded by pea gravel. Pull the 3 inch piece out of the ground. Hi Mike I live in Panama ,Panama, near the ocean , reading your instruction a few questions pop up. Once I have drilled the well using two inch pipe do I insert the well screen pipe into the two inch pipe or withdraw the two inch , all your diagrams only show one pipe, a little confusing. Also do I then insert the pump pipe with foot valve into that Pipe. Thank you in advance . First, have the 1 1/4 inch well screen with enough 1 1/4 inch pipe already attached to reach the bottom of your well. When you get to the depth you are going to stop at, work the two inch pipe up and down and side to side until it is very loose. Then, disconnect the water connection piece on top, or what I call the well head, from the two inch piece. Then put the entire length of the 1 1/4 inch pipe down through it until the 1 1/4 inch piece hits bottom. Then pull the 2 inch piece out of the ground taking care not to raise the 1 1/4 inch piece. After you raise the 2 inch piece a few feet sand will usually collapse on the bottom of the 1 1/4 inch piece so it is easier to raise the 2 inch piece without pulling the 1 1/4 inch piece with it. Regarding the foot valve - I prefer to put the valve near the pump so if it sticks I can change it. _______________________________________________________________ I'm not clear on setting the well screen. Should I pull the two inch pipe out altogether? Also, should I put in a long gravel pack? You don’t have to pull the two inch pipe all the way up. You just have to pull it up six or seven feet so the wellscreen is exposed at the bottom. It is no problem if you pull it all the way out. You can’t put in a really long gravel pack when you are drilling with a two inch pipe. With a three inch pipe you can. With a two inch pipe if you are going to use a gravel pack just put in three feet of gravel. To do this, when you get to 35 feet pour three feet of gravel down the two inch pipe. Raise the two inch pipe and work it up and down so you can tell how much pea gravel you have added to the bottom of the hole. When your two inch pipe is up three feet, then you know you have three feet of pea gravel at the bottom of the hole. Then put the well screen with the blue point on down through the two inch pipe. Then work the wellscreen down three feet into the gravel. The first few inches will be easy and it will get harder after that. If you are not going to use a gravel pack it is critical to hold the 1 ¼ inch pipe down while you lift the two inch pipe.
I live in West Mobile, yes that's in
Alabama, you're in Foley right? I have looked at your website
several times now and I'm ready to start this project of digging my
own well. I went to Home Depot today and I found some well points
and the 2" inside couplings along with some pumps, but that's all I
could find. Do you have a particular place that you find your
supplies? I'd hate to have to order on-line when they may be here
locally. Also, I'm not sure of my water table depth here, but I do
live out past the airport and there are enough farms and fields out
here and I would think that some would have wells. After watching
your videos and reviewing the 'how to' instructions from
Campbel.coml, I feel really confident, my wife though can't say the
same. Thanks for your help. I have had no problem finding the stuff at Lowes and Home Depot. I have had to go to multiple stores a couple of times. Sometimes the Brady kits are not stocked but they are easy to make from PVC parts. Thanks for your reply. How deep would you
say that your gravel pack is? I have read that the deeper your pack
is the better. Was it hard trying to advance the 1 1/4 pipe down
through the gravel? Also, do you cut the blue tip off of your
well point or just leave in on and bout how many well points do you
usually use together? When you finally are able to place the 1 1/4"
pipe down through the 2" pipe, how did you manage not to pull both
pipes out at the same time? Isn't it a bit difficult to pull a 35'
pipe out of the ground? Have you ever made the T pack assembly by
hand or have you just gotten buy with the store bought one? One more
thing, on your pump, do you have yours hard wired to your house or
do you just hook it up to an extension cord? What horsepower are you
using? 1/4 hp per linear ft? Oh yeah, I would say that I don't live
on a hill, though my house is elevated a bit from street level, but
my whole neighborhood is kind of in a valley from the main road,
bascially sloping down from the main road.
_________________________________________________________________ I want to do a sand point well or what ever you are calling this. Either you have left out a lot of important information or I can not find it. What are you attaching to the top? is one house attached to a water pressure source and perhaps the other is excreting the waste??? please explain or guide me to the video with the missing information.
Hi Mike. How will I know that I have reach water or do i go as deep as possible? Joe, South Africa
Hi , how interesting to finally find a informative well drilling site after many searches on the net, plus were practically neighbors. I live on Mobile Bay (Dog River area). I have tried many times to jet a well for my garden with very little success,or with no water yield - I am ready to try Your method after searching Your site which is very informative-how deep should I have to go to reach a good water bearing sand? I have tried to find water table information for our area -but with no luck. As mentioned I live aprox 800 foot from the bay at about 17 foot above sea level. My failed attempts of 2-wells has been less than 20 ft where I hit a clay hardpan. Should I go past the hard pan at 30 foot as you show and use the gravel pack?? I have gray very fine silty almost powder texture sand below my topsoil and clay at about 4 ft on down to 20 ft which is as deep as I have tried- ( water is within that range but I cannot pump it any help would be greatly appreciated, and thanks so much for the information on your site ,it has been very informative and needed - Thanks
Subject: Water for the water hoses? Hi, I was happy to find your webpages for I am looking to save the money by trying to drill my own well. I was just wondering though, where is the water supply for the two hoses coming from? If you are drilling a well, there is no available water... This method won't work without water. Sorry. Most folks that use this method have utility supplied water at their homes but want a well for inexpensive irrigation and/or watering their lawn. You might look at the videos regarding the Baptist method. I am working with a community garden here in Florida and I am looking for a do-it-yourself way to drill a well for irrigation water. I am about 40 miles inland from the beach and the terrain here is mostly flat. Limerock and maybe some clay are the only things I am likely to find in the soil here other than sand. I am thinking that your method of jetting a well with PVC pipe may be my best option, but the nearest source of water is an existing well that is about 1200 feet from the garden area. We plan to eventually have a community center that will need potable water so the new well will likely go between the existing well and the garden. Can you give me some idea as to how much water pressure is needed to use your method? Have you considered used compressed air from an air compressor instead of water to clean out the cuttings? Also, do you have a parts/supplies list that I could use to work up a budget? I would appreciate any input and information you could provide. You need as much water as you can possibly get. Having said that, I see no reason why you couldn’t do it with one hose, PROVIDED you are really, really, patient. You might want to drill a practice hole close to your water source so you will have some perspective as to how to do it when your have less water. The parts list isn’t much. A Brady T-Pack and some two inch PVC will get you started. Fashion a handle to hold the PVC and that is pretty much it. The supplies run about $40.00. If it looks like you are going to be successful go get a 1 ¼ inch well point and some 1 ¼ PVC to connect to it. There are techniques for using compressed air but I have not used them. Since your water supply is limited you might want to try a re-circulating system with a mud pump to pump the water down the hole. It requires much less water. I don’t have the instructions for that ready yet. I’m going to do one myself as soon as I finish four other projects and I’ll document it when I do it. I’ll post it when I do it but that will be late this summer probably. Questions from South east Texas: Love the site, but still have a few more questions. After reading all the information and watching the videos, I am thinking that using the 3 inch pipe to drill is the way to go. Am I correct in believing that when I get as deep as I need to be, I then stop drilling and insert a length of 1 1/4 PVC pipe with a screen into the 3 inch pipe. After this is installed, I pour gravel through the 3 inch pipe until I get about 3 feet of gravel surrounding the 1 1/4 pipe the work the 3 inch pipe out, and if needed add more gravel. Do I completely remove the 3 inch pipe from the hole and back fill around the 1 1/4 pipe or leave it in? Thanks! The borewell drilling procedure you described will work with a three inch pipe only. With a two inch drill pipe there is not room between the 1 ¼ well screen pipe and the two inch drill pipe. As you pour the gravel in work the three inch pipe up gradually. Hold the 1 ¼ inch well screen pipe down. Pour a bit and then work the three inch pipe up a bit. Then pour some more and then work the three inch pipe up. Keep it up until you get the entire well screen (three feet) exposed and surrounded with gravel. With a two inch drill pipe you have to pour the gravel in first, raise the drill pipe three feet, and then put the well screen pipe in. When the well screen pipe reaches the gravel you have to work it into the gravel. You should be able to get three feet of it in but it gets slower as you get more well screen in the gravel. After you finish setting wellscreen at depth, pull the drillpipe, whether you use the 2 inch or the 3 inch, out of the ground. Pour enough gravel in to cover well above the top of the well screen. Then seal the top of the well so groundwater cant enter by pouring cement down the annular space.
First of all, thank you for an excellent website and videos on
how to drill a shallow well. I plan to drill one myself soon but
I have two questions that I did not see covered in the videos. Thanks for your comment! I hope the website is useful. Your questions are perfectly clear. Let me know if my answers are not! After you get the two inch pipe to depth and worked it until IT IS REALLY LOOSE, make up the whole length of the 1 ¼ inch pipe. For example, if you have drilled with the two inch pipe to 30 feet, make up about 35 feet of 1 ¼ inch pipe, fully glued up with a three foot well point at the end. Then pour gravel down the two inch pipe and work the two inch pipe up and down keeping it on top of the gravel. When you work it up three feet meaning there is three feet of gravel in the bottom of the hole and the top of the pipe is three feet higher than when you started, put the well screen pipe all the way down at once. When the well screen pipe hits bottom it will stop. Push it gradually down while twisting it back and forth until you have it three feet into the gravel. The only way with this “drilling" technique to make a really long gravel pack is by drilling with a three inch pipe and using a 1 ¼ inch well screen and pipe. First drill to whatever depth you can with the three inch pipe. Then put the 1 ¼ inch well screen pipe all the way down. Then fill the three inch pipe with gravel slowly as you work the three inch pipe up and down until you have filled and raised say, ten feet. Then you will have a three foot well screen at the bottom, and ten feet of gravel pack. Then pull the three inch drill pipe out of the ground.
Would it help if I used a post hole digger and go down about 3 feet before starting to wash out the hole? How can I find the ground water table for my area of Norfolk, VA? Yes, a post hole digger is a great way to get the hole started. Update! Don't use a post hole digger. It will dig a larger hole than you may need. Just start drilling with the drillpipe. If the top of the hole is too big, it slows the upstream flow of the water/cuttings. Thanks go to Bill in Tampa for this tip! The best way to find out the local water table is to ask around. Neighbors, drillers, county agents, etc. In Norfolk it is likely pretty high, I guessing like about 15 feet since you are close to the water.
There is still one thing I am unclear on. If I drill to 30',
how am I going to get a 30' long piece of 1-1/4" pipe in the
2" pipe. I can't stand a 30' piece of pipe on its end, it
would be too wobbly. I had read on your website where you
said to glue all the 1-1/4" pipe together but I just don't
see how that is going to work. Will it bend enough to leave
the opposite end on the ground while I insert the well point
end in the 2" pipe? Forgive me for being dense, but I want
to do this right the first time. No problem, I should have made this more clear earlier. The 1 ¼ inch pipe will bend enough to do it. It takes a bit of effort. It helps if you have two people and something high to stand on like the bed of a pickup truck. One person should stand on the bed of a pickup while the other is on the ground aiming the pointed end in the two inch pipe. A three foot gravel pack will very highly likely be sufficient. Most wells just use a single well point. I described the longer gravel packs just to try to be thorough. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was so
thrilled to find your web site. I love simple and
ingenious!
Thank
you for your fast response. I live in Truth or
Consequences, NM. I've been told there's a fairly
shallow layer of clay on the surface and then pretty
soon you hit sand, so it shouldn't be difficult to dig
in. I haven't heard of water over 110 degrees around
here, so likely the PVC will be fine, but I'll consider
the metal pipe, since I hope to not have to go down more
than 20 feet.
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I tried putting down a well today and I was not
successful. Actually things were going very well until I
started to put the gravel pack in. I used pea gravel
purchased from Lowes and I poured it directly from the
bag just as you do in your videos. However, I ran into a
serious problem. After having poured more than it should
take to fill three feet, nothing happened when I pulled
the pipe up, which meant the gravel was not coming out
the end of the pipe. I tried everything I knew but
nothing worked. Eventually, I pulled the entire 2" pipe
out of the ground. I had no choice because the 1-1/4"
pipe wouldn't go down far enough because of the gravel
stuck in the pipe. When I got the 2" pipe all the way
up. I discovered what the problem was. The pea gravel
had gone almost all the way to the bottom of the 2"
pipe, but a big rock (apparently in the pea gravel bag)
had gotten lodged very tightly about 6" from the end of
the pipe. Have you ever had this happen before? I guess
I should have screened it before I poured the pea gravel
in the pipe. I will try drilling again but I am dubious
about putting in the gravel pack. This was an awful lot
of work to come up empty-handed.
It was frustrating to no end. I was down to 21'. I know
that isn't very deep, but I am only trying to put in a
hand pump and the water table in my area is about 16-18'
and there is a limit to how far shallow well hand pumps
will pump water. I will try going back in the same hole.
Maybe it won't be as hard to drill this time. Things
went very easy down to 17'. Then it took me three hours
to go 4 more feet. I do not have clay or rock. At first
I thought I had hit a root, but after continuing to
drill, I am convinced it is just a hard pan.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I can't pump as much as I need to. It runs out of water when I try to turn it up high. What is up?
Photo from Rio Colorado Reclamation Committee Site
Mike can you expound on the hand held device used to work the two inch pipe. What kind of clamps are you recommending/using & so forth. I was using a pipe wrench until I found your web site. P.S. Great web site. Very helpful.
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