Water well

[Laner7]

Just had a water well drilled after they witched it and said that it was a good spot to drill… it’s only doing about a gallon maybe 2 gallons a minute. I had another well about .5 mile away and it’s doing about 10 gallons a minute. He’s wanting to case it and out a storage tank for it, but I don’t feel comfortable with how low producing it is. Would I have to pay for that or should I? I told him I’m not happy with it, but hasn’t responded to me yet. What’s yalls opinion on this?

[doghouse]

He just drilled the well. Casing and putting a pump in it is up to you. You still owe for the drilling. We have paid for drilling of at least 2 dry wells.

[BTLowry]

Did the driller guarantee his "witching"?

Was there any kind of contract? Stipulation for dry hole/ underproducing?

I would say you owe him something for drilling done but I would cut my losses if I was not happy with production

[kwarw]

Just had a water well drilled after they witched it and said that it was a good spot to drill… it’s only doing about a gallon maybe 2 gallons a minute. I had another well about .5 mile away and it’s doing about 10 gallons a minute. He’s wanting to case it and out a storage tank for it, but I don’t feel comfortable with how low producing it is. Would I have to pay for that or should I? I told him I’m not happy with it, but hasn’t responded to me yet. What’s yalls opinion on this?

I am a retired Driller 32 years, I worked mainly in the Southeast What is standard around here (GA,SC) is client pays 1/2 price per foot if DRY. plus casing at regular price. This is agreed upon up front.

I do witch for water and utilities my self. I am usually about 95% correct.
How did he do it? With a limb? With rods?

Now I know this is not what you want to here but your well is not DRY rather low producing. I have drilled many low producing wells that are still in use running homes. I need more info to give good advice, but assuming it is a 6" well for every foot of water in the hole you got around 1.6 gallons of water standing in the hole. So a well 300' deep with a water level of 80', hang pump 20' off bottom. You have 200' of water (320) gallons which will recharge @2GPM.
I case your not irrigating a corn field a 10 GPM pump will probably never suck it dry. It would run for 32+ minutes with 2GPM recharge that's another 60+ gallons coming in. Of course all of this depends on your numbers. That gives you enough info to figure it out. Plus I have more good news!
It has been my experience that once you start PULLING water out you recharge rate will increase.
There are 2 reasons for this. They are using air to drill with that lifts the cuttings and water out of the hole. In the process it is pushing back on the cracks that supply the water sometimes clogging them up with rock dust slowing the flow.
The second reason is once you start pulling the water level in the hole will drop exposing some of the cracks in the rock that helping recharge this acts like a siphon effect. The weight of the water standing in the hole actually holds the flow back (A 100' column of water puts 50 PSI of pressure against the wall of the hole @ the bottom and against the walls).
What I recommend: Get a competitive quote on a pump install. A 10 GPM pump should be plenty for a house. Have a flow meter on it and record the output GPM and water level reading every 15 minutes until it stabilizes Run a pump test for a minimum of 12-18 hours I would bet you you won't pump it dry provided you have a couple 100' feet standing. What usually happens is the level will drop pretty quick it might go way down and you got to wait for it to recharge. If that happens it's usually a good thing. But most time it will pull down to a point for a while then start coming up then stabilize.
The final reading will tell the true story.Using the #'s above it pulls down to 150'and stays there. Before you stop hang the water level meter to 80' be ready,cut the pump off and hit the stop watch. Use the math I gave you that will be your TRUE recharge rate.I used to love doing pump test and crunching the #'s and watching them improve over time. I had to do all of them cause I was the only one with a decent education.

On a residential wells I have never had to walk away, I have had to go deeper to create more storage. Commercial wells yes because they need X amount for whatever process they are doing.


Water Well Drillers as a whole are honest folks, however they get paid by the foot, so take that for what it is worth

Feel free to P.M. if you like

[hoythunter02]

I am a retired Driller 32 years, I worked mainly in the Southeast What is standard around here (GA,SC) is client pays 1/2 price per foot if DRY. plus casing at regular price. This is agreed upon up front.



I do witch for water and utilities my self. I am usually about 95% correct.

How did he do it? With a limb? With rods?



Now I know this is not what you want to here but your well is not DRY rather low producing. I have drilled many low producing wells that are still in use running homes. I need more info to give good advice, but assuming it is a 6" well for every foot of water in the hole you got around 1.6 gallons of water standing in the hole. So a well 300' deep with a water level of 80', hang pump 20' off bottom. You have 200' of water (320) gallons which will recharge @2GPM.

I case your not irrigating a corn field a 10 GPM pump will probably never suck it dry. It would run for 32+ minutes with 2GPM recharge that's another 60+ gallons coming in. Of course all of this depends on your numbers. That gives you enough info to figure it out. Plus I have more good news!

It has been my experience that once you start PULLING water out you recharge rate will increase.

There are 2 reasons for this. They are using air to drill with that lifts the cuttings and water out of the hole. In the process it is pushing back on the cracks that supply the water sometimes clogging them up with rock dust slowing the flow.

The second reason is once you start pulling the water level in the hole will drop exposing some of the cracks in the rock that helping recharge this acts like a siphon effect. The weight of the water standing in the hole actually holds the flow back (A 100' column of water puts 50 PSI of pressure against the wall of the hole @ the bottom and against the walls).

What I recommend: Get a competitive quote on a pump install. A 10 GPM pump should be plenty for a house. Have a flow meter on it and record the output GPM and water level reading every 15 minutes until it stabilizes Run a pump test for a minimum of 12-18 hours I would bet you you won't pump it dry provided you have a couple 100' feet standing. What usually happens is the level will drop pretty quick it might go way down and you got to wait for it to recharge. If that happens it's usually a good thing. But most time it will pull down to a point for a while then start coming up then stabilize.

On a residential well I have never had to walk away, I have had to go deeper to create more storage. Commercial wells yes because they need X amount for whatever process they are doing.





Water Well Drillers as a whole are honest folks, however they get paid by the foot, so take that for what it is worth



Feel free to P.M. if you like

I don't know much about it but your post was very informative and interesting to me. I did learn a little about this in Fire school but this was cool.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[kwarw]

LOL Thanks.
You didn't realize how complicated a hole in the ground could be,don't feel bad most folks don't.
I started at 17 years old working for engineering firms Water Wells came along later in my career.

[kwarw]

Just had a water well drilled after they witched it and said that it was a good spot to drill… it’s only doing about a gallon maybe 2 gallons a minute. I had another well about .5 mile away and it’s doing about 10 gallons a minute. He’s wanting to case it and out a storage tank for it, but I don’t feel comfortable with how low producing it is. Would I have to pay for that or should I? I told him I’m not happy with it, but hasn’t responded to me yet. What’s yalls opinion on this?

I sent you a PM with my#Ihave questions I am up

[kwarw]

I sent you a PM with my# I have questions I am up

I don't know if you saw the PM I sent But I'm calling it a night. You are welcome to call after 8 EST.
My name is Kevin

[texansfan]

I am a retired Driller 32 years, I worked mainly in the Southeast What is standard around here (GA,SC) is client pays 1/2 price per foot if DRY. plus casing at regular price. This is agreed upon up front.

I do witch for water and utilities my self. I am usually about 95% correct.
How did he do it? With a limb? With rods?

Now I know this is not what you want to here but your well is not DRY rather low producing. I have drilled many low producing wells that are still in use running homes. I need more info to give good advice, but assuming it is a 6" well for every foot of water in the hole you got around 1.6 gallons of water standing in the hole. So a well 300' deep with a water level of 80', hang pump 20' off bottom. You have 200' of water (320) gallons which will recharge @2GPM.
I case your not irrigating a corn field a 10 GPM pump will probably never suck it dry. It would run for 32+ minutes with 2GPM recharge that's another 60+ gallons coming in. Of course all of this depends on your numbers. That gives you enough info to figure it out. Plus I have more good news!
It has been my experience that once you start PULLING water out you recharge rate will increase.
There are 2 reasons for this. They are using air to drill with that lifts the cuttings and water out of the hole. In the process it is pushing back on the cracks that supply the water sometimes clogging them up with rock dust slowing the flow.
The second reason is once you start pulling the water level in the hole will drop exposing some of the cracks in the rock that helping recharge this acts like a siphon effect. The weight of the water standing in the hole actually holds the flow back (A 100' column of water puts 50 PSI of pressure against the wall of the hole @ the bottom and against the walls).
What I recommend: Get a competitive quote on a pump install. A 10 GPM pump should be plenty for a house. Have a flow meter on it and record the output GPM and water level reading every 15 minutes until it stabilizes Run a pump test for a minimum of 12-18 hours I would bet you you won't pump it dry provided you have a couple 100' feet standing. What usually happens is the level will drop pretty quick it might go way down and you got to wait for it to recharge. If that happens it's usually a good thing. But most time it will pull down to a point for a while then start coming up then stabilize.
The final reading will tell the true story.Using the #'s above it pulls down to 150'and stays there. Before you stop hang the water level meter to 80' be ready,cut the pump off and hit the stop watch. Use the math I gave you that will be your TRUE recharge rate.I used to love doing pump test and crunching the #'s and watching them improve over time. I had to do all of them cause I was the only one with a decent education.

On a residential wells I have never had to walk away, I have had to go deeper to create more storage. Commercial wells yes because they need X amount for whatever process they are doing.


Water Well Drillers as a whole are honest folks, however they get paid by the foot, so take that for what it is worth

Feel free to P.M. if you like

I like this guy!!

[junkmanhunter]

I know when I had my well drilled, which was for my house, i had a contract and it stated how many gallons per minute the well would produce to be considered usable.

We more than exceeded that number and were pumping 25 gal a minute. I have since learned that in our area the water conservation group has po it restrictions on new wells to 18 gpm.

You should have all your info in your contract.

Best of luck


Kwarw, very informative post. Thanks for sharing.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[kwarw]

I know when I had my well drilled, which was for my house, i had a contract and it stated how many gallons per minute the well would produce to be considered usable.

We more than exceeded that number and were pumping 25 gal a minute. I have since learned that in our area the water conservation group has po it restrictions on new wells to 18 gpm.

You should have all your info in your contract.

Best of luck


Kwarw, very informative post. Thanks for sharing.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Thanks Junkman,
Yes we never left the yard without a contract. It was carefully worded in our favor of course and stated a USE ABLE well.
Your well may PRODUCE 25 GPM which is usually a quesstimate based on how much water is FLYING out of the hole during drilling. However to actually get that much GPM out of it you would need a huge pump and at least 3" drop pipe and probably 460 VOLT service.

Unless you have a mansion with 23 bathrooms all in use at the same time while filling the swimming pool and doing laundry you would never need more than 5 GPM USUALLY. I am sure the new 18 GPM rule was put in place because of more demand on the source (The Aquifer).
Wherever you live there are highly educated engineers and geologist that have calculated the amount of water in the Aquifer and it's recharge rate plus the amount of permits issued. They are saying the MAX you can take out is 18 GPM to keep AG guy's from taking huge amounts out in a short period of time.
When you drill a new well and crank up your pump it creates what is called a cone of depression. Basically what I described earlier,it will pull down to a point and stabilize. Just like women every well is different but in general the water is always good LOL. Sorry for the early morning humor,my first cup of coffee.
Junkman you have a very nice well and I am glad she's a good producer LOL.

We used to drill Municipal water wells and the above process had to be done for a 72 hour period per the permit. Then the readings where sent to the state so they could calculate the impact on the Aquifer. I worked directly with these guys with the pen protector and black rimmed glasses on a daily basis. Most where fresh out of school and had NO idea what was going on. I hung it up when they started looking like my GRANDKIDS!!

One thing to note is you want your pump to run at least 5 minutes at a time.If it is cycling on and off it won't last long! Matching the pump to the well is very important.

I could usually call my data in and get a waiver to stop early once I had stable #'s. Getting full pay for the company. And myself of course.

I am not familiar with TX rules I only drilled there once and it wasn't for a water well.

Sorry for all the detail but most well owners have no Idea how all of this works.And sadly the industry is LOADED with under educated staff.

I answered an add in 1976 that said "Hard dirty work always out of town"
I've laughed at myself for years cause if I am so smart I wouldn't have showed up for the second day!

[junkmanhunter]

Thanks Junkman,

Yes we never left the yard without a contract. It was carefully worded in our favor of course and stated a USE ABLE well.

Your well may PRODUCE 25 GPM which is usually a quesstimate based on how much water is FLYING out of the hole during drilling. However to actually get that much GPM out of it you would need a huge pump and at least 3" drop pipe and probably 460 VOLT service.



Unless you have a mansion with 23 bathrooms all in use at the same time while filling the swimming pool and doing laundry you would never need more than 5 GPM USUALLY. I am sure the new 18 GPM rule was put in place because of more demand on the source (The Aquifer).

Wherever you live there are highly educated engineers and geologist that have calculated the amount of water in the Aquifer and it's recharge rate plus the amount of permits issued. They are saying the MAX you can take out is 18 GPM to keep AG guy's from taking huge amounts out in a short period of time.

When you drill a new well and crank up your pump it creates what is called a cone of depression. Basically what I described earlier,it will pull down to a point and stabilize. Just like women every well is different but in general the water is always good LOL. Sorry for the early morning humor,my first cup of coffee.

Junkman you have a very nice well and I am glad she's a good producer LOL.



We used to drill Municipal water wells and the above process had to be done for a 72 hour period per the permit. Then the readings where sent to the state so they could calculate the impact on the Aquifer. I worked directly with these guys with the pen protector and black rimmed glasses on a daily basis. Most where fresh out of school and had NO idea what was going on. I hung it up when they started looking like my GRANDKIDS!!



One thing to note is you want your pump to run at least 5 minutes at a time.If it is cycling on and off it won't last long! Matching the pump to the well is very important.



I could usually call my data in and get a waiver to stop early once I had stable #'s. Getting full pay for the company. And myself of course.



I am not familiar with TX rules I only drilled there once and it wasn't for a water well.



Sorry for all the detail but most well owners have no Idea how all of this works.And sadly the industry is LOADED with under educated staff.



I answered an add in 1976 that said "Hard dirty work always out of town"

I've laughed at myself for years cause if I am so smart wouldn't have showed up for the second day!

You are correct about the drain on the aquifer. I have a 3000 gal above ground storage tank so I am set up on a float switch that allows my pump to run a while refilling the tank.

Our developer made a dumb mistake in my opinion. There are going to be 25 houses in my neighborhood about 130 acres. I never understood why he didnt drill 1 big community well. Instead we will have 25 water wells and 3 or 4 shallower wells for irrigation.

Our Aquifers are crappy water 250'-300' irrigation mostly,
Good water at 800'
Good water at 1200'-1300'

In my immediate area the water specialists are starting to make the new wells go to a deeper aquifer 1200' because they are starting to worry about supply. I learned a lot during the drilling process.

Hope everyone has a great day

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[BigYoung]

Thanks for info Kevin, I will cut and paste into my general waterwell file.

[M16]

Our developer made a dumb mistake in my opinion. There are going to be 25 houses in my neighborhood about 130 acres. I never understood why he didnt drill 1 big community well. Instead we will have 25 water wells and 3 or 4 shallower wells for irrigation.

He’s dumb alright. He put that money that it would have cost in his pocket. And people still bought the property. Dumb like a fox.

[bigmike]

Ive drilled alot in upton county over the years. Dont ever remember one making under 20 gpm. The one i did on the truck route across from the hospital makes around 75 gpm. Most everything in upton county ive done is in the 200’ - 250’ range