OT: driving a water well

[Anonymous-0]

Hey folks,
I'm brain storming again. I have a small piece of property that I have a shed and paddock for our young horses in winter/nasty weather. Turns out that there is a spring that surfaces right on the border of it and another piece that climes about 10 meters in a hundred meters. This is the first winter that we used that place and this water makes it impossible to use (either mud or ice). When I was a kid, we lived on a river and almost every place (mostly campsites) along the stretch had a well pump on a pipe/filter that was driven with a post driver. I was thinking to do the same at my place in the spot where the water surfaces. Anyone have experience with this? Not sure how deep I'd need to go, or if I'd just be working for nothing. 1st thing would be that it'd free up a water tank for me to use on another place, and maybe use the water instead of having it soak the field.
Any ideas?

Thanks, Dave

 

[Anonymous-0]

Doooo---it, just might work,no gamble no gain

 

[Mark]

dave,

when I was a boy, we had drove wells. The water table was close to the surface and easy to reach. back then, we had a rig to drive the well point, using the tractor pulley or a car jacked up and used a double rim bolted to the rear axle. A rope was wound around the pulley/rim in such a waythat pulling on it, tightened the rope and caused the driver to raise...when you loosened tension on the rope, the driver would fall...tamping the point with a section of 2" pipe attached. The well point was a piece about 2 or 3 feet long, had a hardned spear point and the body was perforated with fine mesh wire inside to keep out debris. To this, a 10 foot section of 2" galvanized pipe was attached, a cap was put on the bare threads so the tamper wouldn"t deform them. As each section was driven in the ground, a new section of pipe was added. generally these wells were 40 feet deep. Inside the 2" pipe an 1 1/2" pipe with a foot valve was inserted and to this, the pump was attached. generally, these wells would last about 10 years before the point would clog up and we"d drive a new well 6" to 12" beside the old one and start over.

 

[JMS MN]

I was raised in a sandy area of MN- we had 5 driven wells (sand points) around the farm- generally 10-13 feet deep. Hand driven courtesy a 16 pound maul, with a malleable cap on a 1 1/4 inch pipe with a well point like you describe. Either hand pump or electric pump on each.

 

[Bob Kerr]

Driven wells don"t work too good in clay soil.They are best in sand or gravel beds. If you have a spring, it is either an outlet in a clay strata or a crack in a rock strata or a combination of both. In clay and rock areas people would usually have to dig wells by hand. You could dig the area out by hand carefully and when you find where the water is coming from, build a covered concrete block tank around it and move the water from there. If you use heavy equpment it may disturb the water flow and mess things up till it finds its way back through which could take weeks or more depending on the spring. I have seen one messed up and it resprang 15 ft away.

 

[Brian G. NY]

I've had experience with a few springs here in NYS. All of the springs I've messed with come out of the ground horizintally. I have had the best results by digging back toward the source until I get a clear flow. Then I dig DOWN to build a reservoir. The water now flows INTO the resevoir and there is no back pressure exerted on the spring's vein of water. A 4' piece of 3' or 4' culvert makes a good reservoir. If I ever do another one, I will try the black plastic type instead of concrete. A farm nearby has a resevoir made of glazed brown tile about 3' in diameter which seems to be practically indestructible. I have always covered the "vein" back aways with flat rocks and tapered the soil away from the whole area to ward off surface water. I build a tin-roofed "house" over the reservoir with screen covered vents to keep all the "critters' out. Many of our springs here are quite far up on the side of the hill which negates the need for a water pump in most cases.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Could be the case here too. I'll play around a little and may end up with the tank idea also. With some of the screwed up rules here, it may be my best bet anyway.
Thanks for the input.

Dave

 

[T_Bone]

Hi Dave,

You didn't give us alot of info to go on. Hieght of head to point of use? Approx water volume, source, demand?

Like Brian pointed out you need to make a cistern to catch the water then flow/pump that to your demand point. A Ferro cement (3parts sand, 1part cement) cistern can be made easly with just including some type of reinforcing wire, chicken wire works well, rebar, etc then apply your dry mixed cement. Dry as in a very stiff mix. Add 1/4tsp of liquid dish soap/cft to make the cement water tight. 4" thick walls underground, 2" above ground. Fill with water imeaditly to cure the cement.

Size the cistern to over exceed your daily demands. LxWxH/231=gallons, r(2)x3.1416xH/231=gallons, USA numbers in inchs.

On any deep well, the bore shaft is the cistern to pump water from. You'll almost never find a natural underground cistern to pump from.

T_Bone

 

[Anonymous-0]

Went there today to with the idea to scratch around and find the head, and there was no water. Didn't happen overnight, just that I haven't been there when it's light outside for a few weeks (hasn't rained a lot the last 3 weeks either). Looks like my time would be better spent on another project. The horses could use the shade and I could make room for a few more bird houses if I'd just plant a tree in the middle of the spot that always got the wettest. Between a willow and a water maple (both grow a few hundred yards away and I could cut one off and stick it in the ground), which do you folks think would grow faster and/or use more water?

Thanks, Dave