Since most of you get your water from a well, I'm looking for advice from you. Have you ever wish your well is in a more convenient spot? I'm looking for comments and want to learn from your experience....
I'm trying to figure out where's the best location for the well. The home site is at the end of a ridge top just before a very steep drop off. The entrance to my property is about 100' above the building site. There's 1/4 mile of road/driveway along the top of the ridge going down to the home site. The well will be drilled somewhere along this driveway. Anywhere else is not practical because of the steep terrain on both side of the driveway.
I have spoken to 3 well drillers. 1st driller said drill on top near the entrance, 2nd driller said that's a very bad spot, drill at the bottom near the home site. 3rd driller said drill anywhere along the driveway that he can setup his drilling equipment.
In this area, about 10ft or so below the surface is hard granite and no water table. So, I need a lot of luck to get water by hitting the cracks in the rock. The depth could be anywhere between 100' to 1000' According the the well driller, the elevation doesn't really make any difference. Sometimes you drill on top of a hill and get water while drilling on the bottom and get nothing.
After lots of reading and posts in another forum, I think I'm going to locate the well at a location that's convenient for rural living (if there's such thing...) We'll be off the grid. So, no convenient power. I'm pretty sure I need a large storage tank so I don't need to run the pump all the time. Just fill up the tank when it's running low. What are the pro's and con's of locating the well too close to the house? Any noise issue?
It is better to drill near the house (have easy access to power) and put the tank there with a booster pump? or put the tank 100' above and pump water up hill then gravity feed down to the home site? or drill 100' higher near the top right next to the tank? or drill someting in between??? There are lots of options but don't really know what's best.
If you drill above the cabin the 100' higher, it will take a larger pump to push the water up the extra distance which would negate the efficiency of the gravity.
I would for sure put the well where 10, 20 or 50 years down the road a driller can still get his equipment to the well to work on it. A place where trees won't grow over or near it. A place where you don't plan on adding an addition or new building later on.
As for the equipment, it will all depend on the production of the well. I had a 6" well 660' deep that did better than 28 gpm. I installed a 2hp pump at 300' with a 100' water level and it wouldn't pull down. A lot of the other wells in the area were lucky to make humidity. Go figure.
speedbump: Are you saying by drilling 100' higher, the water level also 100' higher which requires a more powerful pump? The 2 locations are about 1500' apart. I was hoping the water level would follow the contour of the surface.
Seems the San Andreas are basicly formed from a fractured Granitic Batholye. As said water will be in the fractures. Finding the fractures may be a hit and miss afair.
Farther west in the valley there are deposition sediments making for a completly different aquifier structure.
Usually the water level will be the same just as it is on a lakes surface. It's the water going up over a high spot that makes the static level what it is.
I would drill the well where the local guys think they can find water. You may have to pump it further, run more pipe and wire, or it may be in a difficult to get to area. The most important part is that there is actually water in the well after it is drilled. Everything else can be made to fit even if it is not convenient.
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