digging water wells

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any one know how to dig a water well by hand.

-- rick normand (rickeynormand@hotmail.com), May 29, 2002

Answers

a bucket and rope type well,,or a drop a pipe in the ground type well? How deep is the water in your area? what type of soil? I found a rela fast way to dig one here, sandy soil,, 25 feet,, took about 20 mins

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), May 29, 2002.

Stan, I'm interested in putting down a well for outside watering.Sandy soil,alot of folks have shallow wells for sprinklers@around 25', how can I do it cheap? Jet it down? Thanks.

-- Scott in Florida Panhandle (md2921@aol.com), May 29, 2002.

can make a jet with a garden hose, assuming, you have a hose and water already near by. Pound it in,just ahve to get a pounding cap for the pipe so you dont round off the ends. YOu can also make a "flapper", where you take a 6 inch pvc pipe, install a flapper on the bottom, inside the pipe, about 4 inches up or so. And "dig" with that. The pipe will push in the ground, and when you pull up, the flapper closes and holds the dirt, sometimes adding water helps with that method.

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), May 29, 2002.

Do you use one of the well points with the screen wire on the end? Also, what size pipe? Galvanized?

-- Scott in Florida Panhandle (md2921@aol.com), May 29, 2002.

Scott, in central Florida where there is only sand we would jet down 5 foot pieces of metal pipe starting with a post hole digger. There would be an elbow screwed to the top of the pipe where a garden hose was attached, two opposing pipe wrenches were the handles we would twist back and forth causing the notched first piece to cut in. After 3 pieces of pipe were down there would be a safety rope put on the exposed pipe in the event we struck a cavity. Once the pipe starts to be too willing to sink, we would tie it off and shut off the hose and allow the earth to heal in around the pipe. After an hour or two, a pitcher pump was installed to pump out a cavity of sand, this was usually a cone shape about 3 feet tall. The underground cavity was needed for water accumilition; after creating the cavity the pipe was drawn up to the first threaded joint and the electric pump was installed. It was not unusual to link many "drops" to one pump. Keep a spare pair of leathers handy for the pitcher pump and rinse out the sand often while pumping out the cavity(s).

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), May 29, 2002.


Thanks Mitch. Did you use the screen well point on the end of the pipe?

-- scott in florida panhandle (md2921@aol.com), May 29, 2002.

dont know about FL, but I figure its the same all over,, a screen point of somekind would have to be used. A pounder point is pretty large compared to a drill point

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), May 29, 2002.

No sand point in the Florida method, just 5 foot pieces of 1 1/2 inch galvanized pipe. The water table here in normal years can be 6 inches, very rarly more than 10 feet. Since all the development some of the lakes and wells have gon dry.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), May 29, 2002.

Thanks yall, I'll give it a try.

-- scott in florida panhandle (md2921@aol.com), May 29, 2002.

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