I was just answering a some questions about wells from a friend that is building their own home and put together some basic information about drilling your own sand point shallow well and I thought I would share.
What is a Sand Point Shallow Well?
The name Sand Point comes from the tip of the pipe that is used at the bottom of the well. It is the first section of pipe and it is perforated and covered with a screen or a sand filter. The idea is that you drive this first piece of pipe deep enough into the ground where you find enough water that you can extract and pump to the surface. In a deep well a larger pipe normally 3″ or wider is driven into the ground and then the water seeps into that pipe where it is extracted. The pipe in this second type is a casing.
Shallow Sand Point Wells vary in water quality and your ability to dig one yourself might not be possible in your area but they are worth trying for many people. If you own some land with a hunting cabin on it or if you are homesteading in an area where you will be off grid and there are no restrictions on well digging then they are an easy way to get water that is most likely of much better quality than you would collect out of a stream, pond or other exposed surface water. Also it is a way to do it yourself without the cost of a driller which can cost you a couple thousand to many thousands of dollars.
First thing you should know about shallow wells is that normally they have dirtier water than deep wells but that is not always the case. A shallow well might be effected by a local spring or creek and if an animal was to die in that water and it seeped into your water it would be infected with bacteria.
No matter what type of well you dig if you are drinking or washing in it you will always need to treat the water. You might need to treat it for high levels of sand/particulate with a filter or you might need to treat it for bacteria or minerals. The list goes on and only testing can tell you what you need to treat for.
There are two types of pumps the first that sucks water up the pipe and is at ground level and the other is sent down the pipe and forces water up the pipe. If you need an in pipe pump then your well pipe needs to be much wider so it can accept the pump. If you can use a pump that sucks water out of the pipe then you can have a 1-1/2″ to 2″ pipe which is much easier for a home owner to drive deep enough to get to water. The smaller the pipe the easier it is to drive but then you have flow rate issues.
What do you need to Drill your own Shallow Water Well?
The tools that you will use to dig your well will depend mostly on the quality of soil in your area and how deep you need to dig. This is a shallow well but you might find that you are digging up to 50 feet deep or more which can be really hard to do by hand.
If you have really rocky soil then drilling one might not be a possibility. Also if you are at higher elevations this normally also means harder and deeper digging but not always.
Since the point on the Sand Point Pipe will also be your drill point you need to have that length of pipe as your first and then after that you attach lengths of steel pipe using a dill coupler which is much stronger than a standard pipe connector. All of your pipe has to be steel and better it should be thick walled steel. You can not use cast iron pipe or fittings.
To drive the pipe there is a special cap that is attached to the end which you can hammer or drive on. Many people like to use fence post driver to drive the pipe and others might also use a sledge hammer. I seriously suggest that you purchase a gasoline driven post driver. Many of them run off of 2 stroke engines and they can allow anyone to drive a 4 inch fence post into the ground in under a minute so they can drive your pipe much easier than any manual method. The cheapest ones I have seen are under $400 and well worth the investment. You can then use them to drive your tposts or fence posts around your property. They are very handy and will save you so much effort. Another option might be a large Rotary Hammer above 1 inch with some type of cup attachment that would cover the head of your pipe. I would suggest this if you have the tool already because you are probably going to have to weld up your own attachment.
Manual or Electric Pumps
If you are using your well as your primary source of water for your home you probably will want to install an electric pump that runs off of a source that can run 24hrs a day. Solar is not a bad idea for partial day use but if you do this you will also want to use a gravity feed system. A gravity feed system would require some type of storage tank either on a hill above your home or even in your attic. Many european homes use a gravity feed system in attics because of low water pressure and its something you need to get use to but it is not unlivable.
If you are installing the pump for part time use at a vacation cabin then you could probably get away with a hand pump. They would also be good during construction. They are also good for irrigation of gardens.
Final Note
Shallow Wells are not always the best solution for every location. They can be beneficial if your water table is high and soil conditions mean easy drilling. As we also talked about there are tools you can use that are helpful in digging your well.
The hard part about wells is that you never know how deep water is and sometimes you can dig 50 feet in the other direction and get very lucky or sometimes you find you need a professional well digger to dig a few hundred feet to get good drinking water.
Always test your water when you first establish the well and then test again at a minimum of once a year if you are using the source for drinking and washing. Whenever you are in doubt because of discoloration or bad smells or if you feel sick then have your water tested. EColi and other bad bacteria can be present in wells and conditions can change from summer to winter or over time.
And never drink water that hasn’t been purified by either chemical or UV Light purification.