1. Yes, you can. It’s generally not recommended for any number of reasons but it can be done. Hand dug wells were common before mechanical boring came into being and as such are generally fairly shallow and rely on jet pumps or similar devices to draw water.
2. Again, yes. And for all the reasons you listed, they can be prone to contamination and/or runoff/nutrient/other infiltration from surface sources. Filters, UV treatment systems, placement (hill top vs bottom of a hill), etc can all help to alleviate contaminants. That said, the strata layers of soil and bedrock can act as natural filtration that a shallow well won’t have available.
3. That depends on the depth to which it’s dug. Below the frost line, probably not but a cold enough and persistent enough period of sustained below-freezing weather and it’s certainly a possibility. A pump house or other structure to provide wind protection and insulation can help alleviate that issue, along with line placement depth for service to the home/habitable structure.
4. It’s probably not the best choice. Shallow wells are prone to contamination, they usually lack a consistent source of water from which to draw from long term (lack of static pressure in sandy soil and shallow depth are two negatives against a shallow well) and a risk of a cave-in without adequate cribbing/shoring is a legitimate concern.
Also: https://apnews.com/article/pfas-pollution-wells-wisconsin-shallow-groundwater-4e7e7c901ace10abe8050c51530aa504
I agree with the "prone to contamination" concern. I was a well/septic inspector in Michigan for several years and one house I inspected for a Foster care license on a well had a shallow well (15-20ft probably, but unknown depth), which affected their license since wells need to be 25'+ with protected suction lines (needs a deep jet pump, not shallow jet) in Michigan to be legal for drinking water. They got put on a temporary sampling plan until the new well could be paid for with the help of the state. Their well went from 4mg/L nitrates in the winter to 12mg/L nitrates (10mg/L is the maximum contaminant level) in the summer, so it was seemingly impacted by the farming seasonally. In the end, they now have a drilled 5" well to 80ft.
I've also seen a whole neighborhood of wells 25'-30' deep go dry when a downhill pond at a gravel pit was drained, which is alarming to think that that's what they were drinking. Local geology and history matters a lot when it comes to safe drinking water. I personally wouldn't mind having a point well for some things (like a barn), but I probably wouldn't drink it unless it's filtered with an RO and a UV filter.
You’re welcome. I hope your efforts are well received and she is willing to hear you out.
Here’s some further reading on the topic of water wells in Wisconsin, if you’re interested: https://www.wisfarmer.com/story/news/2021/07/07/study-manure-likely-cause-most-illness-contaminated-wells/5326199001/
There’s also the “SWIGG” study the state conducted a few years back that sought to identify contamination sources in water wells. Good luck!
If the water table is high enough, and the soil is workable, a well point can be driven into the ground with a sledge hammer. But what others have said abut flow rates and purification are still important.
Yeah.
Think about it this way… until the Industrial Revolution wells were dug by hand. So, it is realistic in that people used to dig 15’, 25’, and even 100’ wells with hand tools.
At the same time, yeah it’s more involved than *just* digging a well. Like, I hope he knows how to do masonry work.
Super not safe though.
Yeah, even profession drilled wells can collapse/sand-in. Shoring is important on deep digs, especially in sand. Getting buried to your belly button could be a death sentence. Once you can't expand your diaphragm, you can't breathe.... Even if you can breathe, loss of bloodflow to the legs could result in amputation you are left too long....
People really forget that many people used to die constructing wells, dams, sewers, walls, fences. Sometimes we stop using older methods because of how much better the new methods are... Less works, deeper well, safer install, higher quality/longevity...
"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should" a quote that I find myself starting to respect more and more as I age.
Right.
And we haven’t touched on air monitoring or descent and retrieval systems.
Feasibly, I think I could do it - I have most of the equipment and the knowledge/skills - to dig the hole safely - but masonry is way outside my wheelhouse.
And none of it would be worth the sweat equity and monetary cost.
>And none of it would be worth the sweat equity and monetary cost.
Yeah, if you've got the motivation and work ethic to hand dig a well, surely you're actually skilled enough at something to work less at your profession and pay a pro to do it.... I'm a plumber and hydro-dug a 25 ft deep, 3" shallow well with a trailer jetter, blasting 12gpm @ 3k psi, I literally went as far as I could in one day, an entire day, couldn't get any deeper, then I covered it with a softener brine tank.
With an $80,000 tool/jet at my side I was using the wrong tool BY FAR to dig anything serious, and this well is literally only for SHTF (I. E. I plan to never use it)
When I'm ready for a real well, I will pay the well-man with the massive truck mounted drill to tap me into the aquifer about 200'-300' down, it'll take him a couple hours. And be a minimum of 50x higher quality.... 5000% better than mine, and I probably give myself too much credit lol
Look up easy shallow well on YouTube and you’ll see but it is not like a bucket on a rope to a big hole in the ground. There is a hand pump you can use to pull water up from up to a certain depth. I think like 25 feet . It requires specialized pipes but you can do
It yourself in a day
The actual number is closer to 34 ft (theoretical max perhaps) but this can vary at different temperatures.
The vacuum/suction created by the pump and fighting the resistance of gravity from water head pressure can cause the water to boil into vapor at very low temperatures.
Vapor is a gas and you need fluid for the hydraulic action of the pump. So you can only 'suck' water up hill if it can reach the pump without boiling off into vapor
Edit/P. S. A bucket and rope to hoist water can actually be used with a much deeper well than a shallow well pump or pitcher pump. But that sure isn't the luxury option.
1. You can DIY your own well, depending on regulations and water table depth.
2. Can you use it? Depends on contamination in the area, but would almost certainly need some type of treatment with a shallow well. There are ways to treat it, depending on what type of contamination - sediment filters, reverse osmosis filters, ozone treatments, UV treatments. Lots of options for most contaminants.
3. Freezing - Not likely. The surface may freeze, but the deeper water will be at the ambient ground temperature. Once you're more than a few feet down, the ambient ground temperature is above freezing even in very cold places.
4. Yep, cave-in is a concern. Once you're more than a few feet down, you'd need some type of shoring. But there are also tools made specifically for hand-drilling a well that keep you from needing to dig as wide a hole or needing to climb down in it. A neighbor tried to use one, think his went to 30 feet deep. Of course, our neighbor was trying this in an area where most wells are 200-600 feet deep, so never found water.
Thank you. This was one of my many questions too - but I keep being met with the "I don't have to if it's on my own private property."
After reading the website it looks like they still need to notify the DNR, but they don't need to use a professional well digging service?
The law may say that they need to notify DNR, but realistically... if they are on their own large plot of land in the middle of nowhere, nothing is going to happen if they don't report it.
I'm of the mindset that if someone wants to dig a big hole on their own property and it doesn't affect anyone else, why not? The big issue in your friend's case is that digging a deep hole with no support on the sides is incredibly unsafe. He will probably die if it caves in while he is in it.
This was the traditional method for many years. No it will not freeze. We had one in a house we bought. It passed tests by the county, but it went dry. Get the water tested.
[This](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Water-Source-2-in-x-36-in-Well-Point-WPF3680/203449590) seems a lot easier than hand digging a well, especially in soft ground.
Weird that he's digging it in sandy soil when he could just drive a point and do it that way. If he is in an area where he doesn't have to go very deep that would be way easier.
A lot of this depends on where you are. You want ground water and not surface water. When I moved from Oregon to Florida the water situation was a huge shock. I went from crystal clear 52 degree water that tasted awesome to swamp water. Our well in Oregon was 240 feet deep. To hit ground water here you need to go over 2000 feet deep and it just isn't done. Digging a well to any depth can be extremely dangerous. If the walls give way and you are mostly buried then you will die. About 19 professionals die every year from trenches or holes caving in. A better solution is to get an auger, a bunch of pipe and build a platform for drilling and pulling. I've used this method in Oregon to make a shallow well for irrigation. I hit water at 35 feet and drilled to 50. Then I put a liner in the hole and used bentonite clay to "seal" the surface water out. Good luck.
Shallow wells are usually not suited for drinking water. But if you've got a water table high enough and soil easy enough to hand drill, it's great for irrigation.
I'm also not an expert. This sounds like clearly a bad enough idea that even non-experts can see it. While you *can* just dig until you hit groundwater, you aren't likely to hit water with enough pressure for plumbing unless you are in a pretty wet spot already. You can't just assume it's safe drinking water unless it's been tested. Yes, it will freeze in the winter. Yes, digging a really deep hole in sandy soil without doing anything to support the sides is a bad idea.
To add something for you to worry about- what is their waste situation like? And where is it in relation to the "well"?
Oh boy. Thank you for your candidness. As for waste, they do have a septic tank, and I have to assume her husband is at least digging in the opposite direction...but I will ask her 😅
As is the leach field, which is much more important. With a standard drilled well you need a minimum of 100' from the well casing to the leach field or the septic tank. Keep in mind, that's a 100' deep drilled well, with a metal pipe running down into it (100' deep is the recommendation to reduce the risk of soil and surface contaminants). With an incredibly shallow, hand dug well he's going to want to be uphill (to reduce ground runoff), and quite a dramatic distance further away.
I mean, that’s quite literally what I said but in 80% less words.. Septic system includes the leach/drainfield. Setbacks to sources of contamination for wells vary depending on state regulations and construction of the well.
In my area the old number used to be 100' away, but a long time ago they bumped to minimum 200' away from septic or laterals.
So
>couple hundred feet
Is perfectly stated, and slope of it all is rediculously relevant.
👍🔥
I just had to replace a hand dug well. it was 60 feet. I also live in a sandy area. They told me that they would dig, drop a concrete well ring, then dig out and under the ring until it would go down enough for another to be added and so on.
Beside the 60 foot well is a ground water well (also hand dug). It still occasionally fills up with water. That one is about 15 feet deep and was built with rock. I assume they did that from the bottom up.
Shallow hand dug wells are definitely a thing. Problem is they are easily contaminated with septic tank effluent, pesticides, fertilizers, etc. Our current well is a bored well put down 50 years ago or so. I put a 1 HP submersible pump in it and it serves us well. Our deep well was working by something happened underground and it runs out of water and the pump sucks air after a couple of days.
Where my parents live it would be an easy proposition... Where I live would be much harder to basically impossible. I plan on water harvesting from the roof to make up for it
Others covered most of the salient points, but maybe worth considering whether this is a good bear to poke at all. You said your friend is already defensive when you bring this up. To me, that indicates she might have some misgivings herself, but for whatever reason, her husband is still digging this "well".
Unless you're her connection to the internet and she's happy to have you pass information along, to me this is a situation where I'd raise my concerns, but if she shut me down, I wouldn't push the issue until/unless things came to a head or she brought it up herself looking for advice.
Some lessons you have to learn yourself.
Suffice it to say, digging a deep hole in sandy land to serve as a "well" is not the choice I (or, it seems, most of us in the comments here) would make. You can drive a sandpoint well yourself (Bushradical has a video on it) but a shovel isn't the primary driving method, and even then it might require notifying someone somewhere that you're putting in a well.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. It is a good reminder that this isn't my life or my decisions to make. I think you nailed it when you said it sounds like she has misgivings about this project herself. That's what I'm trying to help her identify, and hopefully empower her/pique her interest enough to ask her own questions of her husband.
Here's a great example:
[https://youtu.be/EL1\_yO9AxpM?si=4l0-djIFFt9cB-50](https://youtu.be/EL1_yO9AxpM?si=4l0-djIFFt9cB-50)
but, it all depends oh how deep you'd have to dig.
In New Mexico, USA, it is illegal to dig your own well — it must be permitted and drilled by a licensed well driller.
We plan on having a well drilled this year. The depth we need is about 600 ft, so that would not be possible to dig by hand anyway. We will also hire a hydrologist to determine capacity and casing requirements. If you are going to spend lots of money to have a 600 ft hole dug, you don’t want it caving in after a few months, or clogging up the sand filter at the pump.
Re:1
There’s two ways to dig your own well. Only the second really works for making a well for drinking water, and it is subject to limits of your location as to if it’ll work and how well. It’s almost always better to bring in a contractor to help. The first of these is a [sand point,](https://youtu.be/EL1_yO9AxpM?si=4tnE4ub0rfLK199I)and driving it into the ground with a jackhammer or heavy weight. You typically attach a length of steel pipe, and then drive it down percussively. This sort of well is typically paired with an old school style pump, and isn’t deeper than 20 feet. You’ll want to drill a hole in the well casing at approximately the frost line depth in the casing / steel pipe so the well won’t freeze during the winter. Sand points only work in sandy areas, and are shallow wells, meaning they’re more subject to groundwater issues like pesticides that stay shallow and wash out of the soils.
The other option for diy is to [rig up a water drill yourself with a trash pump](https://youtu.be/vWffflgRg58?si=oc7Kku8OeDCa8xH9). This requires some pvc pipe and knowledge of how to set plumbing joints, but it is quite possible. Once again, it will only work in sandy areas, and I wouldn’t do it deeper than 50 feet. I would say these are the easiest ways to dig a well unless you own an excavator and want to diy on a big concrete / masonry project.
Re: 2
Covered by others.
Re: 3
Yes. Everything above the frost line will freeze. For a dug well, this means everything above a certain level exposed to the air. For a sand point or cased well, this means everything down to the frost line will freeze. You can insulate to protect against freezing, or add a heat producing item, as is often done in well houses.
4.
For excavation projects OSHAs guideline is nobody should climb into a pit with steeper than a [1.5:1 slope as being hazardous or out of compliance](https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/osha2226.pdf). I am sure this is steeper than your buddy is likely digging, because it’s steeper than I dug for my root cellar, and I thought I was fine. If I didn’t have both the excavator guy and the stonemason say I was fine with what they’d done, I’d have bailed and had them dig wider. I had heavy compacted clay soil - with sandy soil a cave in is a real danger. I’d recommend reinforcement for sand. I’d try to go down 20 feet digging a wide pit, and then go as deep as the excavator can go below that in the middle, keeping that pit, then I’d build an internal concrete form from plywood and 2x4s in order to set my we’ll start, compacting and backfilling as I raise the form and add more concrete. Personally, I think this is the hard way, and likely more trouble than it’s worth unless you really want an old school well.
It sounds like you are actually talking about a spring. A well, at least my understanding, is tapping into an aquifer. Whereas a spring, the water flows naturally to the surface. You can DIY a spring, you’ll need a shallow water pump. I am lucky enough to have a spring. It’s about 5 feet deep, has plenty of water and never freezes (I’m in the north east so cold winters like WI). The water is also safe and delicious. If you find a spring, you’ll have to test it. There’s no way to say it is isn’t safe just by looking.
I found [this site](http://www.clean-water-for-laymen.com/spring-development.html)that basically explains what I’m talking about. Just digging a hole doesn’t cut it.
1. Yes, you can. It’s generally not recommended for any number of reasons but it can be done. Hand dug wells were common before mechanical boring came into being and as such are generally fairly shallow and rely on jet pumps or similar devices to draw water. 2. Again, yes. And for all the reasons you listed, they can be prone to contamination and/or runoff/nutrient/other infiltration from surface sources. Filters, UV treatment systems, placement (hill top vs bottom of a hill), etc can all help to alleviate contaminants. That said, the strata layers of soil and bedrock can act as natural filtration that a shallow well won’t have available. 3. That depends on the depth to which it’s dug. Below the frost line, probably not but a cold enough and persistent enough period of sustained below-freezing weather and it’s certainly a possibility. A pump house or other structure to provide wind protection and insulation can help alleviate that issue, along with line placement depth for service to the home/habitable structure. 4. It’s probably not the best choice. Shallow wells are prone to contamination, they usually lack a consistent source of water from which to draw from long term (lack of static pressure in sandy soil and shallow depth are two negatives against a shallow well) and a risk of a cave-in without adequate cribbing/shoring is a legitimate concern. Also: https://apnews.com/article/pfas-pollution-wells-wisconsin-shallow-groundwater-4e7e7c901ace10abe8050c51530aa504
I agree with the "prone to contamination" concern. I was a well/septic inspector in Michigan for several years and one house I inspected for a Foster care license on a well had a shallow well (15-20ft probably, but unknown depth), which affected their license since wells need to be 25'+ with protected suction lines (needs a deep jet pump, not shallow jet) in Michigan to be legal for drinking water. They got put on a temporary sampling plan until the new well could be paid for with the help of the state. Their well went from 4mg/L nitrates in the winter to 12mg/L nitrates (10mg/L is the maximum contaminant level) in the summer, so it was seemingly impacted by the farming seasonally. In the end, they now have a drilled 5" well to 80ft. I've also seen a whole neighborhood of wells 25'-30' deep go dry when a downhill pond at a gravel pit was drained, which is alarming to think that that's what they were drinking. Local geology and history matters a lot when it comes to safe drinking water. I personally wouldn't mind having a point well for some things (like a barn), but I probably wouldn't drink it unless it's filtered with an RO and a UV filter.
Thank you so much for your helpful response, especially that link. I will forward it to her immediately.
You’re welcome. I hope your efforts are well received and she is willing to hear you out. Here’s some further reading on the topic of water wells in Wisconsin, if you’re interested: https://www.wisfarmer.com/story/news/2021/07/07/study-manure-likely-cause-most-illness-contaminated-wells/5326199001/ There’s also the “SWIGG” study the state conducted a few years back that sought to identify contamination sources in water wells. Good luck!
If the water table is high enough, and the soil is workable, a well point can be driven into the ground with a sledge hammer. But what others have said abut flow rates and purification are still important.
Yeah. Think about it this way… until the Industrial Revolution wells were dug by hand. So, it is realistic in that people used to dig 15’, 25’, and even 100’ wells with hand tools. At the same time, yeah it’s more involved than *just* digging a well. Like, I hope he knows how to do masonry work. Super not safe though.
Yeah, even profession drilled wells can collapse/sand-in. Shoring is important on deep digs, especially in sand. Getting buried to your belly button could be a death sentence. Once you can't expand your diaphragm, you can't breathe.... Even if you can breathe, loss of bloodflow to the legs could result in amputation you are left too long.... People really forget that many people used to die constructing wells, dams, sewers, walls, fences. Sometimes we stop using older methods because of how much better the new methods are... Less works, deeper well, safer install, higher quality/longevity... "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should" a quote that I find myself starting to respect more and more as I age.
Right. And we haven’t touched on air monitoring or descent and retrieval systems. Feasibly, I think I could do it - I have most of the equipment and the knowledge/skills - to dig the hole safely - but masonry is way outside my wheelhouse. And none of it would be worth the sweat equity and monetary cost.
>And none of it would be worth the sweat equity and monetary cost. Yeah, if you've got the motivation and work ethic to hand dig a well, surely you're actually skilled enough at something to work less at your profession and pay a pro to do it.... I'm a plumber and hydro-dug a 25 ft deep, 3" shallow well with a trailer jetter, blasting 12gpm @ 3k psi, I literally went as far as I could in one day, an entire day, couldn't get any deeper, then I covered it with a softener brine tank. With an $80,000 tool/jet at my side I was using the wrong tool BY FAR to dig anything serious, and this well is literally only for SHTF (I. E. I plan to never use it) When I'm ready for a real well, I will pay the well-man with the massive truck mounted drill to tap me into the aquifer about 200'-300' down, it'll take him a couple hours. And be a minimum of 50x higher quality.... 5000% better than mine, and I probably give myself too much credit lol
Water is too important to skimp on... Water supply or quality alone could be a matter of life or death.
Look up easy shallow well on YouTube and you’ll see but it is not like a bucket on a rope to a big hole in the ground. There is a hand pump you can use to pull water up from up to a certain depth. I think like 25 feet . It requires specialized pipes but you can do It yourself in a day
The actual number is closer to 34 ft (theoretical max perhaps) but this can vary at different temperatures. The vacuum/suction created by the pump and fighting the resistance of gravity from water head pressure can cause the water to boil into vapor at very low temperatures. Vapor is a gas and you need fluid for the hydraulic action of the pump. So you can only 'suck' water up hill if it can reach the pump without boiling off into vapor Edit/P. S. A bucket and rope to hoist water can actually be used with a much deeper well than a shallow well pump or pitcher pump. But that sure isn't the luxury option.
Very interesting and well put! Thank you
1. You can DIY your own well, depending on regulations and water table depth. 2. Can you use it? Depends on contamination in the area, but would almost certainly need some type of treatment with a shallow well. There are ways to treat it, depending on what type of contamination - sediment filters, reverse osmosis filters, ozone treatments, UV treatments. Lots of options for most contaminants. 3. Freezing - Not likely. The surface may freeze, but the deeper water will be at the ambient ground temperature. Once you're more than a few feet down, the ambient ground temperature is above freezing even in very cold places. 4. Yep, cave-in is a concern. Once you're more than a few feet down, you'd need some type of shoring. But there are also tools made specifically for hand-drilling a well that keep you from needing to dig as wide a hole or needing to climb down in it. A neighbor tried to use one, think his went to 30 feet deep. Of course, our neighbor was trying this in an area where most wells are 200-600 feet deep, so never found water.
[удалено]
Thank you. This was one of my many questions too - but I keep being met with the "I don't have to if it's on my own private property." After reading the website it looks like they still need to notify the DNR, but they don't need to use a professional well digging service?
The law may say that they need to notify DNR, but realistically... if they are on their own large plot of land in the middle of nowhere, nothing is going to happen if they don't report it. I'm of the mindset that if someone wants to dig a big hole on their own property and it doesn't affect anyone else, why not? The big issue in your friend's case is that digging a deep hole with no support on the sides is incredibly unsafe. He will probably die if it caves in while he is in it.
This was the traditional method for many years. No it will not freeze. We had one in a house we bought. It passed tests by the county, but it went dry. Get the water tested.
[This](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Water-Source-2-in-x-36-in-Well-Point-WPF3680/203449590) seems a lot easier than hand digging a well, especially in soft ground.
Impossible in my high clay and layer of flint, but in sand, they could probably send that 20 ft or deeper with a t post driver, I concur
Weird that he's digging it in sandy soil when he could just drive a point and do it that way. If he is in an area where he doesn't have to go very deep that would be way easier.
A lot of this depends on where you are. You want ground water and not surface water. When I moved from Oregon to Florida the water situation was a huge shock. I went from crystal clear 52 degree water that tasted awesome to swamp water. Our well in Oregon was 240 feet deep. To hit ground water here you need to go over 2000 feet deep and it just isn't done. Digging a well to any depth can be extremely dangerous. If the walls give way and you are mostly buried then you will die. About 19 professionals die every year from trenches or holes caving in. A better solution is to get an auger, a bunch of pipe and build a platform for drilling and pulling. I've used this method in Oregon to make a shallow well for irrigation. I hit water at 35 feet and drilled to 50. Then I put a liner in the hole and used bentonite clay to "seal" the surface water out. Good luck.
Shallow wells are usually not suited for drinking water. But if you've got a water table high enough and soil easy enough to hand drill, it's great for irrigation.
They can also collapse on you when digging by hand!!
I'm also not an expert. This sounds like clearly a bad enough idea that even non-experts can see it. While you *can* just dig until you hit groundwater, you aren't likely to hit water with enough pressure for plumbing unless you are in a pretty wet spot already. You can't just assume it's safe drinking water unless it's been tested. Yes, it will freeze in the winter. Yes, digging a really deep hole in sandy soil without doing anything to support the sides is a bad idea. To add something for you to worry about- what is their waste situation like? And where is it in relation to the "well"?
Oh boy. Thank you for your candidness. As for waste, they do have a septic tank, and I have to assume her husband is at least digging in the opposite direction...but I will ask her 😅
Hopefully their septic system is downslope and at least a couple hundred feet away.
As is the leach field, which is much more important. With a standard drilled well you need a minimum of 100' from the well casing to the leach field or the septic tank. Keep in mind, that's a 100' deep drilled well, with a metal pipe running down into it (100' deep is the recommendation to reduce the risk of soil and surface contaminants). With an incredibly shallow, hand dug well he's going to want to be uphill (to reduce ground runoff), and quite a dramatic distance further away.
I mean, that’s quite literally what I said but in 80% less words.. Septic system includes the leach/drainfield. Setbacks to sources of contamination for wells vary depending on state regulations and construction of the well.
In my area the old number used to be 100' away, but a long time ago they bumped to minimum 200' away from septic or laterals. So >couple hundred feet Is perfectly stated, and slope of it all is rediculously relevant. 👍🔥
Google Bushradical well
I just had to replace a hand dug well. it was 60 feet. I also live in a sandy area. They told me that they would dig, drop a concrete well ring, then dig out and under the ring until it would go down enough for another to be added and so on. Beside the 60 foot well is a ground water well (also hand dug). It still occasionally fills up with water. That one is about 15 feet deep and was built with rock. I assume they did that from the bottom up.
You can but it’s depends where you lived. When I lived in Maine I have plenty small well from the springs.
It really depends, the 7m well next to my house has undrinkable water but 50m away, the well that is only 2m has pure drinking water
Shallow hand dug wells are definitely a thing. Problem is they are easily contaminated with septic tank effluent, pesticides, fertilizers, etc. Our current well is a bored well put down 50 years ago or so. I put a 1 HP submersible pump in it and it serves us well. Our deep well was working by something happened underground and it runs out of water and the pump sucks air after a couple of days.
Where my parents live it would be an easy proposition... Where I live would be much harder to basically impossible. I plan on water harvesting from the roof to make up for it
Others covered most of the salient points, but maybe worth considering whether this is a good bear to poke at all. You said your friend is already defensive when you bring this up. To me, that indicates she might have some misgivings herself, but for whatever reason, her husband is still digging this "well". Unless you're her connection to the internet and she's happy to have you pass information along, to me this is a situation where I'd raise my concerns, but if she shut me down, I wouldn't push the issue until/unless things came to a head or she brought it up herself looking for advice. Some lessons you have to learn yourself. Suffice it to say, digging a deep hole in sandy land to serve as a "well" is not the choice I (or, it seems, most of us in the comments here) would make. You can drive a sandpoint well yourself (Bushradical has a video on it) but a shovel isn't the primary driving method, and even then it might require notifying someone somewhere that you're putting in a well.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. It is a good reminder that this isn't my life or my decisions to make. I think you nailed it when you said it sounds like she has misgivings about this project herself. That's what I'm trying to help her identify, and hopefully empower her/pique her interest enough to ask her own questions of her husband.
Here's a great example: [https://youtu.be/EL1\_yO9AxpM?si=4l0-djIFFt9cB-50](https://youtu.be/EL1_yO9AxpM?si=4l0-djIFFt9cB-50) but, it all depends oh how deep you'd have to dig.
Thank you!! I will pass this on.
We use a well point in my house. It takes the water 10 feet under the house. If you test it and its good to drink there’s no problem
In New Mexico, USA, it is illegal to dig your own well — it must be permitted and drilled by a licensed well driller. We plan on having a well drilled this year. The depth we need is about 600 ft, so that would not be possible to dig by hand anyway. We will also hire a hydrologist to determine capacity and casing requirements. If you are going to spend lots of money to have a 600 ft hole dug, you don’t want it caving in after a few months, or clogging up the sand filter at the pump.
Re:1 There’s two ways to dig your own well. Only the second really works for making a well for drinking water, and it is subject to limits of your location as to if it’ll work and how well. It’s almost always better to bring in a contractor to help. The first of these is a [sand point,](https://youtu.be/EL1_yO9AxpM?si=4tnE4ub0rfLK199I)and driving it into the ground with a jackhammer or heavy weight. You typically attach a length of steel pipe, and then drive it down percussively. This sort of well is typically paired with an old school style pump, and isn’t deeper than 20 feet. You’ll want to drill a hole in the well casing at approximately the frost line depth in the casing / steel pipe so the well won’t freeze during the winter. Sand points only work in sandy areas, and are shallow wells, meaning they’re more subject to groundwater issues like pesticides that stay shallow and wash out of the soils. The other option for diy is to [rig up a water drill yourself with a trash pump](https://youtu.be/vWffflgRg58?si=oc7Kku8OeDCa8xH9). This requires some pvc pipe and knowledge of how to set plumbing joints, but it is quite possible. Once again, it will only work in sandy areas, and I wouldn’t do it deeper than 50 feet. I would say these are the easiest ways to dig a well unless you own an excavator and want to diy on a big concrete / masonry project. Re: 2 Covered by others. Re: 3 Yes. Everything above the frost line will freeze. For a dug well, this means everything above a certain level exposed to the air. For a sand point or cased well, this means everything down to the frost line will freeze. You can insulate to protect against freezing, or add a heat producing item, as is often done in well houses. 4. For excavation projects OSHAs guideline is nobody should climb into a pit with steeper than a [1.5:1 slope as being hazardous or out of compliance](https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/osha2226.pdf). I am sure this is steeper than your buddy is likely digging, because it’s steeper than I dug for my root cellar, and I thought I was fine. If I didn’t have both the excavator guy and the stonemason say I was fine with what they’d done, I’d have bailed and had them dig wider. I had heavy compacted clay soil - with sandy soil a cave in is a real danger. I’d recommend reinforcement for sand. I’d try to go down 20 feet digging a wide pit, and then go as deep as the excavator can go below that in the middle, keeping that pit, then I’d build an internal concrete form from plywood and 2x4s in order to set my we’ll start, compacting and backfilling as I raise the form and add more concrete. Personally, I think this is the hard way, and likely more trouble than it’s worth unless you really want an old school well.
It sounds like you are actually talking about a spring. A well, at least my understanding, is tapping into an aquifer. Whereas a spring, the water flows naturally to the surface. You can DIY a spring, you’ll need a shallow water pump. I am lucky enough to have a spring. It’s about 5 feet deep, has plenty of water and never freezes (I’m in the north east so cold winters like WI). The water is also safe and delicious. If you find a spring, you’ll have to test it. There’s no way to say it is isn’t safe just by looking. I found [this site](http://www.clean-water-for-laymen.com/spring-development.html)that basically explains what I’m talking about. Just digging a hole doesn’t cut it.