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How to drill your own water well

drillyourownwell.com

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Re: How to drill your own water well

#171

Post by bluGill »

moooo99 wrote: post #139
quickthrower2 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t water the lawn (or fertilise or roundup etc.) in Australia: for some reason it stays green without it: buffalo grass is as tough as nails! Sometimes it goes yellow but it always comes back!

Lawns in the US consume as many resources as they do because the typical lawn you see isn't a species native to the US, instead it was imported from Europe. With the soil being different etc., it is not surprising lawns, especially when they're as big as in the US, require so many resources.

Many lawns in the US do use grass native to that part of the US. Not all, but many. However grass goes dormant when it doesn't rain for a couple weeks and people don't like that brown look so they water even though the grass (either native or imported) doesn't need it. Likewise people don't like flowers and other weeds and so they apply a lot of chemicals to the lawn - but the grass doesn't need them.

TL;DR: lawns in the US do not need any resources. It is "perfect lawns" that need a lot of resources.

Re: How to drill your own water well

#172

Post by johnloeber »

presidentender wrote: post #136
zigzaggy wrote: post #116

My grandfather was a "well witcher" (Appalachian roots here). Many believe that's woo woo or some kind of super power. The man was incredibly intelligent and resourceful and he had a reputation for finding water every single time he dropped the drill into the ground. When I was a kid I used to go to sleep listening to stories of my dad and his dad driving around on a 2 ton truck with a 3 ton drill and how the brakes…

My dad drilled water wells in the US after spending many years working on oil wells overseas. His clients would often hire witchers (water witches, water witchers, well witches - I think the distance from Appalachia to Montana clouded the specific vocabulary). You'd have this very old man dodder around the property with a pair of sticks, and when the sticks magically chose to pull together and cross, that's where you…

It's called Dowsing and there's no evidence that it works. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing

Re: How to drill your own water well

#173

Post by bluGill »

jeffrallen wrote: post #59
praptak wrote: post #41

In Poland it's quite common for people to just hand dig their wells, using concrete rings for the reinforcement of walls. It's legal up to 30 meters depth and up to 5 m^3/day water yield. Article (in Polish but there's pics): https://darmowyporadnik.pl/artykul/36/budownictwo/kopanie-st... Edit: Or maybe I should say "it was" - most new wells are just a vertical steel pipe with a submerged electric pump rather than bi…

The first week I came to live in Guatemala from the USA 3 brothers from a nearby village dies of asphyxiation at the bottom of a hand dug well which had a generator running too close up above. Don't risk it. Confined spaces are dangerous.

I have a large well for my water (machine bored - wells here have terrible recovery), when the pump went out a few years back I looked down the hole and decided no way will I climb down there. I bought a pump and used hoses and extension cords to lower it into the well from above, then a week latter hired someone to come out and do the proper install. They had the proper safety gear so they couldn't fall down the hole. More importantly they knew how to use the - I know where to buy the gear, but that is one case where improper usage will kill you before you find out you were wrong.

Re: How to drill your own water well

#174

Post by peterleiser »

moooo99 wrote: post #139
quickthrower2 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t water the lawn (or fertilise or roundup etc.) in Australia: for some reason it stays green without it: buffalo grass is as tough as nails! Sometimes it goes yellow but it always comes back!

Lawns in the US consume as many resources as they do because the typical lawn you see isn't a species native to the US, instead it was imported from Europe. With the soil being different etc., it is not surprising lawns, especially when they're as big as in the US, require so many resources.

What is the species that is not native?

Re: How to drill your own water well

#175

Post by gallamine »

gregmac wrote: post #160
monkmartinez wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These people do work in the desert. I have a buddy that drills wells here in Arizona and he WILL NOT put a drill into the ground without a Witcher. I have a really hard time with "witching" from a logical POV, but my buddy and his $130k truck/equipment swear by it. I call that putting your money where your mouth is.

The test would be finding a spot where a witcher says there isn't water, and then drilling there. There's water almost everywhere in the ground -- the questions are is there enough of it to meet the need? is it usable (ie: not contaminated with salt or toxic chemicals)?

> There's water almost everywhere in the ground

In Arizona?

Re: How to drill your own water well

#176

Post by adrianmonk »

dalke wrote: post #12

I don't think it would be worthwhile to make your own hydraulic drill if there are rental alternatives. More specifically, around 1981 my Dad rented a drilling rig to supply the irrigation pump for our yard in Miami. See, the city was phasing out septic systems, and had installed sewers to our neighborhood. They charged for sewer based on water consumed. By drilling a well he could avoid paying sewage fees for irriga…

Where I live, they base the sewage fees off water usage during the winter. Since few people water their yards then, it mostly takes irrigation out of the equation.

Bonus: it spurs you to think about conservation. When your 3-month wastewater averaging period starts, you know that any water you save will cut costs for the whole year.

Re: How to drill your own water well

#177

Post by bluGill »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #112
bragr wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>if there are rental alternatives. That's good advice for almost all tools. The average weekend warrior may never have been to their local tool rental shop, but it's worth checking out! You can rent just about anything, for very reasonable prices, and it tends to be pretty high quality/industrial stuff. For all the tools you only use one a year, it probably makes more financial sense to rent than buy.

But you can often buy cheaper than renting with the caveat of getting a cheaper brand. For most DIY I find the cheaper ones good enough, as long as you get some online wisdom first to avoid the occasional turds being sold. Example: chainsaw, drill, jet wash, pruning equipment etc.

Sure, but when I rent I get a better quality tool, and I don't have to store it until next time.

Re: How to drill your own water well

#178

Post by ooterness »

kylebenzle wrote: post #109
tamimio wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did, but accidents happen, those are usually farmers and aren’t trained engineers with all safety measures, someone could have an oil tank nearby and someone/car bump into it or similar scenarios.

So the concern is that a farmer will drill the well, pull up the drill head, then accidentally spill a tank of oil then the oil will go down the hole and... contaminate the hole?

In short, yes. The hole for the well works both ways; it's a fast track for any surface-level pollutants to get into the groundwater, contaminating it for everyone.

Local law may require barriers to prevent this, such as an elevated concrete pad at the top of the well. This how-to guide didn't mention anything like that. Permits help ensure that important steps aren't skipped.

Re: How to drill your own water well

#179

Post by bluGill »

dalke wrote: post #101
h2odragon wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, well, Florida. You don't need much to hit water table in FL. High heels will sometimes do.

Yes. Isn't that the point of the web site? When the water table is shallow, but deeper than your Louboutins - which is much of Florida - you can drill a well yourself, at low cost. After all, the technique only works for down to about 20 feet (there's another page on how to extend that to 30 feet), and 7 of the 26 listed success stories are from Florida.

In most of the world you can drill down 20 feet and find water. It might or might not be safe to drink. It might or might not be a lot of water, but even in deserts you commonly can find it that shallow.

Re: How to drill your own water well

#180

Post by dreamcompiler »

presidentender wrote: post #136
zigzaggy wrote: post #116

My grandfather was a "well witcher" (Appalachian roots here). Many believe that's woo woo or some kind of super power. The man was incredibly intelligent and resourceful and he had a reputation for finding water every single time he dropped the drill into the ground. When I was a kid I used to go to sleep listening to stories of my dad and his dad driving around on a 2 ton truck with a 3 ton drill and how the brakes…

My dad drilled water wells in the US after spending many years working on oil wells overseas. His clients would often hire witchers (water witches, water witchers, well witches - I think the distance from Appalachia to Montana clouded the specific vocabulary). You'd have this very old man dodder around the property with a pair of sticks, and when the sticks magically chose to pull together and cross, that's where you…

When I built my house in the country, the well driller insisted on witching. He said "we should drill right here." I said "No, move it 100 feet that way. Your spot is right in the middle of my future driveway."

"I can't guarantee we'll hit water there" he said.

"I paying you. Just drill where I said" I said.

And of course we hit water.

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