Any Vacation home and the cottage must have water. Wells have gone out of fashion, and drilling water wells with your own hands is quite labor-intensive. Without water trees cannot grow, without it flowers cannot bloom. No plants will bear fruit if they are not watered sufficiently. But a well with your own hands, without equipment with its ingenious devices, can well be drilled in any area.
Drilling wells with hand tools
Any owner can drill a well under water with his own hands. To do this, you do not need to have drilling equipment. There are several ways to work without using it:
- arrangement of a conventional well;
- well drilled into sand;
- artesian well.
A good well can store up to 2 m³ of water. A well with a pipe diameter of 100 mm, having a depth of 20-30 m, has a filter mesh at the bottom of the column. The depth of such a structure can reach 50 m. The service life is up to 15 years. An artesian well extracts water from layers of porous limestone located at a depth of up to 200 m. Its service life is 50 years. The more often a structure is used, the longer its lifespan may be.
To drill a well with your own hands you will need:
- shovel;
- borax;
- drilling rig;
- rods for extending drills;
- winch of any type;
- casing pipe of the required diameter.
Drills are needed for actual drilling. They come in different types. Spiral ones are used on clay soils. On hard soils, a drill bit is used. On sandy ones - a drill-spoon. The tower is necessary for lifting the drill along with the rods and for lowering it back after cleaning and building up new rods. If the well is shallow, you can do without a tower. Homemade rods can be used. They are made from pipes, provided for fastening to each other using threads or dowels.
A drill is attached to the lower rod. Its cutting edges can also be homemade. They are made of steel 3 mm thick. They need to be sharpened so that when the drill rotates clockwise, they cut into the soil. The spiral pitch should be equal to the diameter of the drill. The lower base of the tool is 45-85 mm, the cutting blade is 258-290 mm.
The drilling technologies themselves are simple. If a tower is used, it is installed above the selected location. Its height should slightly exceed the length of the drill rod. For the drill, a hole is dug with a simple shovel. The initial turns of the drill can be done alone, then the additional strength of an assistant is needed. After the drill is buried to a certain depth, it is pulled out. This should be done approximately every 50 cm. If the drill is difficult to move, it is recommended to moisten the ground with water. When the handles reach ground level, the entire column is taken out and extended with the next bar. After this, work resumes.
A water well is drilled with your own hands until it reaches an aquifer, which is characterized by wet soil. Then a hard layer is reached. The drilling is completed, the well at the dacha is almost ready. Casing pipes are lowered into it. By hand pump Dirty water is pumped out, which is usually 2-3 buckets. If clean water does not appear, another 1-2 m of soil should be drilled. This is not the only way.
Other drilling methods
You can drill a well under water using a hydraulic pump and a high-power drill. A drill with handles for 2 people turns the drill, a hydraulic pump soaks the soil. There is shock-rope technology. To use it, a tower is required. The rock is broken with a special steel glass, which falls from the tower. The higher the height, the better. The tower is made of pipes or logs. It must be equipped with a collar or winch to lift the glass. The glass can be made from steel pipe, equipping it with a device for cutting soil. About half a meter above, a hole is made to remove soil from the glass.
A strong cable is attached to its upper part. On it the glass will rise from the well. You need to clean it from the soil every 50 cm of immersion. The casing pipe can be asbestos-cement, steel or plastic. It is designed to protect the well from soil shedding and from falling dirty water from upper layers land.
We found out how to drill a well with our own hands. You can do this yourself, but you can also order the work from special organizations. Construction of a well with your own hands should be as follows. A pipe with a filter made using a fine mesh must be lowered into the water at the bottom of the drilled well. From above, the entire structure is closed with a sealed cap. A pump is placed in the pipe to pump water. Pumps can be used different types. The main condition is that their diameter must be less than the diameter of the pipe. It is recommended to choose a place for water extraction away from septic tanks, cesspools and heaps of garbage.
When the work associated with drilling is completed, they proceed directly to the construction of the well itself. Construction of a water well on your own begins with lowering a pipe with a filter and settling tanks. The filter is the main part of the entire column. It can be purchased in a store or made by yourself. To do this, cuts or holes of small diameter (5-6 mm) are made in the pipe. They are made over a length of up to 2 m. Notches can be made with a grinder with a disk up to 0.8 mm thick. Water passes through them freely, and sand and other inclusions are retained. The place where the notches or holes are made is wrapped with wire or cloth. This will prevent the filter from silting up.
The service life of such devices is approximately 15 years. They require regular washing with clean water.
For immersion depths of up to 9 m, the simplest pumps are needed. At greater depths, submersible pumps are used. You also need a head with leads to the house, to the site, to the bathhouse and to other places.
Conclusion on the topic
A well in a country house or on a country plot is what its owners dream of.
If the water level in the area is above 5 m, then drilling a well and installing equipment will be very simple.
For work, you can get by with one garden auger and extension rods. How to build a well? This requires pumps, heads and filters. All this can be done with your own hands. The equipment for a well pays for itself in full after about a year of its operation.
A well-maintained well at the dacha is an almost mandatory condition for comfortable rest, because centralized water supply outside the city is not always organized. However, drilling work is expensive, and the expected result is not guaranteed to site owners. The desire to save money and manage the process prompts many summer residents to start drilling a well on their own. It is difficult to accomplish this task, but it is quite possible.
Is the water deep in your area?
First, you need to decide on the type of well, finding out how deep the aquifer lies in a particular area. There are several possibilities for this:
- hydrological maps;
- exploration drilling;
- survey of neighbors.
The first, as well as consultations with a hydrological engineer, can be obtained from the relevant departments. Exploratory drilling work is resorted to only as a last resort, since it is an expensive pleasure. Most often, site owners simply ask their neighbors, who are already happy owners of an existing water well or well, about the characteristics of the property.
A little about the types of water wells
Based on the results of assessing the depth of the aquifer, dacha owners will have to choose from three options:
- the water lies close, at a depth of up to 12 meters -;
- an aquifer no deeper than 50 meters - a well “for sand”;
- the water is very deep, up to 200 meters - a well “for limestone”.
An aquifer lying close to the surface is rare. The lucky owners of such a site can make a needle well, which will take only one day or even a few hours to create. The technology for creating an Abyssinian well is that the soil is pierced with a rather thin pipe: only 1-1.5 inches. A cone-shaped pipe is installed at the end of the pipe, which facilitates penetration through the thickness of the soil. A suction pump is mounted on top. However, little water comes from the Abyssinian well, so it may be necessary to construct another water source of this type. The compact shape of the Abyssinian well allows you to drill such a well even in the basement of a house.
A “limestone” well, i.e. an artesian one, is also not common. This option is good because it allows you to receive a large number of very clean water. But it is almost impossible to successfully drill such a well on your own; you will need to attract a team with professional drilling equipment. In addition, artesian water sources must be licensed by the relevant authorities. Please note that if there is a layer of artesian water under the dacha plot, it makes sense to discuss with your neighbors a joint payment for the brigade’s services, since such a well can easily provide water consumption for several households at the same time.
To create an Abyssinian well, a thin one and a half inch pipe with a filter tip is driven into the ground. Compact size and simple technology allow you to install such a well in the basement of a house or make an additional source of water at your summer cottage
Most often, water lies on the horizon within a depth of fifty meters. Such a well can be completed even by novice drillers using one of the methods developed for such situations. Which ones? Read on.
Which drilling method should I choose?
For such large-scale drilling work, you will need a special installation that you can make yourself. The type of installation depends on the selected drilling method:
- shock-rope;
- screw;
- rotary.
To make a unit capable of creating a narrow well several tens of meters deep, in addition to ordinary tools you will need a drill, grinder and welding machine. Inexperienced craftsmen are advised to acquire skills in working with these complex devices. Although creating a homemade drilling rig will require a lot of time and effort, the device can be effectively used in the future, for example, during installation pile foundation. Some craftsmen with such an installation began own business for the installation of water wells at neighboring dachas.
Option #1 - shock-rope installation
A working tool of this design is a rather heavy cartridge and a bailer mounted on a cable. The cable with the load is suspended vertically on a special frame. The soil is broken up using a chuck and removed with a bailer until the depth of the pit reaches the aquifer. The weight of the cartridge must be at least 80 kg. Such devices are now practically not used manually; operations are performed using a rotary motor, which raises and lowers the rope with a load.
To create a cable-percussion drilling rig, you will need a bailer and a chuck with sharpened edges, as well as a cable, a frame on which the load will be attached, and a motor to control the cable
It is recommended to sharpen the lower edge of the chuck and also attach several sharp triangular elements to it to increase efficiency. First, a hole of a suitable diameter is made in the ground using a conventional garden borer, and then start working with the chuck and bailer. Percussion-rope drilling Quite effective on both light and clay soils.
An interesting version of this installation is presented in the video:
Option #2 - auger drilling rig
When this device operates, the soil is removed using a special drill, which is made from a 100 mm steel pipe. A couple of turns of a screw with a diameter of approximately 200 mm are welded to its lower end. Two inclined steel knives are installed along the edges of the auger. A removable handle, also made from a piece of steel pipe, is mounted on top.
To make a drill, several turns of metal with sharpened edges are welded to a metal pipe. As the wellbore deepens, the pipe is extended to the required length
As the structure deepens into the ground, the main pipe is expanded using threaded connection or couplings. The device is secured using a tripod tower made of wood or metal. To remove a fairly heavy pipe from a pit, it is recommended to use a winch with an electric motor.
Here is an example of work on auger drilling with simultaneous casing:
Option #3 - rotary drilling rig
This is the most complex, but also the most reliable installation option for drilling wells. You can make only the frame for such a device yourself, and it is recommended to purchase other elements, such as a drill rod, swivel, blade drill, motor pump and gear motor, from a reliable manufacturer. Using such a setup, you can carry out flushing drilling, impact drilling, rotary drilling, etc. The ability to supply a solution that erodes the soil and facilitates its excavation increases the speed of drilling work several times.
Example of work:
Please note that if one of your neighbors already has experience in drilling a well on their own, it makes sense to inquire about the possibility of borrowing ready-made drilling equipment.
Procedure for drilling a sand well
Like any important matter, drilling a well should begin with drawing up a project diagram. First you need to choose a suitable location for the well. It should be located quite close to the house and as far as possible from sources of potential pollution: septic tanks, places where livestock and poultry are kept, bathhouses, the banks of a reservoir, etc. It is necessary to take into account not only existing objects, but also those that are still planned to be built on the site, since moving the well to a new location will be, to put it mildly, problematic.
Once the plan has been drawn up, it is time to begin executing it. To do this you need:
- Apply markings for future work.
- Dig a hole according to the markings, which will contain the drilling tool (bailer, auger, drill, etc.).
- Install drilling equipment.
- Carry out drilling in accordance with the selected technology.
- Lower the filter column into the pit, which is a structure consisting of a filter, a sump and a pipe.
- Fill the space between the outer walls with sand or crushed stone casing pipe and soil.
- Seal the top of the pipe and use a pump to pump water into it to flush the filter.
- Pump water from the well using a bailer or auger pump.
- After the water is clear, lower it into the well submersible pump using a safety rope.
- Connect a hose or water pipe to the pump.
- Install a valve on the pipe that regulates the water supply.
- Waterproof the part of the casing pipe protruding above the surface.
- Equip the wellhead with a caisson and weld it to the head.
- Lay down water pipes, leading to the house, into the trenches intended for them.
- Cover the caisson with soil and a concrete blind area.
This general order works, depending on the conditions, necessary changes may be made to it.
A properly constructed caisson prevents well equipment from getting wet or freezing. Industrial models of caissons made of durable plastic are very easy to install
Review of popular beginner mistakes
As you know, the soil is heterogeneous and consists of different layers. To successfully drill a well through them, it is recommended to use various methods drilling:
- sandy horizons are best overcome using a spoon drill with simultaneous flushing with drilling fluid or ordinary water;
- For drilling hard sand, it is recommended to use a chisel;
- on quicksand it is considered the most effective to use;
- for drilling clay, it is better to use a coil; a bailer or spoon drill is also suitable;
- hard rocks are drilled in two stages: first, they are chiselled with a chisel, then the soil is excavated;
- pebble and gravel layers are also passed through the alternate use of a chisel and a bailer;
- In most cases, supplying water to the pit facilitates and speeds up drilling.
It should be remembered that the dimensions of the pit should be slightly larger than outside diameter casing pipe. When choosing, it is also necessary to take into account that the minimum clearance between the inner wall of the pipe and the pump should be at least 5 mm, optimally 10 mm.
The condition of the soil indicates that the drillers have reached the aquifer. If wet soil appears from the well, it means water is close. Soon after this, the drilling tool will move noticeably easier than before, when the drill hits the aquifer. Work should continue until drilling becomes difficult again, i.e., until the waterproof layer is reached. Only after this can drilling be stopped.
Submersible pump for country well must be lowered to the correct depth. If the device is located too high, water will not flow in sufficient volume, and if the device is too low, it will quickly become covered with sand.
It happens that a recently drilled well suddenly stops functioning. This may indicate low quality of work performed. Both beginners and professionals often make a number of mistakes while drilling. Here are the most common of them:
- Over-drilling, i.e. drilling to excessive depth, as a result of which the pipe “slipped through” the aquifer. To correct the situation, you should either raise the existing pipe to the desired level, or insert it inside the pipe new pipe smaller diameter, and remove the old one completely or partially.
- Incomplete installation of the casing pipe into the hole, as a result of which the required well flow rate is not achieved. This occurs due to the soil collapsing into the shaft during the excavation of the drilling tool. The soil should be removed with a bailer (washing will not help) and the pipe should be settled.
- Underdrill, i.e. the pipe is not cut to an insufficient depth. The well is drilled to the correct depth and a new one equipped with a filter is inserted into the existing casing.
- The pump is lowered too low, as a result the well is silted with sand. The pump is removed, the sand is selected with a bailer, the pump is installed correctly.
To install the submersible pump correctly, it should be lowered to a minimum depth. Then slowly immerse, checking the condition of the water every 20-50 cm. When sand comes out, the wrong position has been reached, the pump must be raised to the level at which clean water flowed.
How to drill a well with your own hands? Review of three drilling methods
If you have made a deliberate decision to secure your suburban area water, it is best to use wells. You can drill wells on your own, and if you intend to do this, then this article will be useful to you. But better installation Water supply systems should be entrusted to specialists, because it requires considerable experience and knowledge.
Choosing a location for a well
To begin with, we must choose the right location for the future well, as well as so that it is as efficient as possible. We need to determine whether there is a shallow aquifer on the site, for which there are certain signs.
Signs of a shallow aquifer present on the site
- In a specific area of the site, many plants have accumulated that prefer high humidity.
- In the evening, in areas with an increased amount of vegetation, fog and dew accumulate, and in winter time thawed patches form in the snow.
- A large number of mosquitoes and other insects gather. It is also believed that cats prefer to rest in places located above deep waters.
If at least one of these signs is noticed, then you can safely start drilling a well. These are all, of course, signs that are largely folk, more effective way identifying deep waters is geological research.
Folk" method of detecting deep waters
Tools that will be required during the drilling process
Let’s immediately make a reservation that not all tools can be made with your own hands; some of them will have to be purchased. If we manage to make, for example, a drill, its quality will be questionable, because standard factory drills are made of high-strength hardened steel.
For work we will need:
- Derrick;
- Drill column to which couplings are attached for connection;
- Drill head;
- Boards;
- Rope;
- Filter.
A drilling derrick is a kind of tripod that you can assemble with your own hands from thick logs Ø15 centimeters. Between two of them we attach a winch, to which we suspend the drill column using a rope. The column is a structure of rods connected to each other by couplings and threads. There should be 6 rods in total, their length should be from 1.5 to 3 meters.
The boards will be useful to us so that the walls of the pit do not crumble (we will talk later what this is). Drill heads are various types and are used depending on the type of soil. Much depends on this type, including the method of drilling the well.
Types of drill heads
Drill heads come in the following types:
- a chisel used to split hard rocks;
- bailer - it removes the soil remaining after the bit has worked (you can also drill loose soil using a bailer);
- a spoon used for sand and clay;
- a coil will be needed if there is gravel in the soil;
- spoon with a coil.
We have selected the tools and proceed directly to drilling.
Well drilling technology using the cable method
The percussion-rope drilling method consists of the following stages.
Stage 1. Preliminary “instruction”. Before starting work, we must understand that the optimal well depth is 7-10 meters. You can drill no more than 20 meters on your own; if the groundwater is at a greater depth, then specialists must do the drilling.
Important! It is impossible to drill a well on your own in any case, since this will require at least two assistants.
Stage 2. We align the pit (rectangular “box”) in the place where the well will be located. The dimensions of the pit should be 2x1.5x1.5 m, and it is needed so that the unstable upper layers of soil do not crumble. We take boards and line the walls of the pit.
Stage 3. We mount the tripod at the drilling site. We securely fasten it, then place the drill column in the hole and turn the rod. The drilling process has begun. Every 60-70 centimeters we clean the column from adhering soil.
Stage 4. When we reach the aquifer, the drill column should be pulled out and the filter lowered in its place. We will definitely use a filter, otherwise the water pump will quickly become unusable. The voids formed between the walls of the well and the filter are filled with sand. Then we install pipes through which the water will rise and dismantle the walls of the pit. We fill in the well.
Stage 5. We install a water pump, which will be the “core” of the entire well. Outwardly, it will not look very attractive, so it is advisable to decorate it with some decorative element, for example, a canopy.
In this way we can drill a well up to 20 meters. Water located at such a depth has repeatedly undergone natural filtration, it will be clean and soft.
Well pipes and filter
A filter for a well is the same important detail like a pump. The following types of filters are distinguished:
- Gravel;
- Wire;
- Reticulate.
During operation, it is advisable to fill the filter with gravel, which will prevent dirt from entering the pipeline. When choosing a filter, we must pay attention to the following parameters:
Options for arranging pipes for water lifting
- If the water is planned to be consumed as food, then plastic water should be used, which does not corrode. If finances allow, you can buy more expensive enameled steel pipes.
- If the well is intended for economic purposes, then we can use socketed, thin-walled or threaded pipes.
Drilling a well using a pump
This method is perfect if the depth groundwater does not exceed 10 meters. It is no less effective than the previous one.
Stage 1. We dig a hole 1.5 meters deep in order to remove loose and unstable upper layers of soil. The area of such a pit should be approximately 1 square meter. We line its walls with boards to make it convenient to work.
Stage 2. We take a steel pipe and cut one end of it into teeth, like on a hacksaw. We bend the teeth in different directions. At the other end we make a thread for connecting to the pipes. Next, using clamps, we equip the pipe with handles so that it can be held vertically. We also make threads on the remaining pipes, but on both sides. Each pipe should be approximately 3 meters long.
Stage 3. We take a pre-prepared container of at least two hundred liters filled with water, a medium-power water pump, and a hose that will reach the bottom of the pit. All pipes must have a diameter of 12 cm, more is possible.
Important! This procedure cannot be completed by yourself either; you must have at least one assistant.
Stage 4. We insert the pipe into the hole to the maximum possible depth. Turn on the pump. The water pressure will erode the soil under the pipe, and it will gradually sink. It is advisable to constantly rotate the pipe.
Stage 5. The water will come out of the pipe, but can be reused by straining it through a sieve. When the pipe is completely deepened, we attach the next one to it and continue working until the aquifer is reached. Then we remove the boards and dig a hole, and attach a lid to the end of the pipe, which will prevent debris from entering the system.
This is the simplest way to drill a well, but there are others.
Shallow well for economic purposes
If water is needed, for example, to water a garden, then a well for this can be made using a conventional hand drill. The only condition is that the upper groundwater level must be a maximum of three meters from the surface. If the length of the hand drill is not enough, then we increase it with reinforcing bars or small metal pipes. How to install f , You can read in our article.
We go through the hardest layers of the earth with an additional load that clings to the handle of the drill. This way the load on your hands will be less.
Important! Water extracted from such wells is not suitable for drinking, since it has not undergone natural filtration!
If branches or roots come across while drilling, we cut them out with an ax pre-attached to a long iron rod. After about two meters, wet sand will begin to appear, so every 10 centimeters the drill will have to be pulled out for cleaning, otherwise we may break the device.
When the sand acquires a bluish tint, it will mean that we are almost there. When the first water appears, you can no longer use the drill, because it will no longer give anything - the liquid soil will not stick to the blades. All we have to do is insert the casing pipe - the shallow well is ready!
To lift the water we will use a conventional electric pump.
As a conclusion
Production drills are amazing in their scale, which is why the very idea of drilling a well with our own hands seems stupid and unfeasible to us. But those of you who have read the article already know that this is, to put it mildly, an exaggeration. All we need is a drilling tool, Additional materials, a bit of skill and, of course, patience.
In a country house, water is used constantly, so it is impossible to live without it. It happens that organizing a public water supply is quite difficult. Centralized water supply can be expensive due to remote location summer cottages from each other.
The easiest way is to use your own water source. However, the first step is to make it. Own well can help the owner of the site to satisfy economic needs. In this case, the owner will not need to pay for the water supply, counting how many cubic meters of water were spent. Digging wells is costly in terms of money and time, which is why many owners of summer cottages are interested in knowing how to drill a well by hand. Do this design It’s quite simple to do it yourself if you know the manufacturing technology and the principle of constructing a well.
Before manufacturing, you will need to examine the area to determine the level of occurrence groundwater. The amount of work that needs to be done to ensure there is water in the well will depend on this parameter. The type of well is selected based on the depth of the soil that contains water.
If the water is at a depth of 4-10 m, then it is possible to make “ Abyssinian well" If water is available at a depth of up to 50 m, a sand well should be used. If the water is in the ground at a depth of up to 200 m, then you will need to make an artesian well. Almost every owner can do the first two types independently. summer cottage, but to make an artesian well you will need a drilling device and drillers with experience.
Features of the work
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Device
This type of source involves pumping water from a depth of 50 m. A sand well has this name because the water from it will come from a layer of sand that lies at a depth of 50 m.
This will not be able to provide clean water, therefore, after some time it will be necessary to check the contents of the well at the sanitation station.
To organize a sand well, you should use a scheme with a pump. The water will be cleared of suspended matter and debris thanks to a filter that is installed at the appropriate depth. The filter must be cleaned constantly. The service life of a sand well is approximately 15 years.
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"Abyssinian Well"
This well is quite simple to make. It has a small depth, so you will need to take care in choosing suitable place for her. There should be no septic tanks, various debris or pits near the well.
The well will be of shallow depth, and therefore harmful substances may fall into it, resulting in water pollution.
If the ground does not contain pebbles or any hard rocks, the well can be drilled in basement at home or near it. A similar source of water in the basement can be used even in frosty weather. A well of this type can be equipped in a private house manual column and a pump so that it is possible to use water even without electricity.
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Artesian well
If there are already similar wells in areas located nearby, then there is a high probability that water lies in a limestone layer in this area. If there are no similar areas nearby, then drillers need to order an experimental water source so that they can determine the depth of groundwater. Artesian wells can provide water to several summer cottages at the same time. In some cases, several land owners drill one well in order to save some money. Money.
The choice of well type will depend not only on the type of soil, but also on how much water is planned to be used. A sand well and an Abyssinian well can easily provide a small flow rate. If you need more than 10 m³/hour of water, you will have to make an artesian well. It is recommended to drill any structure away from various pollutants and closer to private or country house so that it is possible to lay the water supply without any problems.
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Equipment
Specialists use drilling rigs to make artesian wells. To make shallow wells, you can use an ordinary tripod with a winch. She will be able to lower and raise tools for making a well, which consist of special pipes, rods, columns and a drill.
Special equipment will require a drilling tool, with which it is possible to go deeper into the ground, as well as a tripod and a winch. In order to drill a well yourself, you need to use a metal auger. In this case, an ice screw, which is used for winter fishing. The drill must be made exclusively from high strength steel. Using these tools, you can make a well with minimal expenditure of money. In addition to the tripod, you will need:
- Pipes of various diameters.
- Valves.
- Filter elements.
- Caisson.
- Special pump.
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Sequencing
First of all, you will need to dig a hole measuring 150x150 cm. To prevent the recess from starting to crumble, its walls will need to be lined with plywood sheets, boards or pieces of chipboard. To secure the structure, you can also dig a hole with a diameter of 20 cm and a depth of 1 m with an ordinary drill. This must be done so that the pipe is securely fixed in a vertical position.
Above the recess you need to install a strong tripod made of metal or wood, securing a winch at the location of its supports. In most cases, tripods are made of wood. You need to hang a drilling column with 1.5 m rods on the tower. The rods are threaded into a pipe and then secured with a clamp. This device can be used to lower and raise tools.
The pump should be selected in advance so that it is possible to determine the diameter of the well being manufactured and the column pipe. The pump should fit easily into the pipe.
Drilling such a water source involves lowering and raising equipment.
The rod rotates and is immediately struck from above by the chisel. This work It’s most convenient to do it with two people: one person will turn the gas wrench, and the second will hit the bar from above to break through the rock. Using a winch can simplify the process because it makes it much easier to lift and lower equipment into the well. The rod must be marked when drilling. Markings will be needed in order to be able to navigate freely. The markings help you determine when to pull out the rod and clean the drill. Most often this needs to be done every 0.5 m.
Using a chisel, it is necessary to loosen hard layers of soil.
To be able to easily overcome existing soil layers, you need to use the following drills:
- Coil. Recommended for use on clay layers.
- Bit. Used to loosen hard soils.
- Sand spoons.
- Bailer. This device will help lift the soil to the surface.
It is best to go through the sand layer with a spoon, adding the required amount of water. If the ground is hard, a chisel should be used. This tool can be cross or flat. Quicksand sands can be overcome using the impact method.
In case of clay soil You will need to use a coil and a bailer. The coil is able to easily pass through soils with clay because its design is similar to a spiral. Pebble layers containing gravel can be broken through with a bailer and chisel. In some cases, you will need to pour water into the hole. This way it will be possible to simplify the process of drilling a well.
If the rock that is delivered to the surface is wet, this means that an aquifer is nearby. In this case, you will need to go a little deeper to overcome the aquifer. It will be much easier to drill, but you can’t stop. Using a drill, you will need to find the waterproof layer.
Majority country houses is too far from public water supply networks, and the only option to get water is to build your own source. Autonomous water supply for a private cottage is solved by digging a well or creating a well. Both methods require significant expenditure of physical effort and money. To guarantee a high-quality result, homeowners invite professionals with special equipment who have experience working in the area to carry out the work; however, drilling water wells with your own hands is also possible.
First, you should decide on the possibility of drilling a water well manually. Obviously, the great depth of the aquifer, as well as too hard layers in the soil, can be a serious obstacle and force one to abandon such an undertaking. The easiest way to find out the geological situation on the site in advance is to use the sources that your neighbors already have. It is necessary to understand from what depth they pump water, how they experienced excavation. The big picture will be clear, but as the work progresses, adjustments will have to be made later, because the soil layers do not lie absolutely evenly, and the further away the control well or borehole is, the greater the error.
With horizons of 20 meters or more, many developers no longer dare to use hand tools, although there are examples when people cope with depths of 50-60 meters (the greater the savings, because the prices for penetration are set to the customer in linear meters). At the same time, there are now small drilling rigs driven by an electric motor on sale, the price of which is almost comparable to the cost of drilling an average well. Nobody bothers you to then rent out the device or drill custom-made wells yourself using the installation.
Source options for water supply to a private home
Selecting a well type
In this case, the most critical parameter is the level of the aquifer. For example, if the water is at a depth of up to 8 meters, then you can make a driven well-needle (the so-called “Abyssinian well”), which is supplied with ordinary surface pump. It is performed with preliminary drilling or direct driving of a relatively thin (for example, inch) steel pipe into the ground.
If the water bearers are lower, then pump equipment You will already need a submersible one, which can raise water to the height necessary to power the house. Accordingly, here you will have to drill the well manually in any case, and the net diameter of the pipe passage must be at least 80 mm in order to install deep well pump 3 inches, or 100-110 mm - for a 4-inch unit. Taking into account the thickness of the walls of the casing pipes (for plastic ones it is about 5-8 mm) and some reserve for trouble-free installation of the column, you need to drill with a diameter of 20-30 mm more. Equipment is selected based on this indicator.
Sources autonomous water supply It is customary to divide wells into sand and artesian (limestone). The first ones are used for up to 15 years and produce about 1.5 cubic meters of water per hour. Their depth is from 15 to 40 meters, which allows you to do the work yourself, but forces you to carefully choose the place for them. In a deep artesian well the water is cleaner, the source can work without overhaul up to 50 years or more, its productivity is significantly higher.
Auger drilling of a well using a motorized drill
The main stages of drilling a well with your own hands
Self-construction of a well almost always assumes that water will be extracted from a shallow sand formation. Therefore, it is necessary to move as far as possible from sources of soil pollution, such as drainage or septic tanks. To reduce the depth of excavation, it makes sense to choose the lowest place on the site, especially if it is on a slope.
Before drilling a well by hand, it is recommended to make a pit in the working area, thanks to which loose soil will not crumble into the face during work. Its dimensions should be approximately 2 X 2 meters in area and up to 1 meter in depth. Sometimes some kind of formwork may be required to strengthen the slope.
To simplify the lifting of the auger or drilling apparatus along with the soil, a tripod (or other frame) is assembled above the well spatial design) from rolled metal or lumber. In addition to blocks, a winch or winch is often installed on the tripods for reeling out the cable.
The use of a drilling rig with a spiral element allows you to increase efficiency by soft soils
Well drilling
All known technologies for drilling a well with your own hands belong to one of two main methods:
- auger,
- shock-rope
The first one is good soft breed, the second - along the rocky one. In both cases, work is usually carried out without the use of water supplied by a pump, although it sometimes makes sense to pour some liquid into the well during drilling. There are many factories and homemade designs drilling rigs and coils, since one or another model will be more or less effective with a specific type of soil.
The auger method is used when it is planned to make a well of relatively shallow depth, and if the soil does not have extensive solid inclusions. The main working equipment used here is a drill - a metal auger with cutting edges at the end. Two people rotate the tool, the knives cut into the ground and loosen it. Spiral-shaped metal blades remove waste material from working area. When the rod with handles is lowered to ground level, the drill is removed from the well and the coil is cleared of the ground. Then the drill string is extended with an additional rod, and drilling continues.
Impact method is based on the use of a hollow drilling tool (bailer) with metal “fangs” at the end, which is lifted by means of cables and dropped into the well. After several blows, the bailer rises to the surface, where crushed rock is pushed out of it through a technological hole. Impact-rope drilling allows you to reach great depths and drill a well with your own hands on fairly dense soils, whereas this method is not so practical on soft rock.
Filter design on a casing pipe using a stainless steel or PVC mesh
Arrangement of water intake
When the aquifer has been passed and the equipment has reached the impermeable layer, drilling stops. A casing pipe is inserted into the ground - as it sinks, it is gradually built up in sections using threads. In this case, the first section is cut approximately one meter in length with a grinder or holes are drilled in it with a drill in increments of 3-7 centimeters and with a diameter of 5-25 mm (depending on what kind of rock is below: sand, debris inclusions or clay). The perforated section of the pipe is wrapped in a braided stainless steel mesh, which is secured in place with wire or self-tapping screws. After installing the casing pipe, the space between it and the well is filled with fine gravel. On last stage The pump is being installed and the head is being assembled.
Creating a drainage gap between the pipe and the well
Many of those who decided to drill a well manually managed to cope with the task and were able to save a lot of money. However, it is necessary to understand that in difficult geological conditions it is impossible to do without mechanization, therefore in each specific case you need to soberly assess the chances of success.
Video: how to drill a well by hand