To shock or not to shock?

We bought the house last November and were aware that the well is low yield. The house sat vacant for about 2 years before we bought it. We've had the well "cleaned out" by a local "professional" but that hasn't helped the well production.

The well is 260' deep. The well log shows clay to 45'. sand and clay to 87', sandy silt to 116', gravel and clay to 140' and then shale to 260'. The well is cased to 142' and gave 2gpm at drilling which was in 1971.

There's quite a bit of organic and inorganic iron in the water and the water is naturally between 2 and 4 grams of hardness.

Any suggestions for getting the well to produce more water? A local handyman suggested shocking the well with bleach. Another suggested fracking or acid cracking but we can't find anyone local who will even discuss either procedure.

What should we do?

Google "hydrofracturing" and the name of your state, and you should find someone offering the service.

I've been trying to find someone who will do that or something similar and can't find anyone local who will even discuss it - hence my questions to the forum!

bhlyw said:

We bought the house last November and were aware that the well is low yield ...
... and gave 2gpm at drilling which was in 1971.

There's quite a bit of organic and inorganic iron in the water and the water is naturally between 2 and 4 grams of hardness.

Any suggestions for getting the well to produce more water? A local handyman suggested shocking the well with bleach.

Click to expand...

If the well only produced 2 gpm when first drilled, it is probably not going to produce more now, and chlorine treatments even could make matters worse.

If you do not already have a large storage tank or cistern and a second pump, it sounds to me like that is what you need if you want to have more than 2 gpm available at your fixtures.

bhlyw said:

I've been trying to find someone who will do that or something similar and can't find anyone local who will even discuss it - hence my questions to the forum!

Click to expand...

Since you haven't seen fit to allow us to know where you are located, you're kind of on your own for finding the service.

Sorry! We're in Boston Township, in the northern portion of Summit County, Ohio.

We are planning to add a storage system but haven't quite gotten it figured out yet.

Thanx for your help and comments!

I had a house with a well that yielded 1.5 gpm. With a 6" casing, the pump set at 150' deep, static water level at 20', the well itself represented a lot of storage so it could pump 5gpm for quite a while. It was sufficient for everything except irrigation.

Remember that 2gpm is 2880 gallons per day. A conservative (high) estimate of use is 150 gallons daily per person in the house. If your well doesn't provide sufficient storage you can put in a large pressure tank for more storage.

If you need irrigation water it would probably be better to put in a cistern for that, and pipe your roof leaders into it. You can put in a much less expensive tank, a simple pool filter and pump, and don't have any worries about sanitation. Just keep that plumbing system all separate from the house.