DIY Well Drilling... It's a PITA

Hand drilling a shallow well. It doesn't go as planned.

[SteveDoesEverything]

Let me know if this is something you’ve done and your experiences.

[mfenix]

You've shown me that I shouldn't try to do this myself after all lol.

[lakshmi.mr.kaushik]

Oh man, this was such a heartwarming video. I love your entire family participation! Thank you for sharing.

[shk]

It was very entertaining and informative when you explained things at the end! I appreciate the fact that you were willing to share your true experience and I am glad that you didn’t give up and succeeded in getting it done for you and your family! I wish I could do it but I’m in Virginia and my soil is clay and it needs to be over 150’ to get to the water table. I have a 110’ well that gives me 150 gallons and then takes 3 hours to recover so it makes growing my garden a real challenge. I’m considering getting some ICB totes and putting a pump in them. I could collect rain water and use my well to fill them over time if needed but I’m on a fixed income and don’t have a lot of expendable income. I have more pressing needs and every time I save up for something another thing seems to come up and gobble up my savings. But I am very thankful for what I do have and I am very blessed in many ways! I pray that you and your family will be blessed in every way! ❤

[stich]

Dude your soils like butter, holy cow I would have found like six baseball-sized rocks and not first little bit you dug

[kirtimakati]

Proud of you. saved thousands of dollars. Unprofessional video but real and original. I like it. You are a hard working man. You needed to buy a batter pump though.

[jeffgorkisch]

Makes me even more grateful that I live in West Michigan. I got a jackhammer and beat a well point down 25 feet to good water in an hour. The water is clear and delicious. I don't know why people want to live anywhere else. If you do, try a jackhammer and 3x10-foot sections of galvanized pipe and a jackhammer.

[bradwilson]

I drill a set of four near Ocoee, Florida about twenty years ago doing the double water hose method. Kicked my ass. We had very fine sand and clay, so output was low (hence the four wells), but the water was excellent. I only used it for irrigation but it tested fine for drinking.

[elliottsconstruction]

Interesting video, I don't think the process would be quite the same here in our rocky Pennsylvania ground, but it started the wheels turning in my mind. Pretty good story/plot delivery, thanks for taking the time to put the video together!

[tooneboone]

Great job!! I have drilled 3 wells with a Deep Rock one man drill and got plenty of water, but had a problem because I had gravel and the gravel wouldn't flow out of the hole very well, but I finally had success and got plenty of water each time!!!

[saltwater]

Great video Steve. Working on a shallow well using the pressure washer approach. We're about 30' down and progress is now slow....Very encouraging to see others run into problems, work through the process and figure it out in the end. Appreciate you showing failures as well as successes. Keep it up man.

[cge]

Thank you for sharing.
The galvanized “bit” that you made really helped your process, even if not cutting through shell rock I would think the steel vs PVC would cut so much better.

[roberthamm]

You had the right idea for the drilling bit, but you needed carbide drill points or anything that was hardened steel to drill through the shale rock easier. But at least you got it done. Now you know what to do for the next one. Good job.

[haroldgreen]

Been there, done that several years ago. I found it works better if you drill the coupling bit and put a bolt through it so it can't unscrew from the pvc. If you make a paddle board that you can grip on each side and then use steel hose clamps you can tighten it up on the pipe and turn the pipe in either direction and then as needed loosen the clamps and slide the paddle board up to where it works best. I drilled three wells and lost the second one and had to abandon it. I've decided if I ever want to drill another I'll dig a pit to fill with water and bentonite and use a mud pump to flush the mud out of the hole and save all that effort.

[rickb]

Excuse me SIR, you SHOULD be using a N⁰ 3 OR N⁰ 7 16 tap certified water pick axe combo unit with a galvanized steel plate for the first hole pipe.

I'm just being a turd burglar, lol, I love how you did this and the fact that you did it YOURSELF, with YOUR OWN TOOLS AND HANDS. BRAVO, kick ass!

[rolon]

steve in my experience i look about 20 videos before a dig my own well and you almost got it!

[callmebigpapa]

Was going to click away early in the video. Glad I stayed till the end ! Good job you have true grit.

[josephen]

👍 this is Amazing . the Skid
Steer Drilling attachment
is an option ..

[Terkinstein]

I live down in Hendry county and I want to drill a well on my property. your video was very informative Thank you and your Family.

[giles-dfyu]

If you are going to hand drill do it in the valley center in a slight sloping ground, take two pieces of 2"×4" join them together with two bolts bore a round hole in the joint so when it is bolted around the pipe its tight enough to turn the pipe, use a belt as a shim if needed