Collapsed Well

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pinto

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7 years ago I had a well drilled, only cased for 20'. The well report said the depth was 340 & static line was 240. I watched the pump guy drop the drop pipe & pump to 290'. After a few weeks the control box was taken out by lighting & pump guy came to replace it. Once he replaced the box, we fired up the water & it was really dirty. So the pump guy said let me pull your pump. He went to pull it & said it was stuck & this was my/drillers fault for not lining the well. The water cleared up & since the pump was running fine I left it alone. 7 years later the pump was going out, but I still had water to shower, toilets, etc just not enough for yard, but it was getting worse by the week. I called the dilling co that drilled it & they new it was stuck from me telling them 7 years ago, they came out with a small truck & boom & couldn't get the pump to budge. He left and came back with a much larger truck & broke the the pipe right below the pitless adaptor. He said it must of been a bad cave in & I could keep messing around with this well but it probably would be cheaper to drill a new well & they could come the next day & start. Well 1 day turned into 2, than 3, & so I called another pump guy and told him the issue and I thought if we could find the cave in maybe we could drop used pipe in and bang around hoping the rocks would fall. I found 300' ft of free pipe & the new pump guy showed up. He dropped a camera in the well & my static level was 103' & the cave in was 260' with the pump below the cave in at 290'. We dropped the used pipe in & couldn't get the cave in to break free. I really can't afford to drill a new well & I told the new pump guy that. He said if we can get the pressure tank out of the well (30' deep) than we could drop 4" pvc liner in & drop a new pump to 250' just above the cave in & hopefully get enough water. We were able to get the pressure tank out. So are plan for tomorrow is to set new liner & pump & hopefully it works. I called the driller back & said we are going to try & make the current well work. He said that they were planning on showing up tomorrow to start drilling & that his other job took longer than expected. Here's my dilemma. I had enough running water to make ends meet & the driller came out broke my pipe so now I have no water. Said he'd start drilling the next day & 6 days later he's ready. I've hopefully found a way to make the current well work with the new pump guy. The driller invoiced me for $1500 for coming out twice in one day (had to go get bigger truck to pull pipe), & left me high and dry for 6 days. I've got a family of six. Plus original well log static level was 240' & now it 100'. Did the driller scam me 7 yrs ago just to get more footage or can static level flucuate 140' with an 8' drilled hole? Thoughts? Thanks
 

Valveman

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If you are in an area with "rock wells" it is no uncommon to only case a little up top. But if there is a possibility of caving, the well should have been cased to the bottom. I guess it is possible for the static level to come up 140', but I have never seen that happen. But since it did, if you can get a cutter to cut the pipe all the way down at the cave in, you should be able to set a pump just above that. If you have one of those pressure tanks that fits in the well, you probably will never get a cutter to the bottom.
 

pinto

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90% of the wells in are area are not cased, but the last few years most drillers are lining with pvc. We got the in-line pressure tank out & we are just going to put in new drop pipe in beside the old pipe. I'm just a bit irked at the driller. He broke the pipe, which is fine, but then leaves me hanging for 6 days.
 

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I know it is no fun being out of water. But 6 days is nothing to a driller. I have waited longer than that for a 20 dollar bearing to get a half million dollar drill rig back to running. Or just get one thing stuck and spends days trying to get it loose. So many parts to the system and things that need to spin, it is very common to have a dollar waiting on a dime. I'll bet the driller wasn't happy about it either.
 

pinto

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I understand the business side of drilling. What I don't understand is a driller saying let's try & pull the pump & worst case we show up with the drill rig tomorrow, than he doesn't come through. If your not sure when you'll be done drilling than wait on pulling the pump. I had water, now I don't, & now I get to sit around and wait till God knows when. They didn't even have a contingency plan, like we will bring you a potable water tank. Its unprofessional & the other pump guy that didn't have a drill rig used his brain & is figuring it out. The $1500 is bs to me & I may be way off here, but how about I back charge him for two hotel rooms a night starting after 2 day of him not showing. Plus I went to get my pitless adaptor from them & they are still drilling on the other site. I appreciate the input, I'm just trying to paint a picture from my view point. Thanks
 

Reach4

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If you have a friendly neighbor within hose reach, you could connect two outside faucets together to tide you over.
 

pinto

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Unfortunately (not really) the nearest neighbor is over a mile away. Good news is the new pump guy has dropped the liner in & is about ready to drop new pump & drop pipe in the well. Hopefully we will have water this evening.
 

Reach4

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Unfortunately (not really) the nearest neighbor is over a mile away. Good news is the new pump guy has dropped the liner in & is about ready to drop new pump & drop pipe in the well. Hopefully we will have water this evening.
Nice. You will probably want to run the water out to the ground full blast for a day or two if you are not in danger of running out of water. That gets the dirt out of the water.

Then you will want to sanitize the well and plumbing since you have had well work done. Avoid too much bleach on the softener. I would have that in bypass most of the time during the sanitizing. Minimize how much chlorine you put into the septic. Some is OK... the water that goes to the faucets is OK as long as you turn off the faucets a little after the chlorine arrives. Most of the chlorine should end up in a ditch.

Your well guy may put some chlorine pellets into the well before setting the new pump. That would be good. The old pump is going to stay buried if I understood correctly. That area will be pretty hard to get chlorine to. Anyway http://www.moravecwaterwells.com/index.php/maintainance/disinfection-and-testing is my favorite sanitizing method. Most people just pour a gallon of bleach into the casing every year or so.

You might just use the water for purposes other than drinking until you sanitize.
 
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