Shallow Well

[Doc Tinker]

Alright. . For once, I have a serious question. I'm sure you guys aren't going to give me any serious answers though, but we'll try. .



Mrs Doc has added to my 'honey do' list a request for a shallow well, so she can water her flowers without running up the water/sewer bill. Shallow wells aren't allowed in my town, but that's just one more rule that I intend to break.



We live in a swamp, so the water table is quite shallow, but I don't know how shallow yet. There is standing water about 20 feet from my back fence. A few years ago a builder drove four or five 4" points and pumped water for a month without running dry. The ditch out front had three feet of water in it for the whole month. I did notice that the standing water, out back, disappeared while all that was going on. I don't know how deep the builder went, because I wasn't interested at the time.



I need some pointers regarding shallow wells. What pump should I use? What kind of point? Should there be a check valve at the point? How do I know when I hit the water table? Any other suggestions?



Doc

 

[klenger]

Shallow wells aren't allowed in my town, but that's just one more rule that I intend to break.

What town do you live in? What's your street address?

 

[lschultz]

Are you serious?

Doc we need more info if you want us to help you. Are you really serious?I think there is more to this than you are telling us. Are you trying to set us up?I can feel the heat from the fire I just find it hard to believe that you are asking us for help. I'm going to have to sleep on this.

 

[Doc Tinker]

I'm serious about this one. Help me out.



Doc

 

[Champane Flight]

auger and case

If there is water that shallow just get an eight foot auger go down eight foot and case it in 4" pvc. For a pump just use a shallow type jet pump, most have built in check. Don't forget to call for locate of any utilities in area. I would just say work was for fence post install, or bird feeder post?

 

[illflem]

I've seen guys with water tables that shallow dig them by hand. You can buy concrete well rings 3' in diameter and a foot high, big enough to stand inside and dig. You keep digging and undermining the ring while adding more. Near the bottom you will have to wear waders.



I've also seen a guy push a perforated steel pipe with a point on it into the ground with a loader. He then just dropped a submersible pump in it.

 

[lschultz]

Ok Doc I slept on this and been doing some serious thinking. Talk to these guys

Maresh Drilling Co Inc.

201 N Lancaster

Moulton,Tx 77975

361 596-4845

They been drilling wells since the 40s. Talk to Anthony he is from a long line of well diggers. Any time you need more help Doc just ask.

 

[15w40]

To be serious, I installed a shallow well at some property I own in NH. This well is a “pounded” point well that goes down about 30 feet. Items needed are: a point, 8’ sections of threaded pipe, pipe unions, a drive cap, and a driver. The way it is installed is by using a driver that looks like a 4” pipe about 3’ long with handles on the sides. It has a cap on top and is dropped over the pipe after installing the drive cap. All is available from Sears.



I found a short stepladder is needed as I added new pipe to reach the driver. A few friends and beer helps also.

After the well is driven, other parts needed are: a check valve, pump and captive tank with a pressure switch.



My well produces about three gallons per minute and tastes good although I have never tested it for pollution.

 

[willyslover]

I should be so lucky... I'm at 575 Ft and have about $12K treatment and well house equipment on mine just to get it usable and we still use bottled water for cooking and drinking :{



ON EDIT... . and it's only a 10 gal. min. well very heavy iron... filters cleaned every two weeks look like a red dense mud slurry. . and forgot to say very corrosive to plumbing... right now have a homeowner claim in to repair upstairs and down stairs walls and ceiling do to pin hole leak kinda like electrolysis

 

[Will24]

Holy crap willyslover! I thought our 240' was deep!

 

[illflem]

You won't like this willys, 60 feet for 320 gpm of ice cold pure water. They say we drilled into a buried ice age glacier.

 

[Camara]

In 1970 we drilled a well for my fathers house. The house on the right was 110' deep. The house on the left was 90' deep. We went 545' through ledge all the way down until we hit water. Ice Cold. Pump, pipe, tank with a bladder, check valves, pressure switch, water softener system, back wash system. Lot's of money! 2 years later we put a 13 x 17 addition on the back of the house. Hit water at 6' deep. So since 1972 a sump pump runs 24 hours a day 365 days per year. Buy a new one at Graingers every year. Water is a funny thing. To this day it bubbles up about 3" out of the ground.

 

[B.G. Smith]

In this neighborhood the nearestr water is 17' to 23'. I drilled my well with a rig my neighor made. It is several pieces of 3/4" pipe threaded with a coupling on one end, the bit is a homemade thing , looks like a 3/4"X2" reducer with a spiral blade on the big end, he made a swivel joint for the top end from a 3/4" pipe union where you hook up a water hose. Just hook up the hose ad start screwing/bouncing it into the ground, mostly clay here but hit some shells and hard stuff, turn the pipe with a small pipe wrench, when the pipe gets too low to handle just add another length. Have to watch the return stuf coming out of the hole, water sand is coarse and here it is brown, when you hit snad and lots of it then its time to set the casing. 2" PVC here. After casing is in place we ran an air hose down the well to the bottom, start opening the air valve until the water/sand starts coming out in spurts, let this continue for some time (might take a few hiours) untill you have blown a lot of sand (I got about three wheelbarrow loads) from the hole. There are lots of pumps available that will pump a shallow well, the water in the casing wont be very far below the surface. I bought mine at Lowes. I put a foot valve on the bottom end of my suction pipe, 1" PVC, it will save you lots of pia with lost suction if you have any small leaks. You really don't even have to have a tank if you are just using to water the yard. This water is not suitable for anything else. bg

 

[Clinton]

Is the subsurface sandy or silty? If it's sand and the water is only a couple feet down, go with a drive-point on a short screen (steel) and pound it in. If it's silty you could jet it in a casing with water like B. G. Smith suggested. If you did that, you may use something like a 4" steel casing and set a 2" PVC well inside it. Once everything was in you could sand-pack the screen and pull the casing out. May be too much effort if water is only a couple feet down, but if you've got a lot of silt you may find the well plugged or filled in a short time.



To verify you're in water tie something heavy on some string and lower it down. You'll hear the splash and you'll be able tell how much is there by tagging the bottom. A fiberglass tape is handy for this.

 

[Doc Tinker]

OK guys, thanks for the suggestions. I'll look at what Sears and Lowes has for wells and decide how to tackle this job, once I see all the equipment.



Doc

 

[Wheaties]

Doc,



If you live in a swamp, why do you need a well at all? When I was a kid, we lived near enough to a creek to run a line into it, then connect up a pump to a garden hose and run water to the yard for hours and hours. Why not do the same?



Matt

 

[Doc Tinker]

No creek here, just mucky slimy ground water



Doc

 

[Camara]

Here's an idea. Find a 55 gallon Plastic Drum. If you can, get a small backhoe to the area, if you can't you will have to dig it by hand. Dig a hole big enough to put in the 55 gallon plastic drum. Drill several 3/8 or 1/2 " holes in the drum. Put a piece of pipe in the center of the drum about 3/4 of the way down to the bottom. Line the inside of the drum with a piece of "filter fabric". That will keep the slime out of the drum. Put the drum in the hole and fill it with 1/2" or 3/4" crushed stone. Hook up a pump to the piece of pipe and then pump out the water through a garden hose. Maybe you could put a check valve in between the pump and the drum so it will keep its prime. It might supply enough water for watering the garden and the lawn.

 

[Doc Tinker]

My next door neighbor's house was built with what appeared to be a full basement until they filled it with pea gravel, with a sump pump down in there. Probably something like you're talking about, Camara, only on a larger scale. That idea might work, but I think it would have to be about 10 or 15 feet down to provide a good flow of water. The neighbor's sump shoots out a 2" dia squirt every five or ten minutes, during the wet seasons.



Doc

 

[Camara]

Well Doc, like I said it was an idea. You just have to refine it a little to suit your needs. Maybe you could figure out how to put a couple or three barrells together. This is what I did under my fathers house. I put in a 1" pump and it runs 24 hrs a day. I'll keep thinking