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If you already have a well, maybe you can just drill it deeper. If you are going to replace an existing dug well with a drilled well, that could be the next most exebsive. If you need a whole new system there are two options.
The going rate with steel casing until you hit bedrock is $30 a foot. From there on down it is $25 a foot. If you end up with a well 150 feet deep with 50 feet of casing you are looking at $4,000. Then you add the cost of the pump, poly pipe to the house and the pressure tank and you should be home for under $5,000. Most wells in my area are about 100 feet so you would be around a thousand less.
Get bids. If you want it NOW it will be expensive. If you can wait until your drill rig is in your area you get a little better deal.
If the water table is within 30' of the ground you can drill your well by hand. This is a great video showing you how to drill your own well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oheEPHf0BjU.
This method and driving a point can work, but much of Maine is very rocky. I watched one well drilled and the driller was happy when he hit granite at 30 feet. I recommended that he keep drilling because that granite was a glacial boulder. Fifteen feet later he was back into hard pan. At around sixty feet he hit grey toothy granite which is one of our two types of bedrock here. The other is shale. He thanked me for my suggestion. He asked how I knew. I told him there is no red granite bedrock near here, but you can run into anything as glacial till.
I take it then that you have to hit bedrock for a good well?
About a 1,000 ft + from my future building site the water level is close to the ground. In olden days the former farmers (back in the 1800's) built a small pond there at the base of a hill. You can see the ground is wet on the hill and at the base of a nearby tamarack tree there is usually a small pool of water. I thought this area would make for a good hand dug well but I'm not sure about toting water 1,000 plus feet to my future home.
The spot where I am planning to build is on a hill. There seems to be in some areas quite a bit of ledge. I don't know what to expect for well depth but that's where I need the well dug.
Ask your neighboring property owners how deep their wells are. They will be glad to help and may be happy to have new neighbors. Before choosing your well site, consider your septic site. With ledge in the area you don't want to preclude your best septic site by putting an expensive well there. This is general info that can apply to many people. You want your septic system to gravity drain. You don't want the pipe to go under your driveway because of the risk of freezing.
Dug wells can be safe and productive. Neighbors can also help with water table information.
I take it then that you have to hit bedrock for a good well?
Well driller told me that he needed to hit something solid to rest the well casing on. My well went down 200 foot to find bedrock, but the good water is at 68 foot.
On my land, you could drive down a sandpoint well 10 foot and you would have water year-round.
When I bought my house, I have a 140 foot deep well, and bedrock is only about 20 feet or less down. I live on the coast. Bedrock is pretty close to the surface. Previous owners got by easily with a jet pump and the hose in the well down just 40 feet. But it was leaking and not properly sealed so they were getting some benign form of bacteria(not good for elderly or pregnant women though). No new well was needed but they needed to replace the jet pump with a submersible, and run a new line to the house, and new pressure pump and everything.
Total cost was about $3600, and that was without drilling anything, just running the flexible hose down 140 feet, connecting it to a deep sub pump, connecting the pump junction to a line and running that underground 100 feet to the house, and then replacing all the other stuff in the house.
I need help also. My camp is on a lake and I am on a shared well but would like my own. I am below street level thus creating a problem because of electrical wires, poles, etc. I was quoted $17,000.00 for having the poles and wires temporarily moved and the well dug, line put in, submersed pump, etc! My neighbor one camp over had his well put in (before he bought the place) with a steel spike that was hammered into the ground with a special type of hammer that rose up and down to drive the spike in. His well is 30-40' down. I am looking for a company in central Maine that can put a well in this way. My neighbor says that he thinks that there are some out there that can still do it this way. Does anyone know of a company that can do this?
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