Digging a Shallow Well

[.30WCF]

I wanted a little water out by the bees and my building. I made a drill and attached concrete float handles to it. A pair of 12inch channel locks was all the persuasion it took. It has a 4 inch case and 1-1/4 inch intake on the pump. The water should clear up in a few days. I hit water at about 6 feet deep where the ground stays wet 3/4 of the year anyway. I stopped at around 16 feet. I should have about 10 feet of standing water. Should be enough to fill a bucket and rinse something.

I usually water the near by garden by buckets when needed. It should work to keep the bees watered and rinse off when cleaning deer and squirrels.

Kicking around the idea of running a line to the building and putting a 5 gallon bladder and electric pump in there if it proves to hold water. I have an old above ground pump I replaced at the house a few years back when the impeller started to wear out. 

A little video of the dig below.

https://youtu.be/NFioEmLt7wE










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[.30WCF]

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[The15thMember]

Fascinating!  That seemed surprisingly simple! 

[.30WCF]

Fascinating!  That seemed surprisingly simple!

Well, (you see what I did there?), I didn?t show that that was the third try. I hit a rock, then a big root, and filled them back in. I had to move to not my ideal location and got it the third time. The first one was right at the building, then down by the fire pit. But for all I know, I could have moved 2 feet from the original location and gotten it. I like it though.


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[.30WCF]

I bet you have a few more rocks than I do though.


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[.30WCF]

Simple she says. Lol.
It is simple, I did get winded.


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[gww]

I am impressed but just watching had it figured out you probably got winded.  Still, I love what you did and it impresses me.
Cheers
gww

[Acebird]

I bet you have a few more rocks than I do though.

Good job but like you say not possible in all soil conditions.  Any reason why you just didn't drive a point?

[.30WCF]

I bet you have a few more rocks than I do though.

Good job but like you say not possible in all soil conditions.  Any reason why you just didn't drive a point?

About 5 years ago I did. I hit something about 15 feet down and couldn?t get any farther. It has water in the pipe, but I never could draw it up.
That pitcher pump was sitting under the shed all this time and the leather went bad. I cut some new leather yesterday and replaced it. When I had it apart I discovered they they had misaligned the flapper in the bottom of the pump. I cut new leather and put it in right. I should give that old well point a try.
At that depth, it is white clay and sand layers mixed. I may not have a steady enough supply of water for the well point. With the dug well I have a 4 inch pipe casing it all. The bottom 10 feet has a lot of slots cut in it to allow water in. I should have a reserve of water sitting in the case to draw from.
I went out this morning and pumped 5 gallons out, no problem, without needing to reprime first.


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[BeeMaster2]

Nice job.
I have dug three shallow wells. The first one I used 2 garden hoses and went down about 30 feet. The last 2 I used a 1 1/4? hand screw wood drill bit and 1 1/4? pipe to go through 8? of clay the first time and 15 feet of clay the second time. Below the clay is 60? of water saturated sand. I stopped both right below the clay. Then you have to pump it out to make a dome under the clay. They still pick up a lot of sand.
Jim Altmiller

[.30WCF]

Nice job.
I have dug three shallow wells. The first one I used 2 garden hoses and went down about 30 feet. The last 2 I used a 1 1/4? hand screw wood drill bit and 1 1/4? pipe to go through 8? of clay the first time and 15 feet of clay the second time. Below the clay is 60? of water saturated sand. I stopped both right below the clay. Then you have to pump it out to make a dome under the clay. They still pick up a lot of sand.
Jim Altmiller

That?s pretty cool Jim. Have you ever pumped the water faster than it could filter back in?

The well point Ace was asking me about would work nice in your situation. They are pretty tough and should screen out most of the sand if you ever have to do it again. I think I hit rock with mine. The well point, https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/water-source-well-point-1-1-4-in-x-36-in-1028022?cm_mmc=feed-_-GoogleShopping-_-Product-_-1028022&gclid=CjwKCAiAhreNBhAYEiwAFGGKPJJR9c6WeOlkD5IgLBfF6twgrnwlxnRKH0E-GXk7gN9FkZOVk429DBoCTm0QAvD_BwE , screws onto a piece of 1-1/4 inch galvanized water pipe and you drive it down, add a section and drive some more. It?s basically a screened pick up tube meant to be pounded into the ground. Even if you had to drill through your clay if it?s too tough to drive, you could sink that way down in the sand below.
Now that I have new leather on my pump I am going to have to try again and see if I can pick up the water or if I got stuck shy of having a reliably renewable water source. That would be silly I?d I actually accomplished this 5 years ago, but never realized the bottom leather was miss-aligning the stopper. 


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[Acebird]

About 5 years ago I did. I hit something about 15 feet down and couldn't get any farther. It has water in the pipe, but I never could draw it up.
That pitcher pump was sitting under the shed all this time and the leather went bad. I cut some new leather yesterday and replaced it. When I had it apart I discovered they they had misaligned the flapper in the bottom of the pump. I cut new leather and put it in right. I should give that old well point a try.

You might try pressurizing the point to clean out the clay and debris that clogged the screens if you haven't done it already.

[.30WCF]

I did not.


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[Acebird]

Nice job.
I have dug three shallow wells. The first one I used 2 garden hoses and went down about 30 feet. The last 2 I used a 1 1/4? hand screw wood drill bit and 1 1/4? pipe to go through 8? of clay the first time and 15 feet of clay the second time. Below the clay is 60? of water saturated sand. I stopped both right below the clay. Then you have to pump it out to make a dome under the clay. They still pick up a lot of sand.
Jim Altmiller

The back of my lot is wet and gets flooded during heavy rain.  I dug down about 2ft  with the tractor and hit pure sand and then dug another 2ft down.  I needed the dirt to fill low spots and to raise the ground around the leach field so the rain water would run away from it.  Now the heavy rain goes in the hole I dug and drains in a day or so.  I don't believe in irrigating the lawn like most do around here but it would be easy to drive a point in FL sand down here.

[Michael Bush]

I dug one once with a screw type post hole digger, a lot of pipe and a makeshift derrick.  Went 25'.  Put in 4" plastic pipe with saw cuts in the bottom 10 feet, filled outside the pipe with gravel and capped with some concrete.
 My well at my house is hand dug and lined with limestone.  About 24" in diameter.  It's 42 feet deep and the water level is 16' when the creek isn't flooding.  If the creek floods long enough, the water level rises to about 4' which is 2' higher than my basement floor...