Success! John in Copenhagen Ontario

Congratulations to John in Copenhagen, Ontario Canada on a successful well.  He is located just north of Lake Erie.  John needed to protect his well from freezing so he dug a trench in front of his house and used the trench for a six foot head start on his drilling.  Then he drilled a 22 foot well for a total depth of 28 feet.  He reports eight gallons per minute production.

Drilling Away!

John writes:

Thanks for putting up the website with so much useful information. It was very helpful. Here is a photo of me drilling a well in my front yard using your technique. As you can see, the soil is almost pure sand and was very easy to drill through. My wife took this photo standing on the front porch. I used the tractor to dig a trench about 6′ deep so that I could run the pipe into the root cellar under the porch, so I would not have to worry about frost. I drilled a hole through the concrete basement wall for the pipe to enter and the pump and tank are located in the root cellar, so it’s very quiet also.

It took about 2.5 hours to dig down about 22 feet, or about 28 feet below the surface. I used 3 inch abs pipe with a Y connector and valves on top. I removed the top and dropped in the sandpoint with 1inch abs flex pipe attached, poured some silica sand in the pipe, and removed the 3inch pipe. Then, I ran the 1 inch flex pipe inside and hooked up the pump and tank. I tested the whole setup outside first though, to make sure I had a reliable well. I then threw some larger gravel and stones down the hole to kind of seal it up and filled in the trench with the tractor.

I drilled holes in the concrete basement wall for my future irrigation system and I installed two outside taps as well. I get around 8 US gallons per minute, which is just fine. Now all my neighbours want to do this as well, so guess who gets to help them?

Seriously, this guy ain’t playin…

Clearing a trench before he starts

John’s pump and tank is in his basement.


NEXT: Success! Blake in Orlando, Florida