digging bore hole to create own water supply, any one done this?

[mr dazzler]

I like the idea of having a water supply that is fluoride free, and that doesnt involve paying increasing amounts of money to the utilities companies. Has any one successfully created their own bore-hole and well, like how much did it cost,, does it provide a reliable supply, etc ? I would be interested to know more about the realities of this method
cheers Jonathan

 

[crosslandkelly]

I've heard of people doing this, but not for potable water. Also there are very many hurdles to jump, to be able to get permission.

 

[British Red]

Going to disagree with CK a bit here - you don't need permission or a licence. Any landowner can drive a borehole and extract up to 20,000 litres per day without any fees or licences.

How hard is it and how much does it cost? That depends entirely on local geology. If the water is 20 feet down, access is good, there is no hard rock to drill, very cheap. If water is 400 foot down through granite - different story.

Water quality can also be variable from "drink it from the pump" to "requires multi stage filtration and UV treatment" right on to "do not drink".

This page gives a good overview of the costs

http://www.geologicboreholes.co.uk/cost-of-a-borehole/

 

[wingstoo]

I like the idea of having a water supply that is fluoride free, and that doesnt involve paying increasing amounts of money to the utilities companies. Has any one successfully created their own bore-hole and well, like how much did it cost,, does it provide a reliable supply, etc ? I would be interested to know more about the realities of this method
cheers Jonathan

Might be worth finding out if others in your area have done the same, and what they think of the quality of the water before going to far.

I recently helped connect a bore-hole to a domestic supply, within a week or so they were back on the mains supply and using the bore-hole for irrigation purposes only as it made all the shower screens go opaque until they needed to be treated to clean them.

Something to do with the amount of crud that had been poured on the land over the years it was a farm...

 

[crosslandkelly]

Thanks BR, just going from memory, from an article I read a few years ago. It was in the Ascot area.

 

[lou1661]

http://www.bgs.ac.uk/data/boreholescans/

click on search online borehole records and zoom in on your location

 

[mr dazzler]

Thanks for your replies. I dont know what made me think of this idea for a bore hole. As it happens I live right near a concrete water tower (there are lots in East Anglia) We are on a fairly high point in the land which is unusual around here it being so flat generally. The soil is exceeding dry. I dug post holes 6 or 7 weeks ago (before the hot weather) I went down 2 foot before there was anything like damp soil. I suspect the water table might be quite deep here? But I have now discovered a driller locally, might just get in touch. And apparently the water can be filtered and UV treated as well after it comes up, and it still has to be regulalry tested for contanimants, bacteria, pesticide, fertiliser, haevy metals etc etc..
I guess your really in trouble if for some reason the water utility people fail for some reason and there is no mains supply...

 

[British Red]

You are indeed...well, you are We have a well and an underground cistern and an overground rainwater harvesting system

 

[wingstoo]

Not only the water companies failures though, If the leccy goes off bore holes are likely to stop sooner than mains water does.

 

[mr dazzler]

Thanks Lou, that link is very useful and fascinating too. From a quick look at my position it would seem the average at this elevation is in the 10-30m range. Its intriguing that looking at a cluster of boreholes further "down the hill" about a half mile away they are all 0-10m deep...
cheers Jonathan

 

[woodspirits]

additionally contact the British Society of Dowsers, employing a professional water dowser can save you a lot of money in surveying fees and rig rates.

 

[Bucephalas]

What a fascinating link.
Think ill look into this a bit deeper ( pun intended).

 

[woodspirits]

What a fascinating link.
Think ill look into this a bit deeper ( pun intended).

these guys have had excellent results time after time, depicting if there is water on site, quantity, depth and quality. George Applegate is a very well respected dowser as is Peter Golding who i have worked with.

 

[Ogri the trog]

It's not as simple as it might seem.

Our house is supplied totally from a surface well, 12 feet deep at most, pumped into the house where it gets filtered and UV treated before going to a standard cold water header tank in the loft space.

As has been mentioned, if your electrical power is interrupted, not only do you lose pumping power but also supply to the UV treatment chamber, risking contamination of the whole supply.

In dry periods, you run the risk of running dry (only happened once but it lasted about 6 weeks before we could "trust" the water again.

During periods of heavy rain, surface contamination can get washed into the well area, turning the water grey or green as it agitates the silt within the well chamber itself.

A farmer neighbour had a borehole dug about 7 years ago (drilling company went down 115 meters!) - lots of water but it caused mayhem. The water from deeper down was quite acidic - it found every poorly soldered joint in his domestic plumbing so he had a number of house floods and leaks that took months to sort out. It also had an effect on the ladies of the household when they went to bleach/dye their hair - producing a noticeable tinge of green!

With a private supply comes the need for a private waste system, which the OP is unlikely to need, but it has its own maintenance issues.

There are also implications with Environmental Health to have water tested periodically if it enters your potable supply route.

We harvest rainwater and have storage for a little under 5 tons depending on how I set the water butts! Contingency plans include running washing machines straight from a butt and flushing a ground floor toilet with rainwater. You do grow to be very inventive when it doesn't rain for a few weeks!

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[mr dazzler]

Thanks to all who replied (and pointed out some of the possible problem areas in a bore hole well system). I intend to look into this in more depth, maybe not feasible but maybe it could be
cheers Jonathan

 

[British Red]

Worth considering the power outage situation if you do as raised before. Most run on submersible pumps. However if the well is not too deep, its perfectly possible to drop a modern hand pump (like a stainless version of the village pump) down the same pipe so they run it tandem. Its not common in the UK, but it is doable. You can also use a wind driven pump which pumps water to a header tank to provide pressure - again, less common, but available.

Just thought it was worth throwing out some options you might not know about

 

[Dogoak]

Both our neighbours have had boreholes sunk, fresh and crystal clear with no issues, not cheap unless it's not far down. The dowser came in first to locate the source, he even had a good idea of the depth, and then the drillers came in, once they got to the H2o the shaft was cased.
Both run a submersible pump inside the casing, one has a generator to keep the pump going in case there's an interuption with the lecky supply and the others just revert back to their old spring.
We have considered it but it's out of our price range and our natural spring supply is good, odd airlock, maybe once a year.

 

[Aries]

Here in Ireland the majority of us in the countryside have to have a well system, as there is no mains water outside of the towns.

We have a pump house that has a 240 foot deep well, they charge by the foot approx. 3Euro a foot.
The well is only about 8 inches in diameter with a submersible pump at the bottom price for that pump is around 500-600euro, we hit water at about 40 foot, the extra depth is just redundancy in case it starts to dry out.

At the top of the well is a second pump to send the water into the house, along with this is a filtration system costing around 2000 euro, there are several different types of filtration as we have "rabbit sand" in our water we have to have multiple tanks to filter out all the debris. All of this is housed in a pump house about 1 meter by 2 meters and about 10 feet high.

The advantage of all this is unlimited water free of charge, as Ireland are just starting to bring in a water charge for those on mains supply.

However there are some downsides as mentioned before if your electricity is interrupted then you have no water until the supply is restored.
You also have to have salt added to your filters every 18 months to maintain its efficiency.

There are also some unforeseen costs that unlike being on mains you will have to pay for yourself if your system breaks, for example our submersible pump recently broke, to fix it we had to drag it up 240 foot no easy feat, to replace the motor, this cost us 200 euro for a new motor. Luckily we knew a local farmer who knows how to fix things otherwise you could triple that cost for the expertise of an electrician.

I hope this helps you to make an informed decision, prices in the U.K. will most likely be different to here in RoI but I hope this has given you a good idea of prices. I would recommend you looking into a well system as nothing beats having your own fresh water supply.

All the best
Jacob

 

[mr dazzler]

Again, thanks for your responses:You_Rock_.
B R when you mention the stainless steel hand pump is that any thing like you see on those water for Africa adverts?
Also, on a side note are the concrete water towers simply a giant version of a domestic borehole system. Being a bit ignorant, I always assumed they pummped water from a reservior up into the cistern, does it actually come out of the ground directly below the tower?
cheers Jonathan

 

[British Red]

That sort of thing Mr Dazzler yes - people in the US use them - they can lift water a loooong way. The water towers you see here (theres one in the local village), are pumped from a reservoir. They exist in flat areas to create water pressure in the mains. If you have a wind pump, you can put a large square tank high up and have the wind pump pump water up to it when the wind is blowing. Then you have water that will run under gravity even when the wind isn't blowing