Digging A Well DIY

[chiang mai]

I thought I'd post an update here some issues have developed:

The well works fine, water supply is not an issue, ditto the pump which is a real demon and churns out more than enough water for my needs.

But water quality is an issue, specifically, iron in the water or "rust" as it is commonly known. Rust has the effect of staining painted walls yellow and also slowly blocking sprinkler heads and ultimately I would guess, the pump itself. Rust at such a shallow depth is a common problem everywhere and there's not much that can be done about it other than to paint walls a darker colour and/or to drill deeper to get past the rust.

I'm fortunate that I've got access to a second more shallow well for part of the week although this is obviously determined by rainfall and the frequency with which water is released into the klongs, increasingly the latter is becoming a rare event. I'm unsure what my next steps are but am happy to hear the experience of others with regard to rust in well water.

[cornishcarlos]

Why do bore holes cost so much down south ?

Everyone we talk to is quoting in the region of 150k for approx 50-60m depth. Petrol is the same price down here in Surat..

We are now looking at digging a big pond and if that doesn't produce required water, we will dig a well in the bottom of the pond !!

Or we will pay 150k for a bore hole

[longball53098]

I can say my borehole which is 4 years old now and 45 meters deep is running great. Yes the first season produced brown walls and rust on any out door metal. The brown staining stopped in the second season of use. Not sure why but I can say that a water test shows a lower iron content than during that first year. A friend a few hundred meters from me also had the same result from his bore drilled at the same time

[T_Dog]

Have put in a couple of wells 8 meters deep with this method. As long as you don't hit any rocks and have a strong junk pump, 2-3 hours is all it takes. Very economical DIY method.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGq0ETzZP0E

[cornishcarlos]

Apart from hitting rock, how deep can you go with that method ? Looks worth a try but got to get the water to the well location to bore down, plus the pump with power ! Might be tricky where I want to put it

[T_Dog]

Apart from hitting rock, how deep can you go with that method ? Looks worth a try but got to get the water to the well location to bore down, plus the pump with power ! Might be tricky where I want to put it

I have heard of folks going 20 meters deep with that method. Hardest part for us was keeping 8 meters of 2 inch PVC pipe upright as we put in the well pipe with the well screen. Next time I would just bore with 2 inch PVC, pull out the drill pipe at depth, and then drop in 1 inch pipe with a 2 inch spiral-slotted well screen at the bottom. It was a lot of fun to see the different tailings come to the surface as we went through different layers. We had springs on that property so had an endless supply of 20 degree C water.

[cornishcarlos]

I'm tempted to give it a go...

150k + is just a ridiculous price !

[UKJASE]

if there is plenty of room in the garden / field, how deep do you think one of those small macro's can dig?

i imagine if there was enogh space, which we have at the moment, he could dig down 2 meteres or so, then drive into that hole, then dig another 2 metres down, then perhaps do this once more, and you would have a 6 metre hole pretty quickly.

maybe a couple of guys to dig it down another 2 metres, and then we would have an 8 metre well. probably wouldnt take much longer than 2 days.

on a separate note - can anyone recommend any good pumps that are suitable for pumping out the dirty, muddy water that we would have in the well during digging, pumps that do not clog up when the water is real dirty?

[Beardog]

We had a borehole specialist that quoted 40,000 baht for 20-25 meters + another say 30,000 baht for a 3/4 - 1 hp.Franklin pump pending on where you get it Or if you just wanted a basic on -off switch pump You turn it on & off you can get up to a 2 horsepower pump for dirt cheap. But it has zero electronics you are the on to turn the pump on & off. He is out of Rayong which is a bazillion kilos from where you are. We wanted to put in a borehole here but the plots are 1nagn & there isn't enough room if your neighbor decides to put his septic system closer than 30 meter to your water supply so it just wouldn't work. We have adequate water supply from the government water & while everyone has 3/4"-1" pipes we have 3" pipes same size as the county put in & then transduced it down to 1" everyone runs out of water here except us we need 1 tank of water in low season Our neighbor that was cheaping out put in 3/4" off the 3" main & he gets 2 -3 tanks full every month during low season. Way cheaper to go large & unrestricted then make it smaller piping into the meter & then 1" pipes on the hose bibs outside & your 1/2" to 3/4" into the inside. I wish I could find a 1" meter so we would never need that 1 tank a year but it is only 120 baht for a year. When you are digging the well if they hit that Iron ferrite rock(may be misspelled) it is a bear , the boys had to take an angle grinder & cut squares & remove them with a chisel for our first septic pit on our old house. Nightmare . Easier to just have an excavator come in & whack through the rock they just weld the broken claw pieces back on the claw if it breaks later. And way quick 750 baht & done in an hour with the rings lowered down into the hole & gravel spread around the ring. On a well you definitely want rock & not dirt around the outside of the rings as the other scholars have said. unless you like silt & mud. We learned the hard way the guy that put in our massive well put dirt around the rings & we had crapolla water(just muddy) till we moved. Live & learn!

[passingas]

My next big project will be sleeving our 1 meter diameter, previous dug well (without any gravel/sand backfill)....and putting in 70cm diameter sections of that concrete culvert/well stuff they use here, inside...and as I come up with it from the bottom, the void between the two pipe/culverts will be fill with a mixture of sand and gravel...all the way to the top (12 sections or so). This will be my first, primary filter and hopefully it will alleviate a lot of the crap we have to endure during the rainy season. As it is now...we have to dig all the top layer of our media filter (fine sand) out of our three ringed filter and either wash (do that for three years, then change it out) or replace. All thanks to good enough for Thailand, half-assed done project. pg

[T_Dog]

p-gas... You should consider jetting your own well with the method I posted earlier. Drill down with 2 inch pipe and when you are done, drop in a prepared 1 inch pipe with a 1 meter long, 2 inch diameter spriral-slotted sand filter you can get from Home Mart. Once the the two inch bore is filled in, you won't be affected by the rainy season. I filled our bores with gravel first, then clay with a concrete top cap at the top. Water was the same all year long.

[passingas]

T_Dog, I totally missed that post...great idea! Thanks...I will certainly look into that, as my method would be labor intensive. However...I'm not sure a drilling rig could access our well area now, due to perimeter walls and such. It is right next to the wall with an empty rice field (for now) on the other side. I sure will look into that, though. Thanks again...there's always a need and a second way to skin the old proverbial cat. pg

[cheeryble]

FWIW about the rust.....if you really want the water clean like for washing.....

You may have seen on top of tanks a cascade of stainless trays with the water showering down from tray to tray then back in the tank and pumped around again.

This is aeration......it makes the dissolved iron tend to go to undissolved rust then the rust is filtered with sand.