Questions 3

This is an excellent example of what to do when your drill pipe sticks and you don’t want to pull it out and drill again.

Following your methods, thanks for the awesome site Mike, I put down a four inch pvc pipe but at about seven feet the flush stopped coming up and I could not get down any farther. I managed to get my two inch drill pipe down to 17′ and the same thing happened.

I believe the ground water is at about 14 feet so I want to go down farther.

You advised me to either a. get my 2″ drill pipe down as far as I can then get my 1.25″ well point down inside my 2″ and attempt to get it dug in as deep as possible. Reason is that it is below the ground water and will probably pump water. Or b. buy a steel well point and pipe and drive it down as far as I wish or could afford and it will fill up to 14′ so that my shallow well pump will work.

I chose to go with steel as I have a thirsty yard and need as much gpm as possible.

Here are links to the equipment I bought just in case anyone is interested. These are the cheapest prices I could find for as low a quality I would dare.

Pipe cap to protect the threads while I sledge hammer pipe into the ground.

Check valve that screws into my well point so I can retain the prime.

Drive Coupling from Amazon

Mike also recommends trying to pound the pipe into the ground with an electric hammer as it is easier and also less damaging to the pipe. I am in sand so I am going to cheap out and try to tap in into the ground with my hammer and if that is too difficult then I will rent an electric hammer at Home Depot.

THREE NOTES FROM MIKE:

1 If you can possibly rent an electric sledgehammer, do it. When you are hammering a drive point into the ground, a bunch of little blows are far superior to a few hard blows from a sledgehammer. The hard blows tend to damage the pipe threads.

2. Use pipe dope when connecting the sections. I like Rectoseal. Don’t scrimp on this. Metal pipe connections don’t seal very well without pipe dope.

3. Put the check valve above the hammered in sections. It is brass and can’t take the hammering. Be particularly careful and don’t put too much pipe dope on the connections of the check valve. It can gum up the works.


Mike,

Hi I hand dug with auger to 18′ on my property, lots of sand but does have the odd mixture of clay and stone in it. area not far away was a gravel pit at onetime. I took some sand samples to local well/pump store they seem to think the sand is to much like beach sand for me to set up a sandpoint.. said I should try and dig deeper and find more rock formations. he did say the sand was well saturated but that to suck water thru it all it will do is collapse around by sandpoint and clog it if i was to try and install one. do you have any suggestions?

Also now that I have dug 18 or so feet is it still possible to attempt your mud pump way? I feel as the deeper i get more clay as I am likely getting to a confinement layer.

You can certainly continue to dig with the mud pump method. What is the diameter of the hole you have so far? Also, what is the standing water level?

diameter of hole is likely 6″.
standing water is about 12-13′

Wow. You are really close. Try putting a four inch pipe in down to the level you have augured. Fill in around it with dirt or sand/bentonite slurry. Then, with a two inch drillpipe see how much deeper you can get. When you can’t go deeper (assuming you are in sand at that point), put a 1.25 inch wellscreen down that drillpipe and pull the two inch piece out of the ground. Attach a check valve. Plumb it so you can prime both above and below the check valve, and attach a pump.

Ok so measured my hole is 8” in diameter water is at 12’ I will try and stick a 4 inch casing down as far as I can then fill in around it.

Any tips on knowing if I drill down say another 15-20’ so total of 40’ if I’m in sand? City I live in people all over have points or wells.

There is no way to tell without drilling. Each location is unique.

I dug more Out of hole tonight and the sand is absolutely soaked with water like squeezing it water runs out.

Love your site

Forgive me for asking this question if it seems stupid. By digging down to lets say 40′ will I not need a well pump or because I have standing water at 12.5′ the water level in the pipe should rise to that level?

As long as the distance to the standing water level is less than 25 feet, a suction pump, also called a shallow well pump, will work. Do not use a sprinkler pump or a pool pump! They will never work. They are made for transferring water at one level. You have to get a suction pump made for sucking up water from the ground.


Mike,

How deep should I drill my well?

You need to drill deep enough that when you set your wellscreen, the top of the well screen is 10 feet under the standing water level. You need it to be at least that deep so that when you pump the well and the standing water level goes down, you won’t be sucking air.

To determine the standing water level, let a hole sit for a day. Then tie a small heavy object to a string. I use a nut but any small heavy object is fine. Then lower the string into the hole until you hit water. Pull it out and measure the distance. For this example, lets say you hit water at 10 feet.

Next, you will want the top of the wellscreen to be 10 feet under the standing water level. So if you are using a three foot long well screen you will need a 23 foot deep hole. Drill a 23 foot deep (or deeper) hole with a 2.0 inch drillpipe. Keep the water running into the drillpipe while you – Make up a 23 foot well 1.25 inch diameter screen pipe with three feet of well screen at the bottom. Actually make it 24 or 25 feet so when you finish some will be sticking out of the ground.

At this point the wellscreen pipe will have three feet of wellscreen attached to 21 or 22 feet of Schedule 40 1.25 inc PVC pipe. Just lay it aside.

The next steps need to be done QUICKLY so you can finish before the hole collapses (ideally with a helper):

Turn off the water to the drillpipe and remove the drillhead. Put the 1.25 inch wellscreen piece down through the 2.0 inch drillpipe. Put it all the way to the bottom. Then, taking care not to remove the 1.25 inch wellscreen pipe, pull the two inch drillpipe out of the ground. All the way out. This will leave the 1.25 inch wellscreen pipe in the ground with the bottome of the screen at the 23 foot level and the top of the screen at the 20 foot level.

That is your well. Attach a check valve, plumb it so you can prime it, attach a pump and you have a functioning well.

Mike