Considering a Well, Need Help from someone not a salesman

[mas3372]

Hello,

I live in Rhode Island in a wet area. I am sick of spending way to much money of water to keep my yard looking good especially after I was just notified that water was increasing 25% again this year.

Heres my situation.

As I said, a wet area. Surrounded by 3 ponds and a stream use to run next to my lot until the builder covered it when he built the development 3 years ago. I have the water index testing sheets for when they did my septic. Depth to water is anywhere from 2'1" to 9'. Soil description seems consistant as 0-1' LM BLK LC, 1-3' SLM BRN MC, 4-10' MS-GRV-ST- Grey. No idea what any of that means or if it even matters.

I really want to use ground water for my watering. I called a few local well companies and all they want to do is come out and dig a 150' well and hook it up to my house. I don't want well water in my home, just for outside for the 3 months a year I need to water the lawn. I am hoping I can get away with putting a point in.

What does anyone here recommend. If a point is possible, is this something I can do myself. I don't know much about them, but it appears as though I drive the point in the groudn until I get water, flush the sand out, attach a pump and water my grass.

Any help, thoughts suggestions, etc would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

[Porky]

First have someone else check with the RI well regulators to see if you need a "Well Construction Permit" to install your own "Sprinkler System Well". If you don't great, if you do it's up to you whether you get one or not. If it's not a drinking water well there may be no problem. That's the reason to have some one else check on the regulations! Check here http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/benvi...well/index.htm

If everything is OK, I suggest you go to Lowes or pumpsandtanks.com and purchase some 2" Schedule 40 PVC; reducers from the 2" PVC to your garden hose on one end and using a 2" PVC Coupling on the bottom end. Cut saw type teeth on the bottom of the coupling and glue it to the bottom. Turn on your garden hose and push the 2" PVC in the ground while rotating clockwise and counter clockwise 1/4 turn where you want the well. Keep in mind the State Regulators will require a specific distance from buildings and possible contamination sources such as ponds; septic tanks; leach fields; out houses and sewer lines. This is usually 10 feet to 50 feet. Know the rules! Continue washing the 2" in the ground until the water from the garden hose stops returning around the 2" PVC. Once this water stops returning, you may have encountered a water producing zone. At this point I suggest that you either remove the 2" PVC from the hole or better yet leave it in and cut it off about a foot above ground (for drilling/washing deeper if necessary). Purchase a 1-1/4" by 3' to 5' steel sand point and enough galvanized pipe and drive couplings to reach the bottom. Place a drive cap on the top joint and hook an old tire over it, them with a sledge hammer drive the sand point at least another 3' to 5'. Fill the 1-1/4" pipe with water and it it goes away you probably have a well. Hook a pitcher pump to the 1-1/4" pipe, prime it and pump. If it pumps water you have a well it not check for leaks and do it again. If you can pump water you have a well. remove the pitcher pump and install a "Shallow Well Jet Pump" with a small tank to make an automatic system. You can purchase a 1/2 to 3/4hp pump from Lowes or from www.pumpsandtanks.com. Pumps and Tanks will be able to assist you by email. Lowes knows nothing about pumps, they only sell!

To to the following for further assistance in driving wells http://www.lifewater.org or http://www.lifewater.org/resources/rws2/rws2p2.pdf

Once you have the well completed I recommend that you seal around the 2" and between the 1-1/4" and the 2" with bentonite from a well supply house or possibly from www.Pumpsandtanks.com to prevent contamination.

Well Drilling is not just a hole in the ground! Good Luck!

For further information check www.dci-inc.us

[mas3372]

Thanks for the reply. Does the PVD with the teeth at the end really work? thats sounds amazing if it does. Not sure if it would matter, but my water pressure is only about 40 pounds.

[valveman]

I have used that method to dig post holes. In my area it is too deep to drill a well by hand but, the drill rig uses the same method, it is just much larger.

[mas3372]

I own a power washing company and have a large 4000 psi, 6 gpm washer. Would that help at all with the washing. Would the pressure help move the dirt and the high GPM help clear it faster? Thanks.

[speedbump]

The pressure right at the material your drilling might help make a hole, but volume is what carries the cuttings to the surface.

bob...

[Porky]

Volume is better than pressure. 40 psi is enough.

[mas3372]

Update: I dug down 5 feet today with a post hole digger. Hit some small rocks, couple of inches, and went as far as the digger would let me. I then got my 2" PVC attached to the garden hose with saw teeth at the end. Was only able to wash it down around another foot in 20 minutes of trying. IS this normal, do I just need to tougen up and keep working at it? I don't think I am against a rock. Should I just cut the pvc and start driving my point at this time? I wanted to get the pvc in as far a possible to have as long a casing as possible. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[valveman]

It is probably the diameter of the post hole that keeps you from getting the cuttings (dirt) out of the hole. In a big hole the dirt just settles back down instead of coming out the top. If you don't hit any rocks, you could probably do better starting over and using the 2" pipe form the very top. Either that or just start driving.

[mas3372]

What if I fill the hole in around the pipe and keep washing.

[mas3372]

So I started whacking with the sledge hammer. Got it down about another 2 feet over 30 minutes. To alleviate the abuse on the pipe, I put a drive coupling on with a 3 inch nipple followed by the drive cap. Well I busted the nipple. It also seems as though the coupling tilted a bit on the pipe. I came as straight down as possible. Any advice? Does anyone have an easy way to make a drop hammer?

[mas3372]

Another question. I have my isds sheet for my lot and am hoping that someone can explain it all to me. There were 8 test holes done and 6 say 8' to water, 0-1' LM BLK LC 1-3' SLM BRN MC 3-6' MS-FS GREY MC
6'-12' MS-GRV-ST-1 DKBRN MC the other 2 areas are 2' to water (wish I knew where). Any help would be great.

[Greg Mueller]

You have water at 2' ?

Back in the days of "Dug" wells, they'd get one of those concrete rings that are about 4' in diameter and lay it on the ground and get inside it with a shovel and dig underneath the concrete and it would sink deeper and deeper into the ground. Then when the top of it was below ground level they would set another ring on top of the first one and keep going.
I've lived in several houses in my life that had this kind of well. The problem with them is that you will be getting surface water, but for irrigation, who cares?

[speedbump]

I have my isds sheet for my lot and am hoping that someone can explain it all to me.

I used to do soil borings and logged lots of baby food jars full of dirt. I have never seen any language like you have there. That's not to say it doesn't mean anything. It just doesn't mean anything to ME.

Just because you hit water at a shallow depth, does not necessarily mean it's a water vein and will produce enough water for any useful purpose. Like I said, driving pipe into the ground is a blind event.

Using a Sledge Hammer is the worst way to drive pipe. You will almost always break couplings and ruin threads.

This is what a hammer should look like.

[mas3372]

Thanks for the help. I believe the ISDS letters stand for material, LM = Loam, GR = Gravel, but I am just guessing. I will try to build a drop hammer some how. Thanks.