Hi-
I'm new to this kind of project but here's what I got...
I drilled a well this past weekend with a manual twist post hole digger by adding extensions and producing a 6" bore hole. I hit water in about 8 feet and we have been in an official droubt for the past month. Our house has the lowest property in the neighborhood so I wasn't surprised that water wasn't far down, though I don't know of any wells the neighborhood so I have no comparison. There was a lot of sand on the way and some clay. When I broke through into the water I started to take out shovels full of a white slurry like mud, that I guess is a mixture of sand and clay. I was able to keep going for about another foot and and half below the water level before I hit a layer of rocks that my digger wouldn't go through. The water is very cold and judging by the substrate I'm assuming I hit an aquifer?? I'm only going to use the well for watering the gardens and the lawn. I got a 36" well point and a flotec 1/2 HP shallow well pump (up to 30 feet). After I couldn't go any deeper I added a check valve on top of the well point and then iron pipe on top of that as I needed. I got a drive coupling and drove the point into the bottom of the well with really very little effort besides keeping it straight as I went, and turning the assembly clockwise every so often to ensure the joints were ok. The point seemed to go in pretty easily. I drove it in until the check valve, which is threaded on top of the point was submerged in the water a few inches. (I also made sure the check valve was not installed backwards)
How far should the top of the well point be below the surface of the standing water? (keeping in mind that I haven't had rain in a solid month right now)
I got a new hand pump for shallow wells, filled the well pipe with water and threaded the pump onto the well pipe and tightened it. Also, I used the teflon tape on all joints and made sure the couplings remained snug when I drove everything down. Then it became interesting....I know that new wells are full of sediment and that there was a lot of sand and that slurry like mixture that I encountered while digging, and I know new wells need to be purged and de-silted which is why I got the hand pump. I started pumping the handle after dumping water into the top of the pump as well and I get a tremendous suction when trying to lift the plunger. Very little water comes out of the spout and it takes a lot of effort to pull the handle up. At first I could hear the connection of the pump to the pipe hissing with air which I then quickly realized that I never cranked it down. I tightened everything back up and tried again and still nothing but a stronger suction. I can see the water level down in the well clearly.
So after getting impatient I hooked my flotec pump up and primed the line and pump and turned it on. It will run and give me a very small trickle out of the discharge valve that is murky with a very fine sand. I removed the pump and when I opened the union that I installed (to attach the pump to the line)the inlet was almost fully closed with that muddy stuff. I cleaned the whole pump out after that and put it aside. I yanked the whole well point and pipe assembly out and noted that there was a heavy suction, kind of like getting your boot stuck in mud, when I was trying to remove it. I found that turning it clockwise like a screw did the trick. I had suspected that my check valve may have clogged but when I took everything apart it seemed to be free and clear. The well point definately had silt in it which I washed with the hose.
I'm guessing that I just didn't do enough to agitate the silt and get it out of the drop pipe? Or do I have a bigger problem with not being able to get any water even with a hand pump? Should I try this whole thing without the check valve in place above the well point? If I do that I guess I could shove the hose down the pipe and blast water in to make the silt rise out of the pipe.
I guess my next plan is to reassemble all the pipes and the well point and drive it back down below the water level without using the check valve and try using the hand pump again to get the sand out.
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave
I'm new to this kind of project but here's what I got...
I drilled a well this past weekend with a manual twist post hole digger by adding extensions and producing a 6" bore hole. I hit water in about 8 feet and we have been in an official droubt for the past month. Our house has the lowest property in the neighborhood so I wasn't surprised that water wasn't far down, though I don't know of any wells the neighborhood so I have no comparison. There was a lot of sand on the way and some clay. When I broke through into the water I started to take out shovels full of a white slurry like mud, that I guess is a mixture of sand and clay. I was able to keep going for about another foot and and half below the water level before I hit a layer of rocks that my digger wouldn't go through. The water is very cold and judging by the substrate I'm assuming I hit an aquifer?? I'm only going to use the well for watering the gardens and the lawn. I got a 36" well point and a flotec 1/2 HP shallow well pump (up to 30 feet). After I couldn't go any deeper I added a check valve on top of the well point and then iron pipe on top of that as I needed. I got a drive coupling and drove the point into the bottom of the well with really very little effort besides keeping it straight as I went, and turning the assembly clockwise every so often to ensure the joints were ok. The point seemed to go in pretty easily. I drove it in until the check valve, which is threaded on top of the point was submerged in the water a few inches. (I also made sure the check valve was not installed backwards)
How far should the top of the well point be below the surface of the standing water? (keeping in mind that I haven't had rain in a solid month right now)
I got a new hand pump for shallow wells, filled the well pipe with water and threaded the pump onto the well pipe and tightened it. Also, I used the teflon tape on all joints and made sure the couplings remained snug when I drove everything down. Then it became interesting....I know that new wells are full of sediment and that there was a lot of sand and that slurry like mixture that I encountered while digging, and I know new wells need to be purged and de-silted which is why I got the hand pump. I started pumping the handle after dumping water into the top of the pump as well and I get a tremendous suction when trying to lift the plunger. Very little water comes out of the spout and it takes a lot of effort to pull the handle up. At first I could hear the connection of the pump to the pipe hissing with air which I then quickly realized that I never cranked it down. I tightened everything back up and tried again and still nothing but a stronger suction. I can see the water level down in the well clearly.
So after getting impatient I hooked my flotec pump up and primed the line and pump and turned it on. It will run and give me a very small trickle out of the discharge valve that is murky with a very fine sand. I removed the pump and when I opened the union that I installed (to attach the pump to the line)the inlet was almost fully closed with that muddy stuff. I cleaned the whole pump out after that and put it aside. I yanked the whole well point and pipe assembly out and noted that there was a heavy suction, kind of like getting your boot stuck in mud, when I was trying to remove it. I found that turning it clockwise like a screw did the trick. I had suspected that my check valve may have clogged but when I took everything apart it seemed to be free and clear. The well point definately had silt in it which I washed with the hose.
I'm guessing that I just didn't do enough to agitate the silt and get it out of the drop pipe? Or do I have a bigger problem with not being able to get any water even with a hand pump? Should I try this whole thing without the check valve in place above the well point? If I do that I guess I could shove the hose down the pipe and blast water in to make the silt rise out of the pipe.
I guess my next plan is to reassemble all the pipes and the well point and drive it back down below the water level without using the check valve and try using the hand pump again to get the sand out.
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave
