Semi OT: Shallow Well sinking (got metal pipe <G>)

google is your friend

there are 2 things you need to find out.

1. what do you think the water flow rate is going to be at the 20 ft depth/?into your bore hole?
2. how are you going to stop the sand filling in the borehole bottom? and clogging your pump? alsoyour going to need to prevent the sand collapsing into your bore hole whilst drilling. I dont think theres any cheap and easy way of doing what you want. IF you can find some concrete rings say 3 ft dia, then you place one on the ground, dig out the inside and it will sink down. then place another on top and repeat. youll need a short handled spade and a little person to do the digging out. Also need fresh air pumped down to supply the digger. the bottom ring has small holes in it to let the water seep in to fill the resevoir. you pump out say daily and let the water seep in till it finds its own level.repeat as long as you have water coming in. youll also need a lid if your well is 3ft dia to stop things ,animmals etc falling in.

If you really have sand (not rocks), run a small pipe down the middle of a bigger pipe (plastic is cheap, generally) and use the city water (and/or air compressor) to power water (and/or air) down the inner pipe, lifting sand and water in the space between the pipes. Pushing the pipe down will be a wet and sandy experience. When you have the outer pipe to desired depth, stop, withdraw inner pipe, add well point, send back down hole. A ladder and/or reasonably short lengths of pipe will make this easier, lacking a drill rig. In some soil types you might get away without the outer pipe. In soil with rocks, you will find one and stop abruptly.

In overly regulated areas, doing this without a well-drillers license may be illegal, but often not for the first 25 feet. In other overly regulated areas doing this (at all) may be illegal because the water down there does not belong to you. I have no idea what laws apply to wherever you are, hopefully you do.

What not to do.....

I've got the water table 6 meters below the surface. I've got 1200mm diameter concrete well liners going down 5 meters. So the floor of the well is about 1 meter above the water table. I want to have the pump intake at least 3 meters below the water tables.

This afternoon I got a length of 4" UPVC storm water pipe and have it pushed about 1 meter into the floor of the well. I put some 40mm UPVC down the 4" pipe into the well "bed" and pumped a heap of water down it, hoping to displace the nice coarse white sand up and out of the outer pipe. I hoped to press down on the 4" pipe to sink it into the ground - it won't move an inch.

I figure the next idea is to find a scrapped steel power utility pole 5" or

6" in diameter x 5m long and try to force that down using the same method, hoping the weight of the pipe will assist in its descent......

Hopefully what ever method you chose will work better than my ideas!

Good luck.

Steve, at a much younger age (24) I dug a 26 foot hole with an auger type post hole digger. It entailed adding 5 foot lengths of pipe to the auger and having the strength to lift out the auger, 20 feet of extension and the small dirt clump.

BTW, my cheap Sears auger had a reaming attachment so my final diameter was almost 10 inches. The attachment was a simple steel adjustable bar sticking out radially above the auger. You could clamp the bar at different positions to vary the diameter.

After reaching depth, I dropped in a 20 foot length of 6 inch CMP (corrugated metal pipe) into which I had torched numerous small holes so water could enter. (could have drilled them just as easily). I paced the remaining cavity around the pipe with open graded gravel. After attaching a pump I was able to shoot about a 50 foot water stream out of a 3/4 inch line. Never could exhaust the well. Did get the water tested because I was curious. Had a slight level of ecoli, but plenty good for irrigation. Of course, all of this was done on the sly, since our water district had strict rules about developing your own supply. Today, in most parts of the country, it is illegal to tap into the groundwater layer. To do this legally, you must bypass the groundwater layer, drill further, and seal off the groundwater from contaminating layers further down.

Good luck, very doable!!!

Ivan Vegvary

about 20 feet down through sand to water my small lawn

Out west, doing any sort of well development without the proper let and permission from the water authorities can land you in court, pronto. Every drop of rain has its owner written on it, until recently, it was illegal in CO to have rain barrels for home use.

Stan