Drilling our own water well

[Ellipse]

I don't know if we have already a thread dedicated to housing tricks.

85 web pages and 52 videos entirely devoted to helping you drill your own well:

You can drill your own shallow water well using PVC and household water hoses. It is a cheap and effective way to dig your own shallow water well. Water well drilling isn’t just for the pros with huge commercial drilling rigs. Digging a water well yourself is both interesting and fun.

drillyourownwell.com

 

[Uperios]

This is something that I also research; in my place the water is to be found at about 85m depth (calcareous rock).
The method that peaked my interest:

I found the main pieces of material for a water swivel; I will require the help of fellow crewmembers to fabricate it (as onboard the vessel we have tools for working the metal that I am not aware where to find in my county)

 

[Jones]

We had a shot at drilling our own well using a post hole digger after a neighbour had success. Neighbour had a dam dug that didn't hold water, so he hand dug a bore hole using an ordinary manual post hole digger that he cut and threaded for additional sections of steel pole to be added to increase the length of the handle. When he hit water, he cased the hole with concrete pipe that he'd put holes in and as he added each section of pipe, back filled the dam to return it to level ground. He then just got a submersible bore pump and dropped it down the hole.

We borrowed his post hole digger and the lengths of steel and got down about 15m IIRC before we hit rock that we couldn't break up but didn't hit water. To try to break up rock we had a crow bar and tied a rope to the top and just dropped it down the hole.


We ended up getting professionals in and they had to go down another 10m through the rock IIRC.

 

[eightyfour]

Look into precussion drilling and spear point wells if ya have light soil without rocks.

 

[Rhansen]

Most of the DIY setups I've seen are extremely limited, only able to create a tiny/shallow borehole in forgiving soils. Very difficult to get a quality well installed that way.
The water quality is typically poor in the shallow aquifers (surface contaminants etc.), fine for watering the garden but maybe not so good to drink.

Look into precussion drilling and spear point wells if ya have light soil without rocks.

Cable tool/percussion setups can penetrate rock, albeit slowly. IMO it's probably the best method for DIY in less forgiving geology.

got down about 15m

That's a lot of work with a hand auger.