How to hand drive a cased well

[Master Brian]

Can anyone offer tips on this?

As soon as it thaws, I would like to install an irrigation well. I am leaning towards a sandpoint, but would rather install a cased well as I don't want the maintenance and the costs appear to be the same for a DIY job.

I don't have far down to go to get to good water, 15-20' max. When I was younger, I remember my dad and the neighbor man digging a cased well with a post hole digger an extensions, but I can't seem to find anyone that carries those or anyone that can tell me about them.

Any pointers?

[mengel]

Can anyone offer tips on this?

As soon as it thaws, I would like to install an irrigation well. I am leaning towards a sandpoint, but would rather install a cased well as I don't want the maintenance and the costs appear to be the same for a DIY job.

I don't have far down to go to get to good water, 15-20' max. When I was younger, I remember my dad and the neighbor man digging a cased well with a post hole digger an extensions, but I can't seem to find anyone that carries those or anyone that can tell me about them.

Any pointers?

Well, at 15-20' it's much cheaper to just do a sledge-hammer well. However, I have one of these I bought used at an auction, and it works well:

http://deepwelldrill.com/

or

http://www.deeprock.com/#Scene_2

Try to find one used somewhere, like I did. You can get them MUCH cheaper than buying new. Or, find somebody local that owns one, and ask if he'd be willing to let you rent it. Even if you buy a new one and use it, you'll probably be able to resell it for a good price, if it's only been used once or twice.

Or, you can also buy one of these, and make extensions for the drill head out of iron pipe:

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...t_6970_528_528

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...7868_200337868

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...7866_200337866

You can rig up a tripod and pully system, hang this one on it like the Deepwell unit, and it'll work just the same. Depending on how deep you drill, you'll need casing pipe, plus a water pump to pump in water as you're drilling, and you'll need to also use some sort of rigged up barrel inline with the water pump, to inject powered CLAY to keep the walls from collapsing as you drill.

Like I said, sledgehammer well is cheaper....

Ok, just for the heck of it, I checked e*bay, and found this:

http://cgi.e-b-a-y.com/Drill-A-Water...3A1%7C294%3A50

Ok, looks like this forum censors links from a old established auction site. Just put e-b-a-y in place of the stars above, and remove the dashes first. Or use this link:

http://t-i-n-y-u-r-l.com/73nupg Put t-i-n-y-u-r-l without the dashes, in place of the *'s

I have NO financial interest whether you buy his unit or not, but it looks pretty cool to me.

[speedbump]

If you want to do a sand point, read the sticky at the top of this forum.

bob...

[Master Brian]

If you want to do a sand point, read the sticky at the top of this forum.

bob...

I read through most of that sticky, but I know how to do a sandpoint. At least the basics of it. I am really wanting to do a cased well....

[sammyhydro11]

So you want to penetrate bedrock?

sammy

www.tylerwellandpump.com

[speedbump]

Or are you looking to do a cased screened well? If so, you must have a pump or a bailer to clean out the pipe after knocking it into the ground.

bob...

[Master Brian]

To be honest I don't know much about the cased wells, so I don't know what type I want.

Here is what I am looking for....
1) I want a submerged pump, so that I don't have to winterize and prime it every winter/summer.
2) I want to be able to possibly run a sprinkler system off of it in the future.
3) It will be for irrigation only
4) Depth of 20-30' max is all I should have to go, if that. I am sandwiched between two rivers and the water table is supposed to be pretty high. I think they say you can easily strike water at about 15'. One river s 2 blocks South, the other is about 3 blocks north.
5) I don't believe there will be much rock, I think it's pretty sandy.

A good sandpoint would probably do everything I want, but I thought if I could install a cased for close to the same cost, I figure that would be better. Close being a DIY install. From what I thought I have seen the pumps are about equal in price, I haven't done the math, but I would think the sandpoint pipes would then about equal out with the cased wells case, etc. The labor seems to be the sticky point, am I wrong?

Another thought is that I might install the sandpoint in or near my garage, that way I could keep it going all year.

[sammyhydro11]

I don't know what you consider a cased well but if you're just looking to drive some casing into sand and expect it to get sand free water, it's not going to happen. Sand will heave into the casing and that will be that. If you know that you have some porous material on your property that will permit water, I would just drive a point. If you know the static water level is around 15', go with an 1 1/4" point well. If you really want a submersible then have a well company drill a 4" well and put the pumping equipment in yourself

sammy

www.tylerwellandpump.com

[speedbump]

I agree with Sammy's logic.

You see it doesn't matter what kind of well you want, it's what kind of well will work and what you can or can not do as a DIY'er.

Having rivers all over your property will not have any effect on your underground water whatsoever. Rivers flow on top of the ground. Well water flows through pourous rock or sand/gravel. Just because you can strike water at any given depth, does not mean that area will produce usable amounts of water for pumping.

You can drill a hole almost anywhere in the US where it rains a normal amount and strike water at a rather shallow depth, but that doesn't make that hole a well.

bob...

[Master Brian]

First, I don't expect to just stick some casing in the ground and have water, I know there is more to it than that. I also realize that driving a sand point, is probably easier for a DYI'r. I've just always been under the impression a cased well, was a better type of well with less maintenance. Maybe that presumption is wrong....

I also realize that rivers flow on top of the ground and wells draw from underground sources, but having two rivers that close don't hurt. I'm not guessing at the depths needed from observing where the rivers are. I am getting that from living in the area for 14yrs, speaking to numerous people with different types of wells and by calling the city to find out about water depths in my area.

Really all I wanted to know was what is there that attaches to the end of a spade type of post hole digger. I know things are out there, or used to be out there. The neighbor, when I was 7 or 8 y/o, had one and used it to hand dig his own cased well. I was hoping for some information about what I might be able to make or buy. I can't be the only person that doesn't want to pay someone $$$ to dig a hole 20' deep.

[speedbump]

Really all I wanted to know was what is there that attaches to the end of a spade type of post hole digger.

Apparently you don't know there is more to it than that if the above is how you intend to drill this cased well.

bob...

[Master Brian]

Apparently you don't know there is more to it than that if the above is how you intend to drill this cased well.

bob...

I'm not arguing that I am no expert on the matter of wells and everything that goes along with them. I do know that someone I used to live next to hand dug, with a post hole digger like I have, a cased well. It took him maybe a day or two to complete the digging in an area with a much deeper water table than I have.

Is it the preferred method, I'm sure not, will it work?? Please explain why it wouldn't....

[speedbump]

I don't pretend to know your area, as they are different everywhere you go. I can tell you that a posthole digger is not the approved method. All the poshole diggers I have used will only dig about 3.5 feet.

Even if you were able to dig down to a sand/gravel aquifer with a device like that you can't dig in the water vein. It keeps heaving in. So you would then put in the casing. You would then have to knock it down a little deeper to get into the vein a little deeper. Once there, you will now have quite a have in the casing that will have to be cleaned out. Either by jetting or bailing. Keeping the heave out of the casing is quite a trick in itself. If you are able to get it cleaned out, you would then throw the screen down the hole with a short blank on top and beat the screen down into the aquifer. You would need either a bremer check or k-packer to seal the screen off to the casing. The other method is to knock the casing down to where you want the screen, clean it out, throw the screen down to the end of the casing and bump the casing back up off the screen.

As you can see, it takes a bit more than a posthole digger.

bob...