Success! Chad in Wisconsin

Congratulations to Chad in Wisconsin on a Successful well!   Chad put down three 25 foot 1.25 inch diameter wells, each with a five foot well screen and gravel pack.  He reports an output of 20 GPM!

Bill in Tampa (in the menu as: Another Home Driller!!), was also instrumental in the success of this well project though his advice and encouragement.  Thanks Bill!

Chad has to have eveything four feet underground to protect from freezing so this was quite an undertaking.  Please note that he even worked through some pretty big rocks!  Chad provided the following information regarding his project:

Mike,

Thanks for your help!

See attached pictures.

My well is complete now, I’ve been pumping water a couple hours a day, just to flush out the system thoroughly, then I will get the water checked, before I tie it into the house plumbing.

I did a test today, I ran the well for 2 hours,  while the well was running, I can fill 5 gallon buckets in 15 seconds each, so 20GPM is great!! I hope it lasts many years.Here is how it turned out:

1) I thought this project would only take about 20 hours, but I actually spent over 100 hours!

 2) Since I had to have all the pipes below the frost line, I dug a 4’ deep trench, then drilling in the trench was a pain, I had to place a pump in the trench to pump out all the water while I was drilling.

3) I wanted to drill a 3″ well, but that got stuck 12’ deep, so I decided to drill a 2″ inside the 3″, which worked great, I decided to use inside couplings on the 2″ which made drilling easy. I even added a T on the 3″ for the water to flow away from the trench (see picture) since I hit water at 7’ deep, I only drilled to 25’ deep.

 4) After the 2″ drill was removed, I was able to dump 3 bags of pea gravel in the stuck 3″, I think it all went to the bottom of the well, and then I was able to remove the 3″

5) I installed 3- 1.25″ points, each with 5’ pvc well screens.

6) I hit many rocks about 6’-7’ deep, just before water bearing sand, I used a shop vac to suck them all out, including some that where 3″ round.

7) I combined the 3 wells in the basement, each have 1.5″ ball valves, then I continued the 1.5″ into the jet pump. The ball valves are excellent ideas, it helped me prime each one individually, and allows you to keep the prime while any work is done on the pump, also if one well went bad, it could be easily isolated.

8) I used a Sta-Rite HNE pump and a flex-lite fl40 (119gal tank) and they are working great so far.Thanks again,

Chad from Wisconsin

I asked Chad about his filter, which as you can see from the plumbing in the picture, can be switched in or out of the water line.  In the photograph the filter is switched out of the water line. 

He replied:

Yes, I have it bypassed until I flush the system for a few hundred gallons, then I will use it when its hooked up to the house.

I also put the filter before the well tank, so nothing will contaminate the tank, never seen this done, I hope it works.

Also my tank had a 1.25″ fitting, so I ran all 1.25″ pipe.

I went a little overboard on the project, since I got a quote for a well for $7500, I figured I could get the best of everything, and it end up costing me about $1500 (saved $6000!)Chad

Here are some photographs of the project that Chad provided.  He obviously does very professional looking plumbing work!

Thanks for the report Chad!

NEXT: Success! John in Brandon, Mississippi