How to Dig a Well

For the past 6 months, our irrigation system has been failing. We've had the irrigation guy out many times. He clears out sand that clogged the pipes and says you need a new well.

As a first time homeowner, I didn't know what that meant....a new well.

Well, now I understand.

Here's the truck that's been parked in the driveway for 2 days. It's an F450 with a giant auger built into it. It's already drilled down more than 120 feet. Not sure if I'm getting ripped off, but I'm told we need to drill down further to avoid a sulphur smell and iron deposits that will stain the house orange.

These photos were taken before work this morning. When I got home after work, the whole street had an opaque run off all over it and the grass surrounding the new well was flooded with sandy water.

I can only assume this guy knows what he's doing. John hired him at the recommendation of our irrigation guy.


Apparently getting a "new well" means getting a pipe that goes into the water table...beyond 120 feet. It's a metal pipe that draws water from the ground and send it to the irrigation pump. Our old PVC well had holes in it. The sandy soil kept getting into the pipe and thus into the sprinkler lines.

All this work should hopefully get our sprinklers working again which will get the lawn back to a nice deep green color instead of this light brown...