We drill a water well with our own hands. Ways on how to drill a well with your own hands and what you need for this. Well drilling technology using the cable method

23.10.2023

Central water supply is a privilege for residents of urban centers. Even on the outskirts of a metropolis it is difficult to connect to communications. Or need to spend a considerable amount for laying pipes, or access to the benefits of civilization is physically inaccessible due to the distance of utility networks.

There is nothing to say about isolated villages. The only way to get water is to drill your own well. The main thing is to find a suitable place. We will tell you the details about this important process, provide visual diagrams and show a thematic video.

We represent the people, and therefore very effective ways searching for water in the area.

Method 1. Ordinary clay unglazed pot with capacity 1-1,5 liters are filled with a mixture of jari (a type of paint based on copper acetate), white incense (wood resin), sulfur and sheep's wool in proportions 4:4:4:5 .

Pot hermetically sealed and weighed. It needs to be buried in the proposed location of drilling a well to a depth 30-35 cm. After a day, the container is again sent to the scales and, if the mass of the pot has increased, then the water is nearby.

Instead of old recipe for absorbent composition can be used silica gel.

Method 2. If there are no water sources nearby, you need to observe the chosen location for the well. Evening fog above the “destination” indicates that there is water here. Than fog thicker- those closer water.

Method 3 will give a result close to 100 % . Can be drilled manually with a garden drill to depth 5-10 meters. If the presence of water in the well is obvious, all that remains is to complete the deepening work.

The more water, the more likely it is to build a well rather than a well. The nominal drilling depth is 10-15 m. The location for the well must be chosen no closer than 30 m from contaminated areas. It could also be artesian well, that is, an underground pressure source.

Manual drilling uses shock-rope and rotary methods or Abyssinian well. The simplest thing is rotary drilling. Required tools and materials:

Drill rods.

Winch.

Drill tower.

Casing pipes.

Winch on the tower the drill with rods (drill string) is lifted and removed from the well. If the water is shallow, you can remove the drill manually using a block on a winch. Also, instead of a winch, you can build a regular gate (like on wells). The drilling tower is made in the form of a tripod from scrap materials.

Drilling rods- these are pipes with a threaded or keyed connection. A drill is attached to the lower rod. Types of drills: spiral or spoon.

Spoon drill (spoon drill)

Spoon drill(spoon drill) - a metal cylinder with a spiral or longitudinal thread. Its axis is eccentric relative to the center of the rod. That is, the axis of rotation of the rod and the lower drill must coincide, but for the “spoon” it is shifted by 10-15 millimeters.

Thus, the tool makes a hole with a diameter greater than its own. This allows the drill to move freely in the casing pipes, which can be lowered directly during the deepening process.

Length Borax-spoons - 700 mm, the diameter is selected according to the dimensions of the well.

On video Here's an example of how to make a tool yourself:

Homemade spoon drill made from ordinary thick-walled pipe with hardening. It can be used for drilling in wet sand, loam, black soil, alumina, and so on.

Spiral type drill (snake)

Boer spiral type (coil drill) is made from a twisted metal strip of tool steel and resembles a drill. The lower end of the tool is equipped cutting edge, the pitch of its spiral is equal to the diameter. Can be used for drilling in clay and clay soils with gravel filling.

Drilling process

To remove liquid mud from a well, use bailer. Its valve closes when rising and retains the “silt”.

Above the future well tower is being installed higher than the length of the rod. At the first stage, the drill string includes one rod and a drill. After every 600-700 mm column needs to be removed and cleared of soil. As it moves, the length of the drill string increases by attaching an additional rod.

Such necessary operations, How column lifting, disassembling the rod, her assembly and return descent take a lot of time. Therefore, it is necessary to capture the maximum amount of soil with the drill. If drilling is carried out in loose soil, it will fall down from the walls of the well. Therefore, one should lower oneself into the “well” casing, but not to the very bottom, but at a distance 0,5-1 meter from it.

The video shows the process in detail mechanized well drilling:

As the casing goes deeper, it lowers lower. Drilling continues until the waterproof layer. It is necessary to completely penetrate the aquifer so that water enters the well in maximum volume(this point is presented very clearly in video at the end of the article).

Drops to the bottom of the well fine metal mesh filter. The lower part of the casing pipes, in the walls of which holes are drilled, also serves as a filter. Before installing the filter at the bottom of the well, you need to fill 30-50 centimeters of coarse sand or fine gravel. Water is supplied to the house through a pipeline using pump, so it is necessary to install cables and metal-plastic pipes.

Drill a well deep more than 20 meters manually it will be very difficult.

Any ready A well-maintained water well will last for decades. Service is checking fasteners, lubrication and adjustment of pump parts, electrical work and so on. Typically, the “technical inspection” takes place on site, without requiring dismantling of the equipment.

It is also necessary to carry out well insulation, or rather its upper part.

Materials such as polystyrene (foam), mineral or glass wool are best used if groundwater is located close, as well as when the soil is deeply frozen.

It is advisable to make the insulation layer thick 35-50 centimeters.

How to analyze water quality

Drinking water is standardized according to the standards of the World Health Organization ( WHO). You can familiarize yourself with them in the “Guide to Drinking Water Quality”.

Water purification from a well is carried out in special laboratories after determining the presence of impurities as a percentage. The analysis must be carried out regularly, since the composition may change due to seasonal and even daily fluctuations. Based on the results obtained, the water well is cleaned in the most appropriate way.

Well water purification

Universal well water purification system - reverse osmosis. Several types of impurities are removed at once, ensuring high quality of the liquid. Therefore, to completely get rid of iron, humic compounds, viruses and bacteria, only this system can be used.

After laboratory tests you need to contact specialists who will select the most effective cleaning system.

There are such types water filters:

Jug type. Contains activated carbon, which partially reduces the amount of contaminants in water. "Jug" can't delete a large number of inorganic, organic impurities and bacteria. The water is filtered slowly. After a month you need to change the cartridge.

Carbonic. Contains activated carbon, which effectively removes chlorine from water. Due to a possible interruption in the water supply, the cartridge often becomes clogged, so the composition of the water can become doubly toxic. Does not reduce the number of bacteria, viruses and inorganic impurities.

Ceramic. Helps purify water only from “garbage” of large fractions. Organic and inorganic substances, viruses and bacteria are not retained. In addition, the filter quickly becomes clogged with dirt. Therefore, it requires frequent cleaning and disinfection.

With reverse osmosis. Significantly reduces the content of harmful and toxic impurities in water. Mechanical barriers and a membrane purify the liquid almost perfectly, but useful minerals are lost and a distillation effect occurs. Therefore, you need to connect a mineralizer to the filter. Does not destroy bacteria and viruses.

Coagulation method. When coagulants are added, the water is divided into 3 layer. Light impurities collect in the upper one, and toxins in the form of sediment collect in the lower one. The middle layer is drinkable. Requires special equipment. At home, the process is dangerous, since toxic substances from other layers can enter the water.

At the end of the material, we suggest you look video, which shows the drilling work:

Providing a site with water is the first task of its owner. The more ambitious the plans for improving your territory, the more acutely the lack of water supply will be felt. Water is needed for construction work, for the garden you are planning to create, and for your own daily needs.

If you make a water well with your own hands, your dream of water supply will not only come true, but will also allow you to save significantly. We will tell you the best way to drill and what kind of equipment independent craftsmen will need. Taking into account our advice, you will easily arrange your own water source on the site.

There are several real ways to obtain life-giving moisture, which we will tell you about. There are several technologies that can be used to independently extract water in a suburban area.

You will have to choose the appropriate option yourself, since it depends on the landscape of the area, as well as on the technical equipment, finances and skills that you possess. Let's look at the main well structures.

It is difficult to give preference to any one design: each has its own advantages and disadvantages, so the choice depends on the landscape of the area and the capabilities of the owner of the site

Abyssinian tube well

If there is a spring on your site, then installing a well is an excellent option for extracting water. The shaft of this structure will act as a liquid storage tank. If the source is active enough, up to 2 cubic meters of water will always be at your disposal.

The Abyssinian well is essentially the same well, but narrow and long. Due to the fact that its length can be approximately 8-12 meters, no pollution from the soil surface gets into the water that fills it.

The Abyssinian well is often called a needle well, because the pipe driven into the ground when creating this structure really resembles a needle

The following video will introduce you to the technology of punching and constructing a needle well, otherwise known as an Abyssinian well:

Sand well (filter)

The deepening of this structure to 15-30 meters is carried out by any method: auger, shock-rope, core. The walls of the well are formed using a pipe with an average diameter of 100 - 180 mm.

The buried end of the wellbore is equipped with a filter. A stainless steel mesh is used as a filter, which is welded or soldered to the first link of the pipe string before immersing it in coarse sand mixed with pebbles.

So you can schematically imagine the design of a well “on sand”, where number 1 is the casing pipe, number 2 is the statistical water level, and number 3 is the mesh filter

This design can satisfy the water needs of a small country house with two water points. If the operation of the structure is seasonal, it will last about five years. With constant use, you can count on 15 years of water supply.

When the well does silt up, you can try to wash it out. If resuscitation measures do not give the desired effect, a new shaft will have to be drilled. Place it next to the previous one.

Artesian well without filter

This structure does not require a filter. Such a well can reach a depth of 100 meters or more. The water produced using such a structure is contained in limestone cracks. The liquid accumulated in them due to condensation can be not only crystal clear, but also mineralized.

Light mineralization is acceptable for everyday use. If the extracted water is classified as mineral water in its composition, then it cannot be used for domestic purposes.

Diagram of an artesian well: 1 - conductor, 2 - statistical water level, 3 - intermediate column, 4 - production column with perforation

It is difficult to determine in advance the depth of the well that will have to be drilled in search of water. You can only roughly get your bearings by talking with neighbors on the site and finding out from them what parameters similar structures have on their territories.

The soil layers are uneven, so the information obtained still cannot be considered accurate for your area. For this reason, casing pipes are purchased taking into account the correction of the obtained data.

How is a typical well constructed?

If you don’t focus on the nuances, the essence of installing a water well for a country house is the same: it is a long narrow vertical shaft that reaches the depth of the water. The walls of the mine are reinforced with casing pipes. Wells differ from each other in width, depth and additional devices that increase their productivity and reliability.

In addition to casing, wells are equipped with equipment for forced lifting of liquid and its distribution. To choose the right pumping equipment and storage tank, you need to know the characteristics of the well, the most important of which is its depth and flow rate.

The flow rate of a well is an indicator of its productivity: the maximum volume of liquid obtained per unit of time. It is calculated in cubic meters or liters per hour or day.

Image gallery

Making a shallow well with your own hands is a completely feasible undertaking, despite the apparent scale of the process. The springs, 12-15 meters deep, are ordinary wells that were always dug independently. But even deeper structures can be penetrated without special equipment and Herculean efforts. The consultants of the Plumber Portal website know several ways to drill a water well with your own hands without using special equipment.

Before considering how to drill a water well with your own hands, you need to understand what types they can be. Water can be extracted using different technologies.

The main types of well structures for water production:

If you have a good spring, you can build an excellent well, which will quickly fill up, becoming a good reservoir that can hold up to 2 cubic meters of life-giving moisture. The depth reaches 15 meters. Above this boundary, a phenomenon such as “overwater” is often encountered - an aquifer with a high level of pollution that comes from the soil surface. It is not recommended to consume water from this layer.
A sand filter well, which is a pipe with a diameter of 100 mm, using an auger, immersed to a depth of 17-30 meters. At the end of the pipe, which is recessed, a stainless steel mesh is fixed, which plays the role of a filter immersed in coarse sand. The depth of the well is on average from 20 to 30 meters, the service life is from 5 to 15 years.
A filterless artesian well, its operating principle is that it extracts water from layers of porous limestone. An artesian well can be drilled to a depth of 20-100 meters, and its service life reaches 50 years.

The exact depth of the water source cannot be determined in advance. The approximate depth will be the same dimensions as in similar wells drilled in neighboring areas or in a nearby well. Slight deviations are possible due to uneven occurrence of soil layers. It is recommended to purchase casing pipes, taking into account the parameters of nearby water supply sources, but making minor adjustments.

Now let’s take a closer look at drilling water wells with our own hands, taking into account the type of source.

Abyssinian well drilling technology

The Abyssinian well is a fairly simple type of well to set up, which can be drilled manually without the use of special tools, while the principle of its operation is also very accessible. A needle well is a type of water intake that can be equipped even without work experience and purchasing materials in just a day. This is the simplest water well design.

Required:

Metal thick-walled pipes. The diameter is taken based on the diameter and type of pump planned to be used. The total length is equal to the depth of the face.
The filter winding requires a metal or PVC mesh.
Drill and drill bits with a diameter of 5-7 mm.
A welding machine, if you plan to connect pipes by welding, or dies and taps for threading. Or you can purchase pipes with a ready-made threaded connection.

It must be taken into account that the lower part of the casing is a drill, and before starting work, a filter must be installed on the lower end of the pipe above the tip. The length of the filter part can reach 75-85 cm. Holes with a diameter of 8 mm are drilled along the entire circumference of the pipe at an angle of 45°, arranged in a checkerboard pattern.

The top of the perforated pipe is wrapped with fine-mesh steel mesh or plastic mesh. The mesh must be secured to the pipe in any convenient way: with clamps, steel wire, which must be soldered to the mesh and pipe. The stages of forming a filter with a projectile pass through the first meter of soil, as in the diagram.

Using a building level, the verticality of the entry into the ground is checked: the slightest deviation at the beginning of manual drilling of a well leads to the fact that in subsequent stages of work, in particular, the impossibility of installing parts of the casing at depth. Everything will have to be redone.

An Abyssinian well can be built using manual hydraulic drilling or, to speed up the process, it can be automated. To do this, you need to connect the drill tip to the drill rod, which is connected to the electric motor. During operation, the rods are extended by attaching new parts of the casing pipe.

Manual well drilling

Most often, summer residents are interested in how to drill a well with their own hands, and not just a well. It will be necessary to have such equipment for drilling wells as drill, drilling rig, winch, rods and casing. A drilling tower is needed for digging a deep well; it is used to immerse and lift a drill with rods.

Rotary method

The simplest method of constructing a water well is rotary, carried out by rotating a drill.

Hydrodrilling of shallow water wells can be done without a tower, and the drill string can be removed manually. Drill rods are made from pipes, connecting them together using keys or threads.

The bar, which will be located below all, is additionally equipped with a drill. The cutting attachments are made of 3 mm sheet steel. When sharpening the cutting edges of the nozzle, it must be taken into account that at the moment the drill mechanism rotates, they must cut into the soil clockwise.

The derrick is mounted above the drilling site; it should be higher than the drill rod in order to facilitate the removal of the rod during lifting. After this, a guide recess for the drill is dug to a depth of approximately two shovel bayonets.

It is quite possible to do the first turns of rotation of the drill yourself, but with greater immersion of the pipe, additional forces will be required. If the drill cannot be pulled out the first time, you need to turn it counterclockwise and try to pull it out again.

The deeper the drill goes, the more difficult the movement of the pipes becomes. To make this task easier, the soil must be softened by pouring water. When moving the drill down every 50 cm, the drilling structure must be removed to the surface and cleared of soil. The drilling cycle is repeated again. When the tool handle reaches ground level, the structure is extended with an additional elbow.

As the drill goes deeper, it becomes more difficult to rotate the pipe. Softening the soil with water will help make the work easier. As the drill moves downwards, every half a meter the drilling structure should be brought to the surface and freed from the soil. The drilling cycle is repeated again. At the stage when the tool handle is level with the ground, the structure is extended with an additional elbow.

Since lifting and cleaning the drill takes up most of the time, you need to make the most of the design's capabilities, capturing and lifting up as much of the soil as possible. This is the operating principle of this installation.

Drilling continues until the aquifer is reached; it can be easily determined by the condition of the soil being removed. Having passed the aquifer, the drill should be immersed a little deeper until it reaches the layer that is located below the aquifer, aquifer. Reaching this layer will make it possible to ensure maximum water flow into the well.

It is worth noting that manual drilling can only be used to dive to the nearest aquifer; it usually lies at a depth not exceeding 10-20 meters.

To pump out dirty liquid, you can use a hand pump or a submersible pump. After two or three buckets of dirty water are pumped out, the aquifer is usually cleared and clean water appears. If this does not happen, the well needs to be deepened by about another 1-2 meters.

Screw method

An auger rig is often used for drilling. The working part of this installation is very similar to a garden auger, only much more powerful. It is made from a 100 mm pipe with a pair of screw turns welded onto it with a diameter of 200 mm. In order to make one such turn, you need a round sheet blank with a hole cut in its center, the diameter of which is slightly larger than 100 mm.

Then a cut is made along the radius of the workpiece, after which, at the place of the cut, the edges are moved apart in two different directions, which are perpendicular to the plane of the workpiece. As the drill sinks deeper, the rod on which it is attached is increased. The tool is rotated manually using a long handle made of pipe.

The drill must be removed approximately every 50-70 cm, and due to the fact that the deeper it goes, it will become heavier, so you will need to install a tripod with a winch. Thus, you can drill a water well in a private house a little deeper than using the above methods.

You can also use the manual drilling method, which is based on the use of a conventional drill and hydraulic pump:

Features of cable percussion drilling technology

The essence of this method is to break the rock using a driving glass - a heavy tool that falls from the height of a specially equipped tower. To complete the work, you will need a homemade drilling rig, in addition to tools for using the shock-rope method and extracting soil from the well. This technology is used for work on light or clay soil.

A well tower looks like an ordinary tripod and can be made from either steel pipes or simple wooden logs. The dimensions of the structure must proportionally correspond to the dimensions of the downhole tool. The optimal size ratio is the height of the tower, which is one and a half meters longer than the length of the downhole glass.

The working process consists of alternately lowering the driving glass, breaking and capturing the rock, and then raising the captured dump to the surface. In order to equip such a drilling rig, you can use a steel pipe, the end of which is equipped with a cutting device. The cutting edge, externally resembling half a turn of an auger, will be in direct contact with the bottom.

It is necessary to make a hole in the steel pipe 50 cm from the edge through which the extracted soil can be removed, thus emptying the drill bit. A cable is attached to the top of the glass, which helps lower the glass and remove its contents to the surface. It is recommended to free the glass from soil according to the depth of the structure for every 50 cm.

Step-by-step instructions for drilling a well on the site

Before starting work on a summer cottage, it is recommended to ask your neighbors what the water level is in your area, after which you can drill a well on the site. If there are wells nearby, look into them. If the water level is above 5 meters, this is a good sign, since in this case the only tools required for drilling are a garden auger and an approximate diagram of the location of the water source.

A small-sized drilling rig or a mechanical drilling device - a “handbrake” - can be rented. Thus, you will have the opportunity to use convenient equipment without overpaying an extra amount to get water on the site.

Let's describe the general instructions of the site, a site of relative technology, on how to make a water well with your own hands in the country:

It is necessary to make a square excavation in the ground with dimensions of 1.5 × 1.5 m and a depth of 1 to 2 meters; this will be the so-called pit. It is needed to prevent the loose surface of the soil from falling into the well. The inside of the pit must be lined with boards or plywood, and a boardwalk is laid on top of it for ease of installation.
After the installation is assembled, two coaxial holes are cut out in the upper and lower decks of the pit, after which drilling begins.
The drill rod is rotated manually or using a gear motor. At the same time, a support is placed on the bar, on which one of the workers will strike with a hammer. Another option: the drill is lifted using a winch and dropped in the same way as is done with percussion-rope drilling. If necessary, water or drilling fluid is supplied to the rod.
In parallel with drilling, a casing pipe with a special shoe installed below is installed into the well. It is also gradually built up, just like the drill rod.
After quicksand (soil with high humidity), drilling accelerates (due to the beginning of the aquifer), and then slows down again. This is a sign that the drill has reached the waterproof layer and drilling can be completed.
It is necessary to lower the filter column into the well, after which you can begin washing it with strong water pressure.
A submersible pump must be lowered into the well to pump out water until it becomes crystal clear.

At the last stage of constructing a well at the dacha with your own hands, a caisson is installed, all cavities must be filled with a sand-crushed stone mixture, and a pipeline is laid in a trench to the house. In this case, it is highly not recommended to lower the water pipe to the very bottom. It should not reach the extreme point of about 50 cm, thus ensuring better flow of water upward.

The pipe leading into the well must be equipped with ventilation holes, otherwise, without air access, the water will quickly dry out and extracting it will become impractical for most needs. For permanent access to the well, a hinged cover can be equipped on the pipe.

Advice! After a manually made well has been put into operation, be sure to submit the water obtained from it for examination. Water can be considered drinking water if it has the following characteristics: transparency of at least 30 cm, nitrate content - no more than 10 mg/l, 1 liter contains no more than 10 E. coli, maximum odor and taste rating - 3 points.

Do I need to install casing pipes?

After you have managed to drill a well for water, you need to equip additional casing, which can be made from either a solid asbestos-cement pipe or individual sections of asbestos pipes.

When working with cuts, special attention should be paid to the equal diameter of the pipes in order to ensure further unhindered immersion of the entire structure. Each pipe link is held in place by clamps, which are then hidden under stainless steel strips.

Pipe casing is needed:

to prevent wall shedding during drilling;
to prevent clogging of the well during operation;
to cover the upper aquifers with poor water.

A pipe equipped with a filter is lowered to the bottom of the well, which is made of a fine mesh that does not allow grains of sand to pass through and ensures water filtration. The pipe is lowered to the required depth and secured with a clamp. This will prevent spontaneous subsidence. When properly constructing a water well, the ground part is equipped with a caisson - a cap that protects the source from contamination.

Over time, a slight “squeezing” of the pipe from the ground may occur. This is a natural process of spontaneous lifting of the pipe to the surface of the ground, and does not require additional measures for deepening.

How to avoid mistakes when drilling?

The lack of experience among self-taught drillers is most often visible in the following:

The drill is lowered too deep, causing the casing to cross the aquifer. Solution: lift the casing pipe or insert another shorter one into it, after which the previously installed pipe must be removed.
The casing pipe did not reach the required depth, which caused the soil below to collapse and the well's productivity immediately dropped. Solution: you need to remove the soil with a bailer, then immerse the pipe to the required depth.
The pump was mounted too low, causing the well to become clogged with sand. Solution: the pump must be removed and, using a bailer, selected sand, installed correctly. The correct position is determined as follows: the operating pump is lowered gradually until sand is found in the water it pumps out. After which the pump is raised slightly until it begins to pump clean water. As a rule, the correct position of the pump is 1-2 meters from the bottom.

Timely cleaning is necessary for wells of all types. Signs that a water structure needs service can be: the presence of air pockets in the flow, jerks in the water outlet, the presence of various impurities in the water (sand, silt).

If you miss the moment of cleaning, the productivity of the well may no longer be restored. To restore normal operation, purify with a water or air compressor. The most radical cleaning methods are using electricity or acid. However, these methods are quite risky and are best left to specialists.

Thus, a DIY home well requires the same attention to care and maintenance as deep artesian structures. Drilling a water source yourself is not difficult, but you need to be careful during the work and call a couple of friends for help.

Do-it-yourself shallow well, how to drill one video:

Water in a summer cottage or in a private home is a necessary resource that cannot be lived without. However, organizing a public water supply is often impractical. Due to the remoteness of land holdings from each other, centralized water supply is an expensive proposition. It is easier and cheaper to use an individual water source. True, you first need to organize it. Own well will provide its owner with confidence that the economic needs of the site and housing will be met. At the same time, the owners will not have to pay for water supply, counting every cubic meter of water spent. Digging a well is difficult and expensive, but drilling a well yourself is possible if you are familiar with the drilling technology and the type of well construction.

Types of wells and their features

Before drilling, the site area must be examined, determining the level of groundwater. The amount of work that will need to be done to make the well water-bearing will depend on this parameter. The type of well is chosen taking into account the depth of the water-containing formation.

If water is found at a depth of 3-12 m, choose the “” type. At a depth of up to 50 m, a sand well is used, and an artesian well, if the water lies in the ground at least 200 m. Almost every summer resident can do the first two types manually, but an artesian well will require a drilling rig and professional drillers.

Drilling a sand well by hand

This type of source involves pumping water from a depth of up to 50 m. A sand well is called this because it “gives water” from a water-containing sandy layer of soil, the depth of which is usually just fifty meters. This depth does not guarantee the purity of the water, so it is recommended to periodically check the contents of the well at the sanitation station for the presence of organic and chemical compounds.

To organize a sand well, a classic scheme with a pump is used. And to purify water from suspended matter and debris, use a filter installed at depth. The filter needs to be cleaned regularly. The service life of a sand well is about 15 years.

Organization of the “Abyssinian well” well

This is the simplest needle hole to make. It is shallow, so care must be taken to carefully select a place for it.

There should be no septic tanks, garbage heaps, cesspools or sewage pits nearby. Due to the shallow depth, harmful substances can seep into the source, polluting it.

If the ground does not contain pebbles or other hard rocks, drilling a well can be done in the area around the house or directly in the basement of the house. The well in the basement is convenient to use even in cold weather. The home well is equipped with a manual column and a pump so that water can be used regardless of the availability of electricity.

Drilling an artesian well

Provided that there are already wells of this type in neighboring areas, there is a high probability of water occurring in a limestone formation in this area. In other cases, drillers are ordered to test a well to determine the depth of water. An artesian well can provide water to several areas at once. Often drilling is ordered together in order to save money and get the desired result.

The choice of well type depends on the type of soil and the planned amount of water consumed. An Abyssinian well and a sand well will provide a low flow rate. And if the flow rate is 10 cubic meters per hour or more, you will need to install an artesian well. It is better to drill any well away from potential pollutants and close to the house so that there are no problems with laying the water supply.

Drilling equipment and tools

When drilling artesian wells, professionals use drilling rigs. For smaller wells, a regular tripod with a winch is suitable. It will lower and raise the drilling tool, consisting of a core pipe, drill rods, a drill column, and a drill.

Special equipment, without which it is problematic to make a well, is a drilling tool that will help you go deeper into the ground (auger), a tripod and a winch. To drill a well with your own hands, you will need a metal auger. An ice screw, which is used for winter fishing, can act as an auger. The main thing is that the drill is made of high-strength steel. This is the cheapest option for drilling a well. In addition to the tripod, you will need pipes of different diameters (water pipes, hoses, casing), valves, caisson, filters, and a pump for the well.

Drilling work: stages

1. First you need to dig a hole or pit, the dimensions of which are 150 by 150 cm. To prevent the recess from crumbling, its walls are lined with plywood, boards, and pieces of chipboard. Another option is to dig a trunk with a diameter of 15-20 cm and a depth of 1 m with an ordinary drill. This is done so that the pipe is more stable in a vertical position.

2. A strong metal or wooden tripod (called a drilling derrick) is placed directly above the recess, securing a winch at the junction of its supports. Towers made of logs are more common. A drill string with one and a half meter (if drilling independently) rods hangs on a tripod. The rods are threaded together into one pipe and secured with a clamp. This design is used for lifting and lowering equipment.

The pump is selected in advance in order to determine the diameter of the future well and core pipe. The pump must pass freely into the pipe. That is why the difference between the diameter of the pump and the internal diameter of the pipe should be at least 5 mm.

Lowering and lifting drilling equipment is the drilling of a well. The rod is rotated while simultaneously hitting it from above with a chisel. It’s much more convenient for two people to do this: the first one turns the gas wrench, and the second one hits the bar from above, breaking through the rock. Using a winch simplifies the process: it makes lifting and lowering equipment into the well much easier. The rod is marked during drilling. Markings will be required for orientation. The markings help determine when it is time to pull out the rod and clean the drill. It is usually recommended to do this approximately every half meter.

3. To make it easier to overcome different layers of soil, special drills are used.

spiral drill (otherwise, coil) - for clay soils;
drill bit for loosening hard soils;
drill spoons for sandy soil;
The bailer helps lift the soil to the surface.

4. It is easier to go through the sand layer with a spoon drill, adding water while drilling. If the soil is hard, use a chisel. Drill bits come in cross and flat types. In any case, their purpose is to help loosen hard rocks. They overcome quicksand using the shock method.

For clayey soil, you will need a coil, a bailer and a spoon. Coils or spiral drills penetrate clay soils well because they have a design similar to a spiral, and the pitch of the spiral is equal to the diameter of the drill. The size of the lower base of the drill is from 45 to 85 mm, the blade is from 258-290 mm. Pebble layers containing gravel are pierced, alternating with a bailer and a bit, with casing pipes. Sometimes you can't do without pouring water into the hole. This can significantly simplify the task of drilling a well. The option of drilling a well using a pump is also worth considering.

Soil drilling process

5. If the rock brought to the surface has become important, then the aquifer is already close. You need to go a little deeper to cross the aquifer. Drilling will suddenly become noticeably easier, but you cannot stop. You need to find a waterproof layer with a drill.

Well construction and pumping

Once the required depth has been reached, the next stage begins - arrangement. A filter column consisting of a pipe, a settling tank and a filter is lowered into the finished well. You can make it yourself from a filtration mesh, perforation and casing pipe, or use a ready-made, store-bought sand filter for a submersible pump.

To strengthen the pipe, the space behind it is filled with 5-mm crushed stone or coarse sand. The backfill must be above the filter level. The filter is the most important element of any well. The main function of the filter is protection from sand and large impurities. In parallel with backfilling, water is pumped into a pipe with a sealed upper end. This manipulation helps to flush the annulus and filter. After washing, a natural barrier is formed for large impurities. Bailout of a well with a bailer attachment or auger pump means that water is pumped out of a fresh well until the water becomes clean and clear. This stage is called buildup. An electric centrifugal pump is most often used for it. The advantage of this mechanism is that it can pump high-density liquid media. A regular household pump is also acceptable, but it will require more effort and time. If there are problems with the power supply, it is possible to use a hand pump.

After pumping, the pump is lowered to a depth on a safety rope (see picture above). A water pipe or hose with a diameter of 25 or 50 mm is connected to it. The choice of diameter depends on the capabilities of the well - the amount of water that can be pumped out of the well in a certain period of time.

If a metal pipe is used, the pump is not fixed. Instead, a waterproof cable coming from the pump is attached to the pipe.

Well pump. Peculiarities

To select a pump of the correct power, you must take into account such parameters as:

well flow rate, indicators of its depth;
casing diameter;
distance of the well from the house.

The required pump power directly depends on these parameters. For shallow depths (up to 9 m), a self-priming surface pump is suitable; in other cases, a submersible well pump will serve well.

After the pump is immersed, a pipe is brought out into the wellhead, equipped with a caisson, welded to its head. A valve is installed on it, which will open the way for water to the top and regulate the flow. If the water intake rate is excessive, the low-productivity well will quickly dry up, and the pump, running idle, will fail. Pipes are connected to the caisson, which will serve as a water supply to the room. They require waterproofed and insulated trenches. You can read about how to choose a pump for a well, and about how to choose a pump for a well.

Well operation

Wells of all types need timely cleaning. Signs that an aquifer well requires service may include: jerks in the water outlet, the presence of air pockets or impurities (silt, sand) in the flow. If you miss the moment of maintenance, the productivity of the well may no longer be restored. To restore normal functions, the well is purged with a water or air compressor. More radical cleaning methods include acid or electricity. However, these methods are risky and are best left to specialists.

Tips for those who make a well themselves

Before starting work, it would be a good idea to ask your neighbors what the water level is in your area. If there are wells nearby, take a look there.

A water level above 5 m is good news, because the only tools needed for drilling are a garden auger.

A small-sized drilling rig or mechanical drilling device - “handbrake”, can be rented. This way you will have the opportunity to use convenient equipment and not pay a lot of money for it.

You cannot lower the water pipe into the well all the way to the bottom. It should not reach the deepest point by about half a meter. This way the water will go up better.

The pipe leading into the well must have ventilation holes on the surface, otherwise, without air access, the water will quickly become musty. It is convenient to equip the pipe with a hinged cover so that there is constant access to the well.

The most convenient way to equip a well is a solid plastic pipe.

After the well is operational, be sure to submit your water for examination. Water is recognized as drinking water if its transparency is at least 30 cm, the nitrate content is no more than 10 mg/l, there are less than 10 E. coli in 1 liter, and the maximum rating of smell and taste is 3 points.

Disadvantages and advantages of manual well drilling

Advantages: low cost; no need for bulky special equipment to enter the site; due to the relatively shallow depth, homemade wells are pumped faster and take less time to tighten; If there is no electricity, water can be obtained using a hand suction pump.

The main disadvantage of self-drilling is the limited depth and lack of specialists who can help maintain a homemade well. Thus, after reading this article, we hope that you will not have any questions about how to drill a well with your own hands.

Drilling a well for water is complex and difficult, but interesting and exciting work. And, today, the most affordable way to establish an independent water supply: at the current cost of drinking water the costs of independent drilling, equipment and well development pay off in less than a year. Unless, of course, you take a barrel to the river in a wheelbarrow, risking a serious accident with something that would make the doctors’ eyes widen over their masks.

The earth and the water in it are a complex natural system. Therefore, there is no point in giving step-by-step instructions and step-by-step guides to the drilling business: anyway, in the depths, something will turn out to be wrong. However, miners have long learned to overcome almost any surprise in the underground world. And this article, based on this experience, provides the information necessary for a novice driller to ensure that, if not the first, then the second well with his own hands produces water in the required quantity of good quality.

Where to drill?

The general scheme of the formation of aquifers in nature is shown in Fig. Verkhovodka feeds mainly on sediments and lies within the range of approximately 0-10 m. High water can be suitable for drinking without deep treatment (boiling, filtration through shungite) only in individual cases and subject to regular testing of samples by sanitary authorities. Then, for technical purposes, the perched water is taken from a well; The well's flow rate in such conditions will be small and very unstable.

A water well is drilled independently into interstratal waters; highlighted in red in Fig. It is impossible to drill an artesian well, which provides water of the best quality for a very long time, on your own, even if you have a detailed geological map of the area: the depth is usually more than 50 m and only in exceptional cases does the formation rise to 30 m. In addition, independent development and the extraction of artesian waters is categorically prohibited, to the point of criminal liability - this is a valuable natural resource.

Most often, it is possible to drill a well on your own into a gravity-fed formation.– sand soaked in water on a clay bed. Such wells are called sand wells, although the free-flowing aquifer can be gravel, pebble, etc. Free-flowing waters lie approximately 5-20 m from the surface. The water from them is most often drinkable, but only based on the test results and after pumping the well, see below. The debit is small, 2 cubic meters. m/day is considered excellent, and fluctuates somewhat throughout the year. Sand filtering is required, which complicates the design and operation of the well, see below. The lack of pressure increases the requirements for the pump and the entire water supply system.

The pressure strata lie deeper, in the range of about 7-50 m. The aquifer in this case is dense water-resistant fractured rocks - loam, limestone - or loose, gravel-pebble deposits. The best quality water comes from limestone, and such wells last longer. Therefore, water supply wells from pressure layers are called limestone wells. The formation's own pressure can lift water almost to the surface, which greatly simplifies the construction of a well and the entire water supply system. The debit is large, up to 5 cubic meters. m/day, and stable. A sand filter is most often not needed. As a rule, the analysis of the first water sample passes with a bang.

Note: But how do you find out which layer is available and accessible in a given place? The methods for finding water for drilling a well are generally the same as for. In the central zone of the Russian Federation, free-flowing water can almost always be found within the first 20 meters of depth.

Important circumstances

First: Mass uncontrolled intake of free-flow water can lead to the so-called. soil suffusion, as a result of which soil failures suddenly and unpredictably occur, see Fig.

Second: The critical depth for self-drilling on flat terrain in the Russian Federation is 20 m. Deeper - the cost of a custom turnkey well is less than the direct and indirect costs of a self-drill. In addition, the failure rate is close to 100%

Third: The service life of a well greatly depends on the regularity of water intake from it. If you take water little by little as you use it, a well for sand will last about 15 years, and for limestone up to 50 years or more. If you periodically pump everything out at once or, conversely, take it sporadically, the well will dry up in 3-7 years. Repairing and restarting a well is so complicated and expensive that it’s easier to drill a new one. If this circumstance surprises you, keep in mind that it is not a pipe in the ground that is being repaired, but an aquifer.

Based on this, we can already advise: if you find free-flowing water no deeper than 12-15 m, do not rush to rejoice, it is better to drill as far as possible to reach the limestone. And it’s best not to be lazy and carry out exploratory drilling with a needle well, see below. It is possible to make an igloo well literally in a weekend; complex and expensive equipment is not required. And it can also be a temporary source of water supply until you decide on a permanent one in terms of time, money, etc.

Note: a water well is called an igloo (more details at the link). You can literally break through it from the basement of the house, as in the video below:

Video: Abyssinian well in the house

Well or well?

It is known that digging a well is immeasurably more difficult, complex and dangerous work than drilling a well, as is the fact that a properly equipped well is repairable. But there is also a fundamental difference between them. Water is drawn from the well as much as the earth will give, i.e. how much will flow from the formation. And the action of a well is similar to drawing blood from a donor’s vein. That is why the service life of wells is limited and they can catastrophically change the geology of the area. A well can provide water for decades and centuries, and a well made in rocky soil can provide water for millennia, without in any way affecting the local ecology and geology. Therefore, private water wells are drilled, with the goal of either building a collective artesian water supply system (artesian wells are durable and environmentally friendly), or, having mustered the courage and resources, to dig a well. At the same time, the water supply system of the house is being built completely, because... In general, she just needs pressure, except for some nuances, see below. And the abandoned well is plugged with concrete mortar and the land around it is returned to the farm.

Types of wells

A borehole is a long, narrow cavity in rock called a borehole. When drilling, a drilling tool (a drill bit or simply a drill) is lowered into a shaft on a rigid assembly rod made of pipes (a drill string or drill rod) or a cable. A pipe or several concentric pipes are placed in the shaft - casing (case pipe, case string) - protecting the walls of the shaft from collapse and maintaining rock pressure. The casing can fit tightly in the barrel or with some gap - the annulus; it is filled with backfill or clay (clay castle) or poured with concrete. The lower end of the trunk can be open, plugged, or end in a stepped narrowing - the bottom. An intake device is made at the bottom or in the bottom of a production well for liquid minerals. The upper part of the casing is called the well head. A set of devices that make up the well arrangement is placed around the head or in it. Of the many well designs, most of all the types shown in Fig. pass independently; a more detailed diagram of the well with casing is shown there, pos. 5.

1 – needle hole. The drill rod, casing and drill string are one; the drill remains in the ground. They pass the needle hole using the impact method, see below. A core driver, a set of drilling tools, and other equipment for drilling wells with a separate casing for a needle well are not required, see fig. on right. The penetration speed reaches 2-3 m/hour, and the maximum depth achieved in this way is about 45 m. Needle wells are used for constructing Abyssinian wells, especially in the country. The output of the needle well is small, but in the summer it is quite stable. Its service life does not depend on the intensity and regularity of water intake, but it is unpredictable: there are Abyssinian wells that have been providing water for more than 100 years, but they can dry up in six months. The needle well cannot be repaired; it can only be drilled in not very dense and homogeneous soils. The maximum diameter of the drill rod when drilling without a copter is up to 120 mm, which is sufficient for a submersible pump with a caliber of 86 mm.

Note: when drilling an exploratory needle well, it is better to use a simple filter, on the left in Fig.

2 – imperfect well. She seems to be hanging in the seam. It does not require sophisticated knowledge of geology and drilling skills, but the flow rate is lower and the water quality is worse than the maximum possible for a given formation. The water quality can be maximized if the well below is plugged. In addition, perhaps the so-called. pulling the drilling tool and casing deep. Self-propelled wells are most often imperfect; much of the following material concerns them. Wells in thick aquifers are also drilled imperfectly, because when deepened into the formation by 1.5-2 m, the debit stabilizes and almost does not grow deeper.

3 – perfect well. The casing rests on the roof of the underlying waterproof layer. The flow rate and quality of water are maximum, but to drill a perfect well, precise knowledge of local geology and the experience of the driller are necessary, otherwise, firstly, the casing may be pulled into the underlying formation if it is plastic. Secondly, when drilling, you can pierce the litter, and the water will go down; this is especially true in dry areas with thin layers. Thirdly, just one incorrectly drilled well can cause serious damage to the local ecology.

4 – well with bottom. It can be either perfect or imperfect. The bottomhole makes it easier to maintain the well and makes it repairable to some extent, but experienced drillers must drill a bottomhole well according to the local geology.

Note: in some sources the bottom of the well is called a sump. This is also incorrect in German; the bottom of a well and the sump of a well are completely different things.

Drilling methods

You can drill wells yourself in the following ways:

Rotary, or rotary - the drill bit rotates, biting into the rock;
Impact - they hit the drill rod, deepening the drill bit into the rock, this is how needle holes are drilled;
Impact-rotational - the rod with the drilling tool is raised several times and lowered with force, loosening the rock, and then rotated, taking it into the cavity of the tool, see below;
Rope-impact - a special drilling tool is raised and lowered on a rope, taking away the rock.

All these methods relate to dry drilling. When hydrodrilling, the working process occurs in a layer of water or a special drilling fluid that increases the compliance of the rock. Hydrodrilling is not environmentally friendly, requires expensive special equipment and high water consumption. In amateur conditions, it is used in exceptional cases, in an extremely simplified and limited form, see below.

Dry drilling, except for impact drilling without casing, can only be intermittent, i.e. the drill has to be lowered into the trunk, then removed from it in order to select the rock from the drill. In professional hydraulic drilling, crushed rock is removed with spent drilling fluid, but an amateur needs to know for sure: it is impossible to drill a shaft to a depth greater than the length of the working part of the tool in one drilling cycle. Even if you drill with an auger (see below), you need to lift it and shake out the rock from the turns after a maximum of 1-1.5 m of penetration, otherwise the expensive tool will have to be given to the ground.

Casing installation

The attentive reader may already have a question: how do they install casing in the barrel? Or how do they raise/lower the drill, which, in theory, should be wider than it? In professional drilling - in different ways. The oldest is illustrated in Fig. on the right: the axis of rotation of the tool is shifted relative to its longitudinal axis (circled in red), and the cutting part is made asymmetrical. The neck of the drill is made conical. All this, of course, is carefully calculated. Then, in operation, the drill describes a circle extending beyond the casing, and when lifted, its neck slides along its edge and the drill slips into the pipe. This requires powerful, precise drive of the drill string and its reliable centering in the casing. As the casing deepens, it is built up from above. Complex special equipment is not available to amateurs, so they can install casing pipes in the following ways:

They drill a “bare” trunk without casing to full depth with a drill of a larger diameter than the casing pipe, and then lower the casing pipes into it. To prevent the entire column from falling down, they use 2 drill gates: one holds the pipe that has already gone into the well, see fig. on the right, and the second one is installed on the new one before removing the first one. Only then is the column pushed into the trunk if it no longer moves. This method is often used by amateurs on fairly dense, adhesive (sticky) and cohesive (not loose) soils to a depth of 10 m, but there are no statistics on how many wells collapsed, how many drills and casing were lost.
The drill is taken with a smaller diameter, and the lower casing is made with diverging sharpened teeth (crown) or equipped with a cutting skirt. Having drilled for 1 cycle, the drill is filled, and the pipe is forced to settle; a crown or skirt cuts off excess soil. This method slows down drilling, because before starting a new cycle, you need to use a bailer (see below) to select the crumbled soil, but it is more reliable, makes it easier to fill the annulus with gravel and allows you to use an external sand filter, see below.

Drilling tool

Now let's see which drill to drill into which soil and in what way, see fig. on right:

The cutting edges of all drills are made of hardened steel. Drawings of a homemade drill-glass, an analogue of a spoon drill (the cutting blades are installed by a propeller at an angle of 3-10 degrees) and a diagram of the bailer are shown in the following. rice. on right. The outer diameters of all these drills can be changed depending on the caliber of the well.

How do they drill?

Mobile drilling rigs that allow you to drill directly from the ground, like the one in Fig. left,

Unfortunately, they are not available for rent: their management requires professional training, and the very fact of ownership, albeit temporary, requires a license for drilling operations. Therefore, we will have to start the old fashioned way, in the Gorshchitsky way - with a homemade copra, unless the woman beats the needle well.

Koper

The simplest pile driver is a tripod made of logs or steel pipes in the form of an equilateral triangular pyramid - a tetrahedron, pos. 1 in Fig. below. This design is very strong and rigid with minimal material consumption. The height of a tetrahedron is equal to 0.8165 of the length of its edge, i.e. from ordinary 6-m logs, taking into account the depth of the pile driver's legs into the ground, a tripod with a height of about 4.5 m will be obtained, which will allow the use of casing pipe bends up to 3 m in length. In general, the height of the piledriver is taken 1.2-1.5 m above the maximum length of what will be lowered into the trunk.

The legs of the piledriver can be fastened together with a frame made of the same logs/pipes to prevent them from moving, but in order to save material, you can also dig 0.7-0.8 m into the ground, placing a piece of log about 1 m long horizontally under the heel of each - a bed. Assembling the copra tent on the ground, pos. 3, the legs are simultaneously (three or six of them) inserted into the pits with the beds and the soil is poured back, compacting it tightly.

Note: strengthening the legs of a piledriver directly on the ground with crowbars or steel rods driven in from the outside is extremely dangerous!

The pile driver is equipped with a lifting and drilling gate (pos. 1 and 2), a block with a hook (pos. 1, 2, 4) and a rocking lever for lifting the drill, cable-impact drilling, setting casing pipes and working with a bailer, pos. 2. The block hook and drills that have an eye (a ring for fastening the rope) are tied with an anchor knot (it is also called a fishing bayonet, pos. 1 in the figure on the right), and long loads are tied with a cargo knot, pos. 2 there.

Shurf

Having installed the pile driver, a hook with a compact weight (a sledgehammer, for example) is lowered to the ground, this is where the trunk will begin. Around this point they dig (hammer) a hole measuring approximately 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 m. In the hole, they also mark the starting point and drill the first 3-4 m with an auger, constantly checking its verticality. This is an extremely important operation; the fate of the entire well depends on the first meters! Further, if drilling will be to a depth of more than 7 m, it is highly desirable to install a conductor - a pipe with a diameter larger than the diameter of the annulus of the wellbore. The conductor is carefully aligned to the vertical and concreted.

Note: Attention! When choosing the dimensions of the well, drills and pipes, tie them to the caliber of the submersible pump! The gap between its body and the nearest wall must be at least 7 mm or according to the specifications for the unit. The most common caliber of household submersible pumps is 86 mm.

Prokhodka

Methods of drilling with different projectiles on different soils are described above. Problems can arise, in addition to boulders, with dense dry clay, this is a very harmful rock. You can deal with it in different ways, for example, as shown here:

Video: drilling water wells in dense clay

In general, rotary-percussion or cable-percussion hydraulic drilling is used to penetrate dense clay, see figure on the right. There is no need to pump water that is not yet available. You can simply pour several buckets into the casing, wait half an hour or less, and try which one takes better - a glass or a spoon. You don’t have to try it with an auger, the clay will take it.

Casing and column

The drill string is assembled from steel pipes with a diameter of about 80 mm and walls with a thickness of 4 mm. Whether you take ready-made drill elbows or make them yourself, pay attention to the connection method. Only connections with bayonet couplings are suitable for manual drilling! Threaded and locking ones of any kind are not suitable: the rod will inevitably have to be turned in the opposite direction at some point and the rod will unscrew and the lock will come apart during any type of impact drilling.

During the drilling process, as already mentioned, casing pipes are also installed. Nowadays, even in professional drilling to shallow depths, plastic casings have become practically no alternative, but you need to take special casings:

Lightweight, you can move it alone.
Withstand forced settlement and soil pressure with a force of up to 5 tf.
They practically do not slow down the internal filter, see below, when installing it.
They do not corrode or spoil water throughout their service life, up to 50 years.

The only thing that plastic casing is afraid of is damage from the inside by the drill rod. Therefore, it is advisable to use drill pipe centralizers, see fig. on the right, 1 for every 3-5 m of the rod. The cheapest ones are steel spring ones, they are quite suitable. As for the complex ones with turbulators, etc., they are for professional hydraulic drilling.

Sprinkling

As the casing deepens into the barrel, it is necessary to add fine gravel into the annulus. Gravel filling of a water well will greatly speed up its pumping and extend its service life. And a sand well without backfill may turn out to be completely inoperable.

There is water!

The achievement of the aquifer by a needle well is judged by the increase in the rate of penetration, and the presence of water is checked with a snare - a piece of steel pipe welded at one end and lowered into the well on a cord. With other wells it is simpler: as the drill once again brought out wet soil, it means there is water. It remains to be decided whether it is necessary to go deeper. To do this, use a centrifugal submersible pump (the vibrating pump will immediately clog in such slurry) to pump out several buckets. If the water in the 5th bucket has not noticeably brightened, you need to go deeper another 0.5 m (1 drilling cycle) and check again. If you have already gone 2 m deep, but the sample is still the same - that’s it, there will be no more debit, and you will have to put up with a long buildup. Also, if the rate of penetration suddenly drops (and it is very difficult for an inexperienced driller to detect it using any drilling method other than rotary), then drilling is stopped immediately - we are at the bottom of the formation, the well will be perfect.

Note: When drilling stops or is interrupted, the rod with the drill must be removed, otherwise it will be pulled into the ground.

Rocking up

A drilled well will not yet provide water in the required quantity and quality. To do this, it is necessary to either open the aquifer or pump the well. Opening up the formation allows you to get drinking water within 24 hours. It requires large amounts of clean water and complex and expensive equipment. Please note: autopsy is carried out using direct and reverse methods. In direct drilling, water is pumped under pressure into the casing and drilling fluid is pumped out of the annulus. When reversed, water is fed by gravity “behind the pipe” and the solution is pumped out of the trunk. Direct opening is faster, but it disrupts the structure of the formation more strongly and the well lasts less. The opposite is the opposite. Keep this in mind when negotiating with drillers if you order a well.

Bore pumping takes several days, but can be done with an ordinary household submersible centrifugal pump; vibration is not suitable for the reasons stated above. To pump, first remove silt from the well with a bailer; You can see how to use a bailer in the video below:

Video: cleaning (swinging) a well with a homemade bailer

The rest is not difficult: the water is completely pumped out every time there is enough of it to cover the pump. It is useful to raise and lower it on the cable rope several times before turning it on to stir up the residual sludge. The swing can be done with a manner, but scooping will take a lot of work, and it will take about two weeks.

Note: as the rocking progresses, the gravel backfill will settle; it must be replenished by adding more.

The pumping of the well is considered complete when the transparency of the water rises to 70 cm. It is checked with a white enamel or earthenware disk with a diameter of 15 cm (saucer, saucepan lid) in an opaque vessel, for example. clean barrel. When the edges of the disk begin to blur during immersion, stop, it’s already opaque. You need to look at the disk strictly vertically. Once transparency is achieved, the water sample is submitted for analysis and, if everything is OK, the annulus is concreted or closed with clay, and a filter is installed.

Filter

A well filter is the main device that ensures the quality of water from it. And at the same time, it is the component most susceptible to wear, so the choice of a well filter must be taken with full responsibility.

Artesian water is taken without filtration. For a well on limestone, most often a simple lattice filter in the form of perforation on the lower bend of the casing is sufficient; it will also serve as the basis for a sand well filter. The perforation requirements are:

The diameter of the holes is 15-20 mm, up to 30 mm depending on the ground.
The filter duty cycle (the ratio of the total area of the holes to the surface area they occupy) is 0.25-0.30, for which the distance between the centers of the holes is taken to be 2-3 times greater than their diameter.
The location of the holes is in transverse rows in a checkerboard pattern.
The total area of all holes is not less than the cross-sectional area of the casing pipe lumen.

For a sand well, firstly, gravel backfill is necessary; in this case, it is precisely this that ensures long-term water quality, as in a well. In view of this, well filters with a layer of gravel included in the design are available for sale. There is no harm in them, but the wellbore needs a larger diameter, which makes drilling difficult, and without external backfilling, the well still quickly silts up.

Next, if you follow the flow of water, there is the same perforated pipe, but now it will be a load-bearing element that absorbs rock pressure. To prevent sand, which gravel does not retain well, from spoiling the entire water supply tract, you also need a sand filter. It can be external or external (on the left in the figure) or internal (on the right in the same place). External filters have three advantages: minimal diameter and siltation of the well and pump installation depth. But they are easily damaged during casing installation, are unrepairable and expensive, because... due to the latter circumstance, they must be made of very high-quality materials: alloys for the mesh and wire of external well filters are more expensive than silver.

When installing a pump in a well with an internal filter, its bottom is considered to be its upper edge, so the volume of one-time water withdrawal is seriously reduced. The problem with all internal filters is increased silting of the well due to water seeping into the gap between the filter and the casing. Also, as a result, the service life of the filter is reduced, and pump wear increases, because sand gets into it. Often, therefore, the pump is placed in a separate pipe mounted on the outlet of the filter, which again requires an increase in the diameter of the well.

The best option is to connect the pump directly to the filter outlet, then both silting and sanding will stop. But this requires a centrifugal pump with an intake pipe on the bottom, which makes it much more complicated and expensive, and the vibration pressure is often low for sand wells.

The filter elements of sand filters are sometimes made independently from PVC pipes, stainless springs and polymer mesh, see fig. on the left, but they filter poorly and do not last long. It’s better to take a good store-bought filter; its operating conditions are too difficult, and taking it out, as they say, is quite a task. In this case, there are basically 3 options, see fig:

Polymer stacked ring filter. Cheaper than others, but lasts less and is prone to silting, but it is repairable: you can lift it and sort it out, replacing bad rings. Requires an increased well diameter;
Tubular-wire with a winding of profiled wire. A little more expensive than polymer, but it lasts a long time and does not silt. Repairs do not require a bulkhead; just wash the top. It would be optimal if not for one “but”: cases of fraud by manufacturers, traders, and drillers have been repeatedly noted - how completely stainless filters are supplied, in which the longitudinal rods are made of ordinary galvanized wire. It is impossible to check without breaking the filter, but harmful impurities soon appear in the water, and then the rods completely rust, the winding slips, and the entire filter has to be replaced.
Support-free welded filters, wire and slotted. They would be ideal (the latter can withstand settling into the barrel from the outside on the pipe), if not for the price: they are made from the same profiled stainless wire that costs about the same as silver.

Arrangement and automation

To supply water to the house, a well must be equipped and mutually coordinated with the water supply. The arrangement of water supply wells has undergone radical changes in recent years. The traditional scheme (see figure on the right) - a caisson, concrete or steel, or stone pit, which requires a large amount of additional excavation work and usable land area for itself, is becoming a thing of the past. Nowadays, water wells are increasingly equipped with well adapters, see fig. below. Installing the adapter is quite a painstaking task, but it is incomparable with a caisson-pit sweep:

As soon as the water begins to flow, they judge by the speed of its clearing how much further it is possible to go deeper, and cut the last casing pipe to size from above.
Before installing it, make a trench to the house to a depth greater than the standard depth of soil freezing.
A hole for the adapter is drilled in the pipe in advance and installed, plugging the pipes. If you place it directly in a well, it may gurgle there.
They place the pipe and drill further, orienting the outlet of the adapter into the trench at a depth greater than the freezing depth.
They rock the well, install the filter, lower the pump, connect the pump supply pipe and the transit pipe to the house to the adapter fittings, and lay the pump cable.
They put the well cap on, when the water has flowed into the tank, fill up the trench - that’s it.

Water supply to a private house from a well has its own characteristics, but they will not prevent you from later connecting to a collective water supply or drinking water from a well. You won’t have to redo anything, it will only be more reliable.

First, you need a pressure storage tank. The flow rate of a non-artesian well may, for unknown reasons, drop until it stops completely, and then the water flows again as if nothing had happened. Secondly, downstream of the tank along the water flow you need at least a 2-stage membrane filter. In public water supply systems, water quality is continuously monitored, which is not the case at home. What if there is a man-made accident or an unauthorized discharge of pollution somewhere in the reservoir’s recharge zone? Everyone had already forgotten when it was, and the bad water had just reached the well.

Finally, the home water supply must comply with the principle of gradual, uniform water withdrawal, which was discussed at the beginning. Cooperating with neighbors, as when building a common septic tank, is not the best solution in this case. Suddenly there won’t be enough debit for everyone, instead of the community there will be squabbles. Those. we need automation that turns on the booster pump as soon as someone somewhere opens a tap.

There are 2 options here. The first is a pressure tank with a float valve in a warm attic. All automation consists of a rod that passes in a sleeve through the tank cover and rests on the float lever, and a 6-10 A microswitch (micrik) with normally closed contacts in the pump power supply circuit. While the tank is full, the rod presses on the microphone lever, the pump is de-energized. As soon as water began to flow into the house, the rod dropped, the microphone went off, and the pump started pumping.

However, firstly, you need to insulate the attic, which costs a lot of work and money. The second is a pump, it will require an extra 4-5 meters of pressure, and for a 2-story house, all 8-9, so the pump turns out to be expensive. Thirdly, a leak in the tank or a malfunction of the float will at least lead to the ceiling getting wet. Therefore, modern automation for water supply wells, controlled by a microcontroller that monitors flow rate, water pressure and the frequency of turning on the pump, is still cheaper and more reliable. House plumbing is then carried out with a sealed membrane storage tank in the basement.

Afterword

The drilling masters who once developed Tyumen and Urengoy are still alive. There were no geophysical equipment that built a 3D picture of what was in the ground on a computer display, and there were no fully robotic drilling rigs at that time, but they already saw through the earth with their intuition, experience and were on friendly terms with all the spirits of the subsoil. And the then ministers and members of the Politburo, who had more arrogance than the old Testament boyars and appanage princes, addressed these aces as “you” by name and patronymic and respectfully shook their hands.

So, any of the old bison drillers have failed wells, which they are not ashamed of - that’s how they work. What then should we say to beginners who act independently? Don't be discouraged by failure; suddenly the first well turns out to be empty, or collapses, or the drill gets stuck. Not without that in the drilling business. But frustration and disappointment will instantly subside under the powerful pressure of, as they say now, positivity, as soon as your well produces water.