Wells?

[JavaMan]

I am wanting to put in a well at my property.  The big problem that I have is that the driller that I had give me an estimate has said that it could go as deep as 300' and he charges something like $43/foot plus casing for the first how many ever feet.  His estimate came out to a bit over $14000!

Granted, some of this would probably be through granite, but after reading some of the other posts here, it sounds like that is something close to highway robbery.

Does anyone have any information on drilling your own?  Or perhaps someone in Central WA could point me towards a company that is a bit more reasonable in their pricing!

Thanks

[MountainDon]

If they are talking about drilling through serious rock and hundreds of feet deep there is no way to do it yourself unless you buy the same kind of drilling rig that the pros use.

The last I check here the price was $33 a foot. There is some rock but nothing like granite I'm told. A driller who has sandstone or limestone as his worst enemy has an easier job. In many places there aren't a lot of drillers to choose from so they can charge what the customer base will pay. We have a friend near our cabin who drilled a 300 foot dry hole. They quit and moved the truck 100 feet, drilled 250 feet and hit adequate water.   


Just be glad you don't have to go to 600 feet or more. Our city wells start at 1000+ feet and a few are as deep as 3000 feet.

G/L on finding someone more reasonable.

[eddiescabin]

Good luck on getting it done for $14,000 if they actually hit granite.

[diyfrank]

Hi javaman, You can search the well logs in your area to get some kind of idea how deep.
http://apps.ecy.wa.gov/welllog/MapSearch/viewer.htm?&FASTSTART=YES&SESSIONID=606586023

There may not be many wells in your area but it's a place to start.
My neighbor drills and has told me the price to drill through rock isn't much of a difference. You pay more to drill but save on casing.
I'm building in Curlew btw.

[JavaMan]

Hi javaman, You can search the well logs in your area to get some kind of idea how deep.
http://apps.ecy.wa.gov/welllog/MapSearch/viewer.htm?&FASTSTART=YES&SESSIONID=606586023

There may not be many wells in your area but it's a place to start.
My neighbor drills and has told me the price to drill through rock isn't much of a difference. You pay more to drill but save on casing.
I'm building in Curlew btw.

I looked at that site a while back - my neighbor closest to me has a well about 85' deep (water at about 65', I think it said).  He's about .5 miles from me and about 500' below me in elevation.  The next closest neighbor is downhill from him ... and another 1/2 mile away, next to the creek, and his well is at about 275' if I recall (I know it was a LOT deeper).

Going by that, mine should be at about 50' right?

I wish.

I say I'll probably be going through granite because there is a lot of it sticking up out of the ground on my land 

Well, I hope I can get my savings in line and put together enough $$ to have it done for me.

[davidj]

Our neighbors well is something like 170' deep producing >10gpm.  Ours is 480' deep producing 5gpm.  They are about 200' apart, at the same level, on flat ground and similar distances from any dropoffs (we're on a flat bench and the wells are the same distance from the edge of the bench).

Around our way (rural Northern CA) it's something like $45/ft with metal casing and maybe 3/4 of that if they use plastic.

[devildog]

Im one of the fortunate ones that only paid 8.50 a foot and hit water at 140' w/10gpm. My neighbors well is about 300' away and his was i40' deep too.
My well driller said you usually cannot go off your neighbor,it doesnt work like that. He said he drilled a well down our road three times,one of the times he went 800' and came up dry.

I always get at least 3 bids, and let them know that I am. If they want the job theyll give you the best price and you can compare. I do this with everything,especially when buying a car.

I dont know anything about if the ground is rocky that it'll cost more because nobody I delt with ever mentioned anything about that.They just gave me a per foot depth. The highest bid I received was $10 ft.
Good luck to you.
Darrell

[JavaMan]

Im one of the fortunate ones that only paid 8.50 a foot and hit water at 140' w/10gpm. My neighbors well is about 300' away and his was i40' deep too.

Does your well guy want to take a vacation to the west? 

My well driller said you usually cannot go off your neighbor,it doesnt work like that. He said he drilled a well down our road three times,one of the times he went 800' and came up dry.

Yeah, that's what I've figured.  The one guy that I called out to the property did mention that the wells of the "neighbors" wouldn't relate necessarily to mine.  But then everyone tells you to check the well logs ... I guess I could see that if I was building in a more densely populated area, but there's my 40, and then a couple 40's between me and the neighbor.  And I back up onto BLM land to the west, and no on for miles on the north ... so well logs are minimally helpful, from what I can tell.

I always get at least 3 bids, and let them know that I am. If they want the job theyll give you the best price and you can compare. I do this with everything,especially when buying a car.

I dont know anything about if the ground is rocky that it'll cost more because nobody I delt with ever mentioned anything about that.They just gave me a per foot depth. The highest bid I received was $10 ft.
Good luck to you.
Darrell

Thanks Darrell.  I am hoping that this summer they will be more desperate than last summer for work.  I had the guy out late in 2008, and last spring he started calling me again - a lot.  I think he was trying to line up some income for this year.  Sadly, I had other places for the money (got married) and now am a year further along.

But, the economy is still quite stagnant and perhaps even a bit worse than last summer, so if I can resolve my own economic woes (job), I may be able to find someone that needs to at least keep a rig busy.  That's what I'm hoping anyway.

[JavaMan]

Just a correction - the neighbor closest to me has water at 55' they drilled to 62' (I just rechecked the logs) ... now that's a well I could live with.

Guess I'm going to have to throw a BBQ for the drillers out there this summer and have them start bidding against each other to see who can come up with the best deal.   

[JavaMan]

So after looking at the soils survey for my area - on the handy site that was posted in one of the other forums here (link to follow eventually), I discovered that I have no idea what it means under the section:

Depth to Water Table when in the table of results it states, "Rating (centimeters) " and the data there reads, ">200"  what? the water table is greater than 200 cm from the surface? really? because that's only about 79" or roughly 6 1/2 feet.

And yeah, I know the table is below that SOMEplace... but I would have thought that they would have at least stated it in feet, and that it would be greater than 7!

Am I reading this wrong? can someone tell me what that means?  And I've googled and Bing'd all over the net and can't find anything defining what those numbers mean.

[glenn kangiser]

I don't like the metric system, but I am a well driller.  We do - or did feet and inches here.  I haven't actively drilled for about 10 years, but still carry my license.

I haven't seen the report but if it is a soils report rather than well log they may just be saying it is deeper than that depth to cover everything without referring to anything specific... don't know.

Unconfined aquifers can vary greatly from shallow to deep as the driller may or may not directly hit one of them - think of them as seeps of water  through the faults in the rocks or layers of sand below the surface.  There are lots of different conditions in soil formations....
some carry water - some do not.

[JavaMan]

I don't like the metric system, but I am a well driller.  We do - or did feet and inches here.  I haven't actively drilled for about 10 years, but still carry my license.

I haven't seen the report but if it is a soils report rather than well log they may just be saying it is deeper than that depth to cover everything without referring to anything specific... don't know.

Unconfined aquifers can vary greatly from shallow to deep as the driller may or may not directly hit one of them - think of them as seeps of water  through the faults in the rocks or layers of sand below the surface.  There are lots of different conditions in soil formations....
some carry water - some do not.

Thanks for the info!  I don't like the metric system, either... but 200cm is about 6.5 feet (I know because I have a 250mm 'nail' in my left humerous ... (2.54 cm/in) discovered that it's a little longer than 9" - I always tell people I have a 9" nail in my arm - I get the strangest looks )

Well, it looks like I will have to start yet another savings account at the Credit union labeled, "well"    Until then, I think I will try to harvest some rainwater - since we won't be up there permanently - or even long term for a while.  I think I can truck drinking water up from the neighbors place, and use rainwater for showers, dishes, and irrigation

[glenn kangiser]

We have people here who harvest their entire years supply in CA.  Lots of water comes off of a roof -

[Dave Sparks]

We have people here who harvest their entire years supply in CA.  Lots of water comes off of a roof -

Glen

Can you get us 1 more inch of rain near the first week of May?  This time now is the mean season when we try to get the 14,000 tanks full for the long haul to November. I don't like metric either...

[glenn kangiser]

Hey, Speak of the rain water harvest dude....

Dave - I have the spray planes up there working daily - you probably noted them yesterday spraying the chemtrails across the sky.  This should "enhance" the amount of water we get but no guaranties on what may be in the harvested water...

What ever it is, they put enough up there so that we all get to enjoy it. [ouch]

[Dallas2build]

Is there any truth to the fact that all well drillers record the GPS coordinates of the wells they drill and must turn them over to the gov?  I really would rather not have my well listed on any gov list.  I know there are already some serious water rights battles shaping up and I can only imagine it will continue to get worse.  Can anyone confirm or is this a myth?

[MountainDon]

All I can say is that in NM you can not get a well driller to drill a well without a permit. The permit states where the well will be drilled, maybe not the long & lat, but the county property description. So even if you don't drill 'they' already know your intentions. And yes, there is a public log of where wells are located and their description, depth, etc.   At least here in NM. So more than likely everywhere.

[glenn kangiser]

Anytime you drill a well with a permit, you have to put the location whether GPS lat long  or TRS. parcel number, and a map of the location as in the old days when I was doing it.  I have not heard of the GPS location but I have not actively drilled for about 10 years.  One of the  reasons for this is to get it on the tax roles. 

If there is not a permit then I guess only you, other nearby parties and the driller would know, but most drillers will not drill without a permit, as it is a bit of a noisy and in their face process.  Hard to hide but not impossible depending on the area.