How to Drill a Well by Hand: The Complete Guide to Follow
It is nothing new to mention that water is essential for life. The need to access water haunts the human being from the moment of our appearance, and ingenuity has been deciphering different ways of obtaining it. But we don’t always have water in sight, and that is why we want to teach you how to drill a well by hand.
You can reach the subsoil water simply by making a hole in the ground deep enough to reach the water table, that is, the level in the ground where the water remains stable and does not descend to lower layers. It seems easy, right? But it is not like that, drilling a well requires a series of steps that we are going to explain to you below.
These are wells made, except in the most modern cases, by manually digging the ground with picks, shovels, etc. In general, they are shallow, between 8 and 20 meters. It is an economical means since it only uses the muscular strength of the man and quite simple tools. If you want to find out how to perform this task quickly and practically then let’s continue with this post.
Follow Our Guide and Learn How to Drill a Well by Hand in Four Easy Steps
If you have made a deliberate decision to provide water to your suburban area, it is best to use wells. Wells can be drilled on their own, and if you intend to do this, this article will be helpful. But it is important to mention to you that it is better to entrust the installation of a water supply system to specialists because it requires considerable experience and knowledge.
We tried to simplify this guide and that is why we will mention the four fundamental steps to learn how to drill a well by hand:
- The first step is to locate the water
- Start digging at the marked location
- Protect excavated walls and install filter
- Install the pump and enjoy your new well
Self-development of a well almost always assumes that the water will be produced from a shallow sandy reservoir. Therefore, it is necessary to stay as far away as possible from sources of soil contamination, such as drains or septic tanks. To reduce the depth of penetration, it makes sense to choose the lowest location on the site, especially if it is on a slope. Below we will explain each of the steps in this guide.
The First Step Is to Locate the Water
As we said, we must find a location where the water runs under the ground. A place in which the layers of soil that we are going to excavate have certain characteristics of porosity, impermeability, resistance, and geological composition.
To identify all these factors there are several alternatives, from advanced “ultrasound” by means of electrodes that are made to the ground to discover its geometry, to the traditional dowsers, which with the help of a rod manage to find the points where we will have the most possibilities of find water with our drilling.
Start Digging at the Marked Location
Once we have chosen a place to try our luck in our search for water, we would begin drilling. Depending on the characteristics of the terrain and the depth at which, we estimate, we will find water, we will select the drilling technique that best suits our excavation and resources.
In soft soils such as clay or sand, up to maximum depths of 8 meters. It is really dangerous to dig due to the scarcity of air as it deepens and due to the possible instability of the ground, for which, the air is pumped into the hole as a fan and the walls of the hole are protected to prevent collapses.
Protect Excavated Walls and Install Filter
Once we have reached the water level, we must protect the walls of the borehole to prevent the interior of the well from collapsing and collapsing. For this, we will use PVC, reinforced mortar cylinders, bricks, wood, etc. according to the diameter and depth of the well we have made.
It will be important to add filter material, such as gravel, between the casing and the walls of the well’s natural terrain, to prevent fine materials from entering our drilling, muddying, and polluting the water. We must protect it, above all, from coliforms, that is, from the remains of organic fecal materials.
Install the Pump and Enjoy Your New Well
In cases where the depth of the well is high, we will have to resort by necessity to the installation of a manual or automatic pump. Also in the case of shallow wells, it is convenient to install pumps; Why? Simply because, if we protect the good hole on the surface, we prevent external elements from entering the well.
Around the pump, care must be taken to have decent and decent hygienic conditions. To do this, it helps to build a platform, commonly made of concrete, with which we will avoid creating mudflats around the water point.
This task can be complicated, that is why we want to offer you our help. Our water well hand pumps are easy to install. They are the most practical solution to your problem. If you want to avoid all the headaches of building a well from scratch then you must purchase one of our kits.