Can You Drill Your Own?

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Here's the do-it-yourself way of getting a water well.

A lot of people have considered buying a small, portable, one-person machine and drilling their own water wells. But before most folks will act on that fantasy, they want to know the answer to one question: Can I really do it.;

MOTHER's talked with, heard from, and read about a number of individuals who've tried do-it-yourself well drilling. Some of our friends and staffers have spent days of their own time cutting earth at their future homesites. And we've even drilled a few holes ourselves out at our Eco-Village to see how well the equipment available for the job works. So we've gotten to the point where we feel pretty qualified to address that question. And our answer is ...

Maybe. That's right, maybe you can—and, moreover, should—drill your own water well. Now, we know that's a wishy-washy answer, but it's not a simple question, and we'll tell you three big reasons why. But before we do, we can tell you the one part of the well-drilling decision that's simple: If you decide to do it, the rig you'll probably use for the job is the Hydra-Drill sold by Deep-Rock Manufacturing, 2200 Anderson Rd., Opelika, AL 36802. We've been unable to locate another company currently offering a similar small, portable rig.

Let's now go to the three questions you need to answer for yourself before you put out the money for a do-it-yourself rig.

[1] Can the machine do it? Obviously, a portable rig powered by a three-horsepower, two-cycle engine isn't going to have the capacity that one of those monster rotary machines does. In our own experience, the Hydra-Drill's standard bit does a fine job of punching through dirt, sand, clay, and soft rock such as mica schist. When it hits a layer of tough blue quartz, though, that bit has met its match.

DeepRock does sell a special coring bit tipped with tungsten carbide (you can reap it yourself when it gets worn) for $45 and even a diamond coring bit for $145 for cutting through hard rock. We've never tried them ourselves. We've talked with folks whohave used the special bits successfully ...but all admit the going is pretty slow. As one MOTHER-reader from Ontario wrote us, "After drilling for four hours in hard granite, I had penetrated to the amazing depth of one and a half inches. " (That frustrated fellow subsequently called in a professional driller who bored his entire well in four hours!)

But slow or not, oftentimes it can be done. Orville and Dot Synoground of Pine Mountain, Georgia, drilled through 35 feet of solid granite with a Hydra-Drill and a diamond coring bit. They hit the rock layer at 18 feet and kept drilling—cutting about six inches of granite an hour—until they broke through. After three solid weeks of work, Orville and Dot struck water ...at 165 feet.

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