drill your own water well with mud pump factory

Historically, most drillers dug two pits prior to drilling a well.  A first pit, called a settling pit, received the drilling fluid and cuttings from the drill hole via a short shallow trench.  The cuttings settled down to the bottom of the the settling pit.  A second pit, called a mud pit, was dug nearby and a second trench directed the overflow of the settling pit into the mud pit.  Most of the cuttings settle to the bottom of the settling pit and the drilling fluid in the mud pit has a much higher liquid to cuttings ratio.  In other words, the water in the second pit, the mud pit, is “cleaner.” Drilling fluid from the mud pit is then pumped, by a mud pump, back down the drillpipe.  During the drilling process, cuttings are continuously shoveled from the settling pit so it does not become clogged with cuttings.  Although most of the cuttings settle in the settling pit, it is also necessary to occasionally shovel cuttings from the mud pit as well.

Below is a photograph of mud pits prepared for drilling.  This photograph is from the hydra-jett site.  Hydra-Fab manufacturing http://hydra-jett.com/index.html  sells small and medium sized drilling rigs and is worth looking at if you are considering moving up to a small rig.

As you might imagine, diggining mud pits is a significant undertaking and it makes an even bigger mess of your drilling site.  Modern drillers, being both ingenious and capitalistic souls, have devised a way to avoid this costly, unpleasant step.  They bring portable mud pits to the drill site.  A portable mud pit is simply a container or series of containers that the drilling fluid from the hole is directed to where cuttings settle out prior to the fluid being pumped again down the drillpipe.  Not only does it eliminate the time/money consuming digging but it leaves a cleaner drillsite upon completion of the well.

….but it frequently doesn’t work as well for those of us who have small portable mud pits.  Using real mud pits results in more efficient drilling.  There is no leakage around the guide tube with real mud pits.

Here is an example of a portable mud pit positioned at the back of a commercial drilling rig.  Cuttings from the hole are directed into the settling pit on the right.  Then drilling fluid passes through to the mud pit on the left and it is pumped back down the hole.

There is a wide variety of designs of portable mud pits.  Here are just a few sketches I found to give you an idea of designs that folks have come up with.

So, by now your are probably wondering, where does all that leave us?  We are not going to buy one of those $500 portable mud pits for our $200 project are we?  Absolutely not, in fact you may just be better off digging your pits.   If you are going to dig several wells you might want to consider using a portable mud pit with a mud pump.  I made one out of wood and it works fine.  It is not as efficient as the commercial mud pits but it does the job.  Please take a look at the video below.

As you can see my portable mud pit is just a wooden box with a fitting for the suction line and a minor obstruction to keep the cuttings away from the suction.  You can probably come up with a better design for a portable mud pit that I have.  I probably could but it is already built and I’m not inclined to build another one – but – If I were doing another one, I’d probably build two boxes that fit inside one another for easier travel and storage, and then sat beside each other when drilling.

You can drill your own shallow water well using PVC and household water hoses.   It is a cheap and effective way to dig your own shallow water well.  Water well drilling isn’t just for the pros with huge commercial drilling rigs.  Digging a water well yourself is both interesting and fun.

The water well drilling methods described here work well in digging/drilling through dirt, and clay, including really hard clay.  They will not work if you need to drill through rock but, if the area you live in is flat or relatively flat, it is definitely worth a try.  Many folks think they have to dig or drill their well into an aquifer.  For irrigation and lawn watering, reaching an aquifer isn’t necessary.  You only have to drill under the standing water level. It is very likely that you can drill your own well.  Many successful wells have been drilled using this well drilling method.  It is cheap. You can expect the “drilling” portion of the project to cost about $200.

In these pages the “do it yourself water well drilling” technique is referred to as well drilling, but many call this technique “washing” or “jetting” a well.   It is somewhat similar to the rotary bit method which most real water well drillers use for water bore drilling.

The DIY technique involves water pumped down the center of a PVC schedule 40 pipe used as both a drill stem and a drill bit.  At the bottom end of the PVC pipe a “drill bit” is fashioned by cutting teeth into the end of the PVC pipe.  The pipe is rotated back and forth as the PVC pipe is slowly worked into the ground while the cuttings are brought to the surface by the upward flow of water in the annular space around the pipe.   If you want to dig your own well, try this technique.

Installing a well and a pump can save a lot of money, especially if you are now paying the local utility for irrigation water.  You have probably noticed that just watering the lawn can get expensive.  You can spend less money watering the lawn.  Actually, you can spend almost no money watering the lawn.  It is great for gardeners, too.

If you are a first time visitor to the site you will probably want to start out with either the “Background” or the “Basic Well Drilling Steps” pages.  The bulk of the site is dedicated to drilling water wells using just two hoses for drilling fluid.  Inexpensive PVC is used for the drill pipe, the drill bit, and the well screen.  This DIY water well drilling technique is very cheap and many successful shallow wells have been installed using this technique.

When drilling a well by hand, it can be very helpful to at least be familiar with the techniques used by real well drillers – the kind with big powerful trucks and huge water tanks.  What we do is extremely similar, almost identical.  We can’t dig holes as wide or as deep but it is the same process.  A local well drilling company was kind enough to let me video their process.  Check it out at “Real Well Drilling.”

There are several enhancements you can make to the basic DIY well drilling technique.  To make the technique even more effective you can use the techniques described on the pages, “Drilling Deeper with BENTONITE” and “Drill 10 Feet Deeper.”  Additionally, converting to a metal drill bit will make your drilling more productive.  These are all techniques that were sent in by users of the site and discovered as they drilled their wells.

A gravel pack can increase a well’s production so there is a section on them.  I don’t recommend you include a gravel pack on your first well but after you get the hang of the technique this is something you will probably want to check out the pages on gravel packs.

Don’t go shopping for a pump without reading this page: Which Pump? You want a shallow well pump, also known as a suction pump. Pool pumps and other types of transfer pumps will not work.

In the “Videos” section, you will find videos that show techniques used world wide.  Some of these techniques, like the Baptist Method, require very little drilling fluid and have been used for centuries.

We’ve been fortunate enough to receive some input from Bob Tabor, a real well driller who has been drilling wells all of his life.  Please be sure and check out the page – “Advice from a REAL Well Driller.”

Bill Granade in Tampa, Florida has developed a very similar DIY water well drilling technique.  He has been wildly successful.  Bill has helped his neighbors drill a bunch of wells his protocols may be useful to you.  Look under “Another Home Driller.”

Several users of this site have been kind enough to send pictures and info about wells that they have drilled.  Check out “Success Stories” in the menu.  For example, one of our recent success stories, Steve in South Jersey is interesting. Steve needed a way to water his Christmas tree farm and he successfully drilled his own well.  Very impressive effort!  We even got a wonderful email from Greg in Australia about his successful well.

For drillers interested in moving up to the next level: be sure and check out the page on Mud Pump Drilling. It is absolutely the way to go if you can buy or borrow a mud pump (sometimes called a trash pump).  It costs more than the two hose method but is still a lot less expensive than hiring a driller.

There is a section for Questions and Answers where I have posted the most common questions I receive.  I hope it helps you.  There are also sections on Source of Supply, Well Drilling Manuals as well as Well Drilling Links.

Commercially drilled water wells tend to be very expensive.  This DIY well drilling technique is very cheap.  It will almost definitely work if you live near the coast and will likely work if you live in a flat inland area.It is great for saving money on watering your lawn and irrigating a garden.

As I mentioned in the video, the most interesting things I have experienced in posting this website are the enhancements and improvements that YOU, the viewers and users of this site have submitted.  I figured out a few improvements to the Brady Well Kit early on and I managed to drill a functional well after several tries and that is why I posted the site.  And then – users started writing me and showing me things they had discovered!  At this point, I can safely say that most of the techniques presented here are not mine.  They are yours!  I hope they help you.  I hope that if you discover an improvement or an enhancement that you will send it to me so I can post it for others to use.

Below is a video submitted by one of the users of this site.  Please take a look at the DIY water well drilled by Travis of Mobile, Alabama.  Travis used a 10 foot long 1.25 inch well screen.  Congratulations, Travis!

When choosing a size and type of mud pump for your drilling project, there are several factors to consider. These would include not only cost and size of pump that best fits your drilling rig, but also the diameter, depth and hole conditions you are drilling through. I know that this sounds like a lot to consider, but if you are set up the right way before the job starts, you will thank me later.

Recommended practice is to maintain a minimum of 100 to 150 feet per minute of uphole velocity for drill cuttings. Larger diameter wells for irrigation, agriculture or municipalities may violate this rule, because it may not be economically feasible to pump this much mud for the job. Uphole velocity is determined by the flow rate of the mud system, diameter of the borehole and the diameter of the drill pipe. There are many tools, including handbooks, rule of thumb, slide rule calculators and now apps on your handheld device, to calculate velocity. It is always good to remember the time it takes to get the cuttings off the bottom of the well. If you are drilling at 200 feet, then a 100-foot-per-minute velocity means that it would take two minutes to get the cuttings out of the hole. This is always a good reminder of what you are drilling through and how long ago it was that you drilled it. Ground conditions and rock formations are ever changing as you go deeper. Wouldn’t it be nice if they all remained the same?

Centrifugal-style mud pumps are very popular in our industry due to their size and weight, as well as flow rate capacity for an affordable price. There are many models and brands out there, and most of them are very good value. How does a centrifugal mud pump work? The rotation of the impeller accelerates the fluid into the volute or diffuser chamber. The added energy from the acceleration increases the velocity and pressure of the fluid. These pumps are known to be very inefficient. This means that it takes more energy to increase the flow and pressure of the fluid when compared to a piston-style pump. However, you have a significant advantage in flow rates from a centrifugal pump versus a piston pump. If you are drilling deeper wells with heavier cuttings, you will be forced at some point to use a piston-style mud pump. They have much higher efficiencies in transferring the input energy into flow and pressure, therefore resulting in much higher pressure capabilities.

Piston-style mud pumps utilize a piston or plunger that travels back and forth in a chamber known as a cylinder. These pumps are also called “positive displacement” pumps because they literally push the fluid forward. This fluid builds up pressure and forces a spring-loaded valve to open and allow the fluid to escape into the discharge piping of the pump and then down the borehole. Since the expansion process is much smaller (almost insignificant) compared to a centrifugal pump, there is much lower energy loss. Plunger-style pumps can develop upwards of 15,000 psi for well treatments and hydraulic fracturing. Centrifugal pumps, in comparison, usually operate below 300 psi. If you are comparing most drilling pumps, centrifugal pumps operate from 60 to 125 psi and piston pumps operate around 150 to 300 psi. There are many exceptions and special applications for drilling, but these numbers should cover 80 percent of all equipment operating out there.

The restriction of putting a piston-style mud pump onto drilling rigs has always been the physical size and weight to provide adequate flow and pressure to your drilling fluid. Because of this, the industry needed a new solution to this age-old issue.

Enter Cory Miller of Centerline Manufacturing, who I recently recommended for recognition by the National Ground Water Association (NGWA) for significant contributions to the industry.

As the senior design engineer for Ingersoll-Rand’s Deephole Drilling Business Unit, I had the distinct pleasure of working with him and incorporating his Centerline Mud Pump into our drilling rig platforms.

In the late ’90s — and perhaps even earlier —  Ingersoll-Rand had tried several times to develop a hydraulic-driven mud pump that would last an acceptable life- and duty-cycle for a well drilling contractor. With all of our resources and design wisdom, we were unable to solve this problem. Not only did Miller provide a solution, thus saving the size and weight of a typical gear-driven mud pump, he also provided a new offering — a mono-cylinder mud pump. This double-acting piston pump provided as much mud flow and pressure as a standard 5 X 6 duplex pump with incredible size and weight savings.

The true innovation was providing the well driller a solution for their mud pump requirements that was the right size and weight to integrate into both existing and new drilling rigs. Regardless of drill rig manufacturer and hydraulic system design, Centerline has provided a mud pump integration on hundreds of customer’s drilling rigs. Both mono-cylinder and duplex-cylinder pumps can fit nicely on the deck, across the frame or even be configured for under-deck mounting. This would not be possible with conventional mud pump designs.

Centerline stuck with their original design through all of the typical trials and tribulations that come with a new product integration. Over the course of the first several years, Miller found out that even the best of the highest quality hydraulic cylinders, valves and seals were not truly what they were represented to be. He then set off on an endeavor to bring everything in-house and began manufacturing all of his own components, including hydraulic valves. This gave him complete control over the quality of components that go into the finished product.

The second generation design for the Centerline Mud Pump is expected later this year, and I believe it will be a true game changer for this industry. It also will open up the application to many other industries that require a heavier-duty cycle for a piston pump application.

OK, all y’all air drillers just thumb on over to Porky’s column or something. This is for mud drillers. On second thought, I know a lot of you air guys drill about three mud wells a year, and consider it a hassle to rig up mud. So, maybe something I say will be interesting …

The mud pump is the heart of the circulating system, and mud is the blood circulating in the hole. I’ve talked about mud before and will again, but this month, let’s talk about the pump.

Historically, more wells, of every kind, have been drilled with duplex pumps than any other kind. They are simple and strong, and were designed in the days when things were meant to last. Most water well drillers use them. The drawbacks are size and weight. A pump big enough to do the job might be too big to fit on the rig, so some guys use skid-mounted pumps. They also take a fair amount of horsepower. If you were to break down the horsepower requirements of your rig, you would find out that the pump takes more power than the rotary and hoist combined. This is not a bad thing, since it does a lot of the work drilling. While duplex pumps generally make plenty of volume, one of the limiting factors is pressure. Handling the high pressures demanded by today’s oil well drilling required a pump so big and heavy as to be impractical. Some pretty smart guys came up with the triplex pump. It will pump the same — or more — volume in a smaller package, is easy to work on and will make insane pressure when needed. Some of the modern frack outfits run pumps that will pump all day long at 15,000 psi. Scary. Talk about burning some diesel.

The places that triplex pumps have in the shallow drilling market are in coring and air drilling. The volume needs are not as great. For instance, in hard rock coring, surface returns are not always even seen, and the fluid just keeps the diamonds cool. In air drilling, a small triplex is used to inject foam or other chemicals into the air line. It’s basically a glorified car wash pump. The generic name is Bean pump, but I think this just justifies a higher price. Kinda like getting the same burger at McDonald’s versus in a casino.

One of the reasons water well drillers don’t run triplex pumps, besides not needing insane pressure, is they require a positive suction head. In other words, they will not pick up out of the pit like a duplex. They require a centrifugal charging pump to feed them, and that is just another piece of equipment to haul and maintain.

This brings me to another thought: charging. I know a lot of drillers running duplex pumps that want to improve the efficiency of their pumps. Duplexes with a negative suction head generally run at about 85 percent efficiency. The easy way to improve the efficiency is to charge them, thus assuring a 100 percent efficiency. This works great, but almost every one of them, after doing all that work and rigging up a charging pump, tells me that their pump output doubled. Being the quiet, mild mannered type that I am, I don’t say “Bull,” but it is. A duplex pump is a positive displacement pump. That means that it can deliver no more than the displacement it was designed for. You can only fill the cylinder up until it is full. It won’t take any more. The one exception to this is when you are pumping at very low pressure. Then the charging pump will over run the duplex, float the valves and produce a lot more fluid. Might as well shut off the duplex and drill with the charging pump.

Another common pump used in the water well industry is the centrifugal. You see them mostly on air rigs that don’t use mud too often. They have their place, but are a different breed of cat. They are not positive displacement. Flow is a function of speed and horsepower up to the limits of the pump. After that, they just dead-head. With large diameter drill pipe they make a lot of mud, but after the hole gets deeper, friction losses — both inside and outside the drill pipe — build up. This means that the deeper you go, the less circulation you have. This slows the whole process. Positive displacement pumps don’t do this; they pump the same per stroke regardless of pressure. It just takes more horsepower. Also, displacement calculations like bottoms-up time and cement placement are just about impossible. One way to get around the limited pressure of centrifugal pumps is to run two of them in series. I’ve seen a few of these rig-ups and they work very well for large diameter drilling. They will make almost the same pressure as a big duplex for a lot less money. They are still variable displacement, but they roll so much fluid that it doesn’t seem to matter. And run at pretty reasonable depths, too: 300 to 400 psi at 400 gpm is not uncommon with two 3 x 4 centrifugal pumps in series.

I reckon there are pumps for every type of drilling. It is just a matter of using the right one correctly. I once drilled a 42-inch hole 842 feet deep with a 5½ x 8 duplex. Talk about long bottoms-up time … but we got the casing in with less than two feet of fill on bottom! Took time, but we got-er-done.

Explore the various water well drills with mud pump products available for wholesale at Alibaba.com. Get a water well drills with mud pump for drilling water wells, water exploration holes, geological exploration, coal mines, and other kinds of mining. Some water well drills with mud pump options use caterpillar tread to move. Others use rubber tires, while others require a separate means of transport. Caterpillar tread propulsion can climb up to 25 degrees inclination. Some products in the range are capable of drilling over 200 meters, while others are only used for open-pit mining with depths of around 3 meters. Drilling can be done vertically downwards, horizontally, or in a slanting direction. Drilling speed depends on the power of the machine and the general hardness of the surface. The hole diameter can vary from 90mm to 200mm.

water well drills with mud pump options also include an air compressor, a mud pump, drilling rods of various sizes, connectors, and a drilling tower. Drilling is done using drill bits of various shapes, sizes, and compositions. You can choose between diamond bits, alloy ring-shaped bits, 3-wing alloy bits, PDC bits, and hammer bits. Each drill bit uses different drilling methods, including rotary, percussion, blast hole, and core drilling.

Smaller products have a lifting power of around 25 kilonewtons and weigh about 2,500kgs. They’re ideal for small-scale drillings such as farms and homes. Larger ones are faster with more power, making them ideal for commercial use. Browse through Alibaba.com and find a water well drills with mud pump that’s ideal for your work scope. Buy mine drilling rigs for your wholesale business at competitive prices. Chinese wholesalers provide you with customization options and great after-sales services.

TheZX-1000 is a 16 HP Gravity Type (drilling pressure applied by the weight of the power head) portable drilling rig with many built-in standard features. It comes standard with 125" of 1-1/4" Drill Stem with wide thread machined tool joints, 2 Carbide Drill Bits (your choice of sizes), Adjustable Slip Assembly, High Capacity Water Swivel(The Key Feature, Our Own Proven Design), 12 Volt Electric Winch with Remote Control, 2X2 Mud / Trash Pump. It includes a choice of engine configurations, Import or Kohler Electric Start, and more. Please call for detailed spec sheet.

The PTO Rig is among our strongest drilling rigs, it is Fully Hydraulic, Chain Drive, 3 Point Hitch, it includes 200" of 1-1/4" Drill Stem with wide thread machined tool joints, 2 Carbide Drill Bits (your choice of sizes), Adjustable Slip Assembly (Our Own Proven Design), PTO Pump, Mud Pump, Built-In Hydraulic Resevoir, High Capacity Water Swivel(Our Own Proven Design). Please call for detailed Spec Sheet.

INSERT THE TESTIMONIAL TEXT HERE. FOR EXAMPLE:Thank you for providing such a valuable service. Your staff was extremely helpful and I am so happy with the outcome. I wish all businesses would treat their customers as you do and I will recommend you to all my associates. Thanks again for your help.

INSERT THE TESTIMONIAL TEXT HERE. FOR EXAMPLE:Thank you for providing such a valuable service. Your staff was extremely helpful and I am so happy with the outcome. I wish all businesses would treat their customers as you do and I will recommend you to all my associates. Thanks again for your help.

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INSERT THE TESTIMONIAL TEXT HERE. FOR EXAMPLE:Thank you for providing such a valuable service. Your staff was extremely helpful and I am so happy with the outcome. I wish all businesses would treat their customers as you do and I will recommend you to all my associates. Thanks again for your help.

Greetings Tim & Charlott, below is a GPS link and information on the well we just installed in the honor of Tim & Charlott King! Your love and commitment has allowed our Clean Water 4 Life ministry to sink over 500 water wells for those in need here in the Solomon Islands! Here is a link to read my current newsletter with lots of pictures! http://www.rickrupp.com/newsletter.php

Togokoba SSEC Church & Community is approx 58 kilometers east of Honiara. It was a long bumpy drive to this village. I had to walk a long way to get to the place where they lived. They explained that their source of drinking water was the stream. They were so happy when I explained that our CW4L team was going to come sink a well right in their village. I tasted the well water several weeks later after our team had blessed them with a water well. It tasted so good! It was nice clean & cold water! It never ceases to amaze me that there is such a nice water table here in the rural areas of the Guadnacanal plains! I counted 10 houses in this community and the population is approx 80 people. Now they finally have a source of clean drinking water! These people have suffered for many years either drinking from an open hand dug well or from the stream. Togokoba SSEC Church & Community is very grateful to our CW4L sponsors.

If you"ve chosen to move out to an undisturbed, rural location, or you"re concerned about the quality of your local municipal water and want a healthier alternative, you may be interested in digging a water well. How do you know where to get started or know what you need to do. To help you on this DIY journey, our well pump repair company in Raleigh is walking you through how to dig a well.

Every state has different guidelines and rules related to digging your own well. In North Carolina, Article 7, Chapter 87 of the General Statute outlines the Well Construction Act, and the guidelines of this law include:

Prior permission must be obtained from your local public health department, or, if it"s a 100,000 gallon a day well or are to be dug in a protected geographical area, the Environmental Management Commission needs to issue the permit.

Each county health department implements a water well permitting, inspection, and testing program, so your first step toward digging a well is reaching out to them to start the permit process.

Many people who are researching how to dig a well don"t realize how deep groundwater generally is below the surface of the earth as well as how difficult it can be to get to it. In North Carolina, most wells extend well beyond 100 feet deep and, because groundwater is filtered through silt, stone, and layers of minerals, you have to dig through all of that in order to access the groundwater in the first place. To know what you"re getting in to, it"s important to know what"s lying below the surface.

While you"re getting information about digging conditions, this is also a good time to know exactly where your septic or sewer lines are located. Contaminated groundwater can make you and your family dangerously sick, so it"s important to know exactly where the lines are located so you can dig your well at least 50 feet away from them. If you don"t feel confident where you are digging, it"s important to reach out to well drilling specialist, to ensure you don"t damage underground pipes.

This is a physically demanding, near impossible task that may be actually impossible if the soil is clay-heavy or has shallow bedrock. It involves literally pounding a length of pipe with a post digger down through the earth until it reaches the groundwater, which could be as much as 300 feet deep.

Using a pneumatic drill and an air compressor, you can literally drill through the dirt, rock, and other barriers and run as much as two or three hundred feet of PVC water pipe into the earth. This is still a long setup, sometimes taking days or even a few weeks to complete.

Because our groundwater is deep and driving a well is so challenging, we"re outlining what you"ll need to have on hand and what you"ll need to do to drill your own water well.

You may also need duct tape, measuring tape, and markers, plus equipment to keep your compressor and drill operating. Instead of buying the materials individually, you may want to purchase a DIY Well Kit which contains much of what you need except the PVC.

Using an auger or post-hole digger, dig down about five feet and cut the 8" PVC pipe to fit the hole with four inches sticking up from the ground. Next drill a 2" hole into the side of the exposed pipe and insert the 2" PVC.

Dig a shallow settling pond 10 feet away from the well that"s at least four feet wide and run an eight inch ditch connecting the pond to your well and run the 2" PVC pipe into the ditch and cover with dirt. This pipe"s job is to transfer clean water from the pipe into the drill hole.

Place the drum at the edge of the settling pond and face it toward the well. As the drum catches water from the well, it will empty into the pond and flow back in.

Attach PVC pipe to the drill and secure it to prevent leaks. and run the other end of the pipe into the 55 gallon drum. This creates a space where mud and water can empty out.

Fill your well hole with water and turn on the drill before placing it into the hole. Move the drill up, down, and horizontally to help break up the soil.

When you need to add more pipe, remove the running drill from out of the water, then turn the pressure off. Add more pipe, and continue to drill downward.

Once you get the appropriate depth, case off the well by lowering in SDR 35 pipe until it"s the full depth of the well plus 3 feet above ground. You"ll keep it in place with concrete and pea gravel to prevent runoff from contaminating your well water.

Drilling your own well can be done, but it"s a lengthy, exhaustive process that involves having to buy a large quantity of materials, and give up days or weeks of your time. Instead of doing this yourself, reach out to us for professional well drillingand well pump installation in Raleigh. With decades of experience and state-of-the-art equipment, we can tackle any well quickly and efficiently so you can enjoy clean, fresh water into your home effortlessly!

A: Well drilling completion times vary from a half day to three days or longer.  Drilling time is affected by many factors including time to set up, difficult drilling formations and weather.  All of these factors vary from site to site and well to well.  These are also factors that we have no control over.  In addition, the time it takes to develop each well is different.  Because of these variables there is no way for us to give a fixed time for well completion.

Q: Yes. Artesian and Floridan Aquifer wells are permitted in your area. They can be drilled for several different purposes(home use, geothermal, irrigation, etc.). PWD drills many Floridan Aquifer wells and keeps a record of each one. Call our office for more information on Floridan Aquifer wells in your area.

A: Florida is fortunate to have one of the most porductive aquifers in the world, the Floridan Aquifer. When drilling a Floridan Aquifer well, PWD can guarantee the quantity of water the well will produce.

Unlike Floridan Aquifer wells, shallower wells access aquifers that have unpredictable characteristics. PWD will guarantee a minimum of 10 gallons per minute from wells other than Floridan Aquifer wells.

A: PWD has over 100 years of records of wells drilled in Northeast Florida. With your property address, we consult our records to see what wells are availble in your area.Floridan Aquifer wells are availble in all areas of Notheast Florida.

A:  “Salt & Pepper” wells, or  Intermediate wells are normally 3″ or 4″ in diameter and are drilled to depths of 220-320 feet. At this depth water is withdrawn from a aquifer that consist of clays and sands that resemble salt & pepper.

A: Part of the drilling process includes removing cuttings from the borehole we drill during well construction. To contain & dispose of the cuttings we usually dig two pits beside the drilling rig. These pits vary in size based on well size & depth. Generally they are +/- 3ft wide x 6ft long x 4ft deep. Drilling fluid is circulated through the pits where the cuttings settle out and the drilling fluid is reused. We will cover the pits when the well is complete.. For a period of time the covered pits will be soft.

If you do not want pits dug in your yard there is a solution. We can use portable above grade pits instead of digging the pits. When we use the above ground pits we also bring a vacuum tank to remove all of the drill cuttings and fluid from your yard. This does require an additional crew member, an additional truck, the vacuum tank to dispose of fluid and drill cuttings off site, therefore there is a charge for this service. We will be glad to price this service for you upon request.

A: Wells that “go dry” are generally shallow/surficial wells that are less than 50′. These wells depend on rainfall to replenish the water table. Partridge Well drills wells that are usually deeper and penetrate a confined aquifer. This means that our wells are not directly dependent on rainfall. The water level may rise and fall in these wells, but they do not go dry.

In cases where the power is lost or is not available and a pump is required to pull the water out of the well, PWD can install a pitcher pump or hand pump(pictured to the right) to access the water without power.

A: It is your choice.  We have to mix a drilling mud for the drilling process and dispose of it when we are finished  The mud(shown in this picture to the right) is composed of water, sand, and clay. Typically we pump this mud onto the property where the well is drilled. However, we do offer an upgrade where we can use a special truck to contain the drill mud and remove it from your property.

Drillers rely on the Geoprobe®/DRILLMAX® Southeast Service Center for stocking parts of a drill rig for routine rig maintenance or more extensive repairs and service to keep rigs operational.

Putting hands on controls and interacting with engineers and services technicians during water well drilling equipment factory tour provides incentive to invest in DRILLMAX® rig.

Overall power, available options, small top drive drilling rig size, and bigger jacks on latest DM250 models make slipping into lake lots , leveling up, and drilling through tough formations efficient even during frost laws.

Small DM250 outperforms larger rigs with faster rotation speed and head movement while offering easy operation and maneuverability on residential water well drilling sites.

DRILLMAX® DM450 provides remarkable power for its compact configuration. NEW rod carousel options accommodate drill pipe preference while it permits performing one-man operation.

Demand for geothermal energy has generated drilling industry growth. For many companies, geothermal drilling business is booming, while others weather fluctuations by diversifying their service lines with a single rig.

When it comes to water well drilling, a small rig doesn’t require sacrificing production. With today’s technology, small drill rigs provide just as much power – or more – than many larger rigs and offer additional business advantages.

Amplify production while allowing driller to focus on making the hole and helper to work on other job site duties with NEW options including rod carousel.

Spending summers working for his father’s drilling business in Virginia, Scott Miller earned an electrical engineering degree and worked for Lockheed Martin in Alabama until his father’s controller retired in 2000.

Having already contemplated starting his own IT business, he moved back to Virginia, started his business, and for three years did his father’s books on the side. He discovered it was no part-time job.

“I did his office work and ran my own business and knew I couldn’t continue doing both. I liked working to keep employees happy and employed and knew I could be home in the evenings,” Miller said.

So he gave up his IT company, hired a controller, and took over the three department Northern Virginia Drilling. His brother runs their blast hole drilling department while Scott runs the water well and geothermal departments.

“I’ve drilled, installed pumps, done filtrations, and fused geothermal pipe in the ditch. If it’s a large commercial job, I’m usually on site,” Miller said. “All my drillers are smoother than me because they’re doing it every day, but I’m usually pretty good about helping solve problems if they run into a snag.”

“We kept getting requests ­­— too many to continue to ignore,” Miller said. “So we started doing auxiliary mud pump, but it wasn’t efficient. We needed something affordable with more mud rotary ability. We asked around and most steered us toward DRILLMAX®.”

While they bought the DM250 for its mud rotary abilities, they’ve found it to be very capable of completing air rotary drilling with an auxiliary air compressor to run the down hole hammer.

They’ve installed two, 500-foot rock wells — one 6 inch and another 4 inch. The 6-inch well required surface casing, so they did 10-inch mud rotary to 200 feet and set the 6-inch steel casing.

“We just decided to see what the DM250 could do, so pulled in an auxiliary air compressor and used a 6-inch hammer to complete the 6-inch well pulling 12 gallons/minute,” Miller said.

“We’d done the neighbor’s well to 200 feet using mud, but when we moved over, there was no water. So we set 280 feet of surface casing and used a 3-inch hammer to drill into the rock with a 4-inch bit,” Miller said. “The DM250 could do it every day if we wanted.”

“We can go that deep with a single axle, non-CDL truck and pull 500 feet of rod,” Miller said. "It"s small, but can run 20-foot rods. There are other small rigs, but they only run 10-foot tooling."

“With mud rotary on DM250 we’re using 25 gallons/day. Our fuel bill is a lot less,” Miller said. “Plus the compact, 4-wheel drive is easier on and off muddy sites. With no CDL required, any employee can drive it.”

“We also like that DRILLMAX® has Geoprobe® as a parent company. We knew we’d have somebody to help keep inventory and provide support out in the field,” Miller said. “They’re established with support infrastructure. I don’t care what kind of drill you have, it’s going to breakdown so it’s about how fast you can get back up and running.”

Bedrock wells are drilled below the topsoil and groundwater into bedrock, tapping the cracks in the rock that carry water deep underground. The average bedrock well in New Hampshire is between 100-feet and 500-feet deep, but drilling depth can go up to 1,000 feet.

To access the water, a pipe is installed into the bedrock, called a casing, and a pump to carry the water to the surface and into the home. The casing protects the well from possible contaminants at or near the level of ground water. Learn more about well drilling.

A drill bit at the end of a long pipe is rotated into the ground. It crushes the rock as it goes until the right depth is reached. A water and mud slurry is pumped down through the drill bit to clear the crushed rock out of the well. This rotary process is the most common and least expensive way to drill a bedrock well. A well can also be drilled using the percussion process which uses a falling weight to pound and pulverize the rock at the bottom of the well.

When you decide to install a bedrock well, you should set aside a few days for the work. It usually takes about a day to complete drilling, and another day to install the pump.

How deep the drilling company must dig determines the basic cost, since most companies charge by the foot. A well drilling company can get a good idea of how deep the bedrock well will need to be by examining your property, the average well depth for your area, the geology and other factors. If after an initial drilling, there is adequate water available for your family’s needs, then the drilling can stop. If not, the drilling will continue until an adequate water source is found.

During the drilling process we monitor the water flow to ensure there is enough water available at the source to provide adequate water for your family, lawn or business. We constantly monitor the water flow, so you can be confident that we will never drill a well that is deeper than it has to be.

The state also requires well drillers to conduct a 30-minute yield test of each new well to determine if the water removed is being adequately replenished. By measuring how much water flows from the well each minute, the homeowner can tell if the yield will meet the family’s needs.

In New Hampshire, the median yield for a bedrock well is 6.5 gallons per minute. The average American household needs 100 to 120 gallons per person per day, and a flow rate of about 6 to 12 gallons per minute.

If the well does not meet these standards, there are ways to try to get more yield from the well. Hydrofracking was originally created for the oil industry, but has become a useful tool in well repair and drilling. A bit is inserted into the well which blasts the bedrock with highly pressurized water to open cracks in the bedrock in hopes of creating new paths for the water inside. This method uses no chemicals. Skillings & Sons has a 98 percent success rate with fracking, a record so good we offer a guarantee.

Some municipalities have requirements relating to location, construction and water quality of private wells but there are no state requirements regarding well water quality or quantity in New Hampshire for private domestic wells. If you are selling or buying a home with a well, remember that the owner is required to disclose the location of the well, its age, any malfunctions, date of the most recent water test and any problems with water quality that test may have uncovered.

In 1984, the state began keeping records of all new wells. The information is available to the public in an online database. If you want to know about your well or those in your surrounding area, the database can help.

Most bedrock wells in New Hampshire deliver safe drinking water, but the geology of the state and other factors do sometimes lead to contaminants in water. Some of the most common, naturally occurring contaminants are arsenic, bacteria, radon, radium and uranium. You can determine the presence of these contaminants by conducting tests, which Skillings & Sons can help you with.

Other naturally occurring water quality issues can include hard water, corrosive water and iron, sand or sediment in your water. There are water treatment solutions to all of these issues.

Of course, there is sometimes a risk of man-made contamination, which can be revealed in a water quality test. Homeowners with wells should be mindful of the activities on and around their property to ensure the well does not become contaminated. Improperly applying fertilizer or pesticides, inappropriate disposal of motor oil, solvents and other harmful substances, or living close to an industrial area could all put your well at risk.For more information about bedrock well water contamination in your area, contact the NH Department of Environmental Services.

In New Hampshire, well-drilling contractors must be licensed, but homeowners can drill a well with the help of a contractor if it is on their own property. Skillings & Sons believes that it is vital the water coming into your home is clean and plentiful. Hire a licensed professional to do the work, as it will affect your life for years to come. Contact us for a water well drilling or water pump replacement estimate.