i am wanting to put in a well next spring, local guys charge a fortune. i was in georgia last week and a guy with experience in the business tells me that down there they charge $8 per foot. i am wondering what the rates are for other areas that might be closer to me. it looks like it will be cheaper to pay someone to haul in from several hundred miles away than to hire a local guy. anybody know someone that wants to come to colorado and drill a 400 to 500 foot well for me?
I paid $10.00 a foot plus another $11.00 a foot for casing in 2007. This was in Tenn. SOB is 850 feet deep!
QuoteI paid $10.00 a foot plus another $11.00 a foot for casing in 2007. This was in Tenn. SOB is 850 feet deep!
That cost more than my house ¿
It sure put a hurt on my building fund :o :o
I think the licensing of such things is done by the States, so you might not find an out-of-state driller that can do it. :-\
I wouldn't bother comparing rates from several states away anyway. The drilling conditions are likely very different, which would be reflected in the rates. They can be enough different that significantly different equipment is needed.
Where I grew up in NW Ohio, the water table was high enough that a 50 foot well would often give you plenty of flow. With some exceptions, it was pretty easy drilling (very little rock, and what was there tended to be a lot of limestone). Here in Vermont, my well is 500 feet deep, and they went through a lot of rock along the way (much of it granite and quartzite, I believe). I doubt the guys from Ohio even have the equipment needed to drill here.
$7.00 a foot here, that was a few years back though. We used a dowser which I thought was whacked (wife insisted); he came and did a grid type search and came to a place where he said two veins of water intersected. Maked spot and said water was at 120 ft. I had the drill set up exactly where he marked and at 120 feet we hit water. I believe now.
Dang I hate it when she is right..... :-[
But we have a dependable well, 10 years and its never missed a beat.
Quote from: spencerhenry on December 29, 2010, 08:45:50 AM
i am wanting to put in a well next spring, local guys charge a fortune. i was in georgia last week and a guy with experience in the business tells me that down there they charge $8 per foot. i am wondering what the rates are for other areas that might be closer to me. it looks like it will be cheaper to pay someone to haul in from several hundred miles away than to hire a local guy. anybody know someone that wants to come to colorado and drill a 400 to 500 foot well for me?
spence
What is the cost per foot for the local guy? "charge a fortune" is hard to compare to $8 a foot. :)
had mine drilled in 95 and it was 12 bucks a ft and that was a cased well ready for a pump. 110 ft deep and it was 42 ft to the water in the well after it all settled down. never have lacked for water. had my uncle witch the well for me.
Don't know todays prices but when I was installing pumps a 100 ft well was around 3000.00
Mine was drilled 2 years ago in Nova Scotia, $16. per foot, had to go 400 feet. Plus casing, wire, pipe and 1` hp pump, almost $10,000. >:(
i didnt put the local price in my first post so people would give me numbers that did not have anything to do with my number.
the guy around here charges $40 per foot. that is NO pumps, NO electrical, NO piping to the house. just a cased well. the nearest wells are around 400 feet, but 2 relatively close to me are 585, and 640.
as far as different conditions, the guy i was talking to in georgia was drilling in granite, around here it is basalt, way far down could be some granite, but more likely sandstone.
$40 a foot !!
It sounds to me like he doesn't want the job. :D
i couldnt do much of that before i became a sawmiller/waterwelldriller.
Try "Wildcat Drilling" out of Cedaredge Co. They did 3 wells for me a couple years ago, and did an excellent job. Seems their price was closer to $30 per foot, but I wouldnt speak for them. Their # is 970-856-6583
Was he using a rotary drill or a stomper drill for $40 a foot?
Here it's about $6 a foot for slate a little more if limestone + casing.
The geology and equipment does make a huge differance. If he is using a rotery rig it will go alot faster but if he is running a cable tool rig it will take a month to go 400 feet if there was much rock to deal with. About 25- 30 dollars a foot should be about right for a cased well.
The Drillers with bigger rigs may not care to travel long distances. Sleeping in motels and fuel charges, wear and tear would eat into a lot of the discounting. The crew we used had the Big Hammer Drill Rig, a large support truck with all the casings and also towed a pickup behind the support truck.
They would drive the pickup home at night while leaving the rigs at their next job.
Our well at the Cabin in Northern Maine a couple years ago cost 5300 with the Pump and extra large bladder tank. He also threw in two hundred foot of wire for me to plug into my generator.
The well is 203 ft. deep. The water is great, especially since we don't have to haul it in anymore. :)
400-500 feet to water? :o Not in this country, maybe as much as 200 like up at Moose's camp. Mom's uncle drilled 60 through sand to water. The neighbors drilled in a spot I told them would be an artesian, going by the lay of the land and knowing a spring emerges down hill a bit from there at times. It was a geyser spouting out of there when he hit the vein. :D
Yeah..I guess we were spoilt at my old place. Artesian spring that just surfaced in the middle of no where.
Just bubbled up through a sand bed, but plenty of water to feed 4 farms, and 3 x 3kw pumps hardly made a dent in the flow.
Drill down 500ft, probably hit natural gas :D
Of course, we do get a bit of rain....
Ian
Yeah, my cousin was still hooked up to a spring house just a few years ago that grandfather dug 80 years ago or more. My grandfather was born in the 19th C. ;) It also fed grandfather's place and the trough at the barn.
Wells are a scary thing. You never know how deep or how much. Mine well went down only 140 feet,40 gallon a minute. I missed the whole thing.Took them no time to drill it.We was doing some running around for the new house and by the time we got back they was gone. Cost me $14 per foot for everything.The guy building the house just had one drilled at his place by the same guy for twice that much.He kept saying the bill was wrong.Could not convince him that they went twice that far at his house. I heard ALOT of stories when mine was being drilled.This one sticks out the most. A guy at work was having a well drilled.Went down 700 feet not much water.They stopped and asked him what he wanted to do. He said to set over 20 feet go down 10 feet and go straight 100 feet and drill into his neighbor well that was getting 50 gallons a minute.They went down another 50 and got 10 gpm. They did take $2000 off a 7000 bill.
Yeah. what is going on underground is often a mystery. Here the whole underground has been pretty well surveyed by the oil companies, and if you can get a look at their maps they show how the sandstone structures are underground. We just happened to break into one that extended out 20-30 miles east. Once it skipped our river valley it extended out west under the volcanic area and into the sea where they were drilling for oil.
You could actually see the hard layer where the river had carved though the harder sandstone layer nearby.
So a 1/4 mile away, the aquifer didn't exist any more and you relied on river run-off from the Mt.
Ian
I had one drilled last year at my farm. I got estimates from 4 different drillers. I went with one driller who used a system no one else offered , and it allowed him to put the casing down at the same time the hole was being drilled. This method didn't require a drilling slurry to be used , as the well is being drilled they just put compressed air down the hole with a very little water. The advantage of this is a soon as you hit a little water you will know it , with a slurry they are pumping a large amount of that down there and it is much easier to drill right through a vein of water and not know it. I got very lucky as I only had to go 83 feet. I was there when he was drilling so I could see exactly what was coming out of the hole as he was going down and I told him when to stop. I stood back and watched as they were developing the well to see what kind of flow it had and the water began pouring out... 50 gpm :D I was so happy 8)
total cost just for the well was $3,380 . It was $25 a foot to drill including casing. Other cost was for the well screen, developing the well, drive shoe, well cap, water sample, and they charged $100 for what they called mobilization/demobilization which was fuel related costs.
You are looking at around 32 bucks a foot here but there is quite a bit of rock in some places depending upon where the drillindg is being done. This includes casing.
It can actually be a lot cheaper to drill in rock because you don't need casing which is very expensive.
It's funny, our little small village about 5 miles away has two or three drillers for the whole area for 50 miles in any direction.
Anybody use divining rods to determine the site of their wells? I've got a story!
Doctorb
I can do it. My dad was one of the best around and witched wells all over Michigan. I can do it, but dad could tell you how deep. He could find drains and tile in basement floors, almost anything underground that "flowed" electrical, gas or water.
I can do it too. I read an article about it and it worked - twice for me. As a scientist I have no explanation for it, but Iam a believer. maybe a new thread? Doctorb
I've had some success but I use a piece of PCV and bent copper wire.
Don't know much about water witching but I can find anything buried in the ground and what direction it's running with 2 pieces of copper wire. It probably isn't that unusual but I have been with people that can't, so I stop them on the spot I found and all I have to do is lay a hand on their shoulder and the wires will turn. Don't have a clue how this works but I had to demonstrate it for a friend that works for a gas company, his job is locating lines, he believes me now :D. I don't have a clue as to the depth of anything or what it is, just know somethings there, and I've also always thought I'm the best ground God ever created, dad always told me I could get shocked by looking at an electric fence, he's not far off. ;D
After I bought my first house, a little 2 bedroom cape cod, my well ran dry. Turns out it was a dug well, not drilled, and about 60 feet deep (or so they said). So we got the county to show us where not to put the new well (septic concerns) and then had to choose a site.
Luckily, I had just read an article on water witching in the Baltimore Sun. They used coat hanger wire and 16 ounce pop bottles. I tried it. When I walked over the old well, they crossed. So I was impressed about their ability to detect water, but not necessarily water volume. I really tried again and again and they crossed reproducibly at that spot. My brother was in town later that day and I told him of this phenomenon. He tried it and it had the same result.
Intrigued, I headed to the front yard to pick the spot for the new well. I found a place with a strong crossing signal that would occur no mater how I approached it. I put a penny on the lawn, well hidden in the grass at that spot.
My brother did not accompany me on this search. He was in the house and did not know the location I had selected. He tried at about dusk so he could not see the penny. Yep, he picked the exact same spot. I drove a stake in the ground there, and the drilling started 2 days later. Got 15.4 gallons per minute at 165 feet.
Same type of thing happened at my current house, with less volume but no well troubles, like my neighbors. I am a believer and I don't think you need some innate power to pull this off.
Doctorb
I'm a skeptic myself, I could dig most anywhere here and find water. And some of those jokers also have some local knowledge which increases their chances. I found that artesian from evidence not magic. ;)
Don't blame ya' for bein' skeptical. I would be too if I hadn't experienced it more than once. It's not logical, so it's tough to swallow as being true and reasonable. Nevertheless, I would do it again in a heartbeat if i needed to drill a well. Doctorb
Do you think it would work to find a Sprinkler PVC pipe that is underground about a foot deep?
They have water in them.
I have a couple runs that I capped off a few years ago that I thought was overkill for watering my yard.
Would like to put some heads on them now for better coverage.(should have gone with my first instinct)
Most of us have sprinklers systems down here to keep green grass.
I have done 3 systems at other houses and enjoy doing them.
I'm not sure where the lines are buried and couldn't find them when digging. ::)
Some people got it, some don't. I can't find didly, but I have a good friend who can find the same spot time after time while he is blindfolded. Been my experience that more women have the ability than men. I've seen copper wires, coat hanger wire, and forked willow limbs used.
Mooseherder, only one way to find out. I'd try walking across an existing line that you know is there, if it works on that one it should on the ones you've lost track of. I've never tried it on pvc lines but I can locate old clay sewer pipes as easy as anything metal or electric.
I know where it is within 5 feet. :D
My one hole was getting a little wide and I decided to quit for the time being.
Quote from: Jeff on December 30, 2010, 11:47:46 AM
I can do it. My dad was one of the best around and witched wells all over Michigan. I can do it, but dad could tell you how deep. He could find drains and tile in basement floors, almost anything underground that "flowed" electrical, gas or water.
I had a friend that would take 2 coat hangers and take them apart and bend them into an L shape one in each hand. He could hold them out in front of him and make them turn left or right at will and it had nothing to do with manipulating the wires it all was some "unknown" force I would call it. I could hold them in my hands and they wouldn't do anythig, but if he put his hand on my shoulder they would begin to turn this way or that. He could use them to find water. With water is not as much where as it is how deep. Water witching is not magic it is just something some folks can't understand and explain scientifically, but nonetheless it works there is no doubt about it.
Yep Northwoods, that's all I do, always figured it had something to do with magnetism. A neighbor of mine uses the bottles and forked sticks, I'd like to watch him sometime, he's supposed to be very good at it.
voo-doo can kill people in 24 hrs, candy meds works, and witching been working for 1000 of yrs--whats new here?
SE
I remember the guy who bent spoons until they revealed his fancy handwork. ;)