pounded well in Missour?

[Sparticle]

Our friends here in NY had a pounded well done and we were going to have the same. We're now moving to Missouri however and I can't find a place that does pounded wells. Is it called something else there? Can you think of any other cheap well alternatives for Missouri besides the typical drilling?

[Alice In TX/MO]

My part of Missouri (south central) is rock, gravel, and a little dirt. Wells are deep. Pounded won't work in that type of ground.

[watcher]

We called it driven, as driving a fence post, not pounded. What you do is take your well pipe, put a "point" on one end and a cap on the other. Then take a very large fence post driver and start pounding it just like a fence post. The three main differences are its much harder because its bigger, takes MUCH longer because its longer (we hit water at 18 feet) and you have to be more careful to keep it straight.

We drove our well when I was a kid but I lived in the bootheel where the only rocks we ever saw were the ones the dredged out of the Mississippi River. I've lived in the Ozark region of MO and in north-central TN and there's no way you could have driven a well there. Too many rocks.

If you have just about anything but clay and sand in your soil you can't drive a well.

[o&itw]

Most places south of I70, you are going to need a drilled well. in most places, the well will be drilled 250-300 ft, even though the pump may not be placed that far down. Figure in the neighborhood of $10,000. There are exceptions, and in a few places one could get water 10 feet down with a hand dug well, but I wouldn't want to guaruntee it's saftey.

[Sparticle]

well $10,000 is depressing. Just a few years ago I only paid $4,000. I guess we need to stay away from the rocky southern area unless we want to spend a fortune on a well.

[Sparticle]

So I guess in the old days everyone just did a hand dug well?

[Cabin Fever]

Originally Posted by Sparticle

So I guess in the old days everyone just did a hand dug well?

Or hauled water up from the creek.

[big rockpile]

Originally Posted by Sparticle

So I guess in the old days everyone just did a hand dug well?

Well most did like we did when we first moved here.We collected rain water,and get water out of the spring which are common around sothern Missouri.

I checked here couple months ago about having another Well drilled and they wanted around $5,000.Then I figure another couple thousand to put a Pump in.

If your buying land North of the Missouri River it is going to cost you so much more that it wouldn't be justfied because of price of a Well.

big rockpile

[o&itw]

Originally Posted by big rockpile

Well most did like we did when we first moved here.We collected rain water,and get water out of the spring which are common around sothern Missouri.

I checked here couple months ago about having another Well drilled and they wanted around $5,000.Then I figure another couple thousand to put a Pump in.

If your buying land North of the Missouri River it is going to cost you so much more that it wouldn't be justfied because of price of a Well.

big rockpile

Yep, Rockpile is correct....the price I was speaking of above is for a "turnkey" deal: well, pump, pressure tank, pipe, and electrical hook-up.

You will find a lot of places for sale, that have a well already. People set them up for a summer horse retreat and the like, and would hang an RV/Winnebago on the property in the summer. Be careful about a place with no electrical hookup.... some of the co-ops charge a fortune to bring it in from very far.

[glenn amolenaar]

The drillers here with the new type drill a well in hours rather than days, also because business is slow you can get them to deal it costs to have those big rigs setting still. My neighbor had one drilled/pounded by a guy with an old cable type didn't save much.

Glenn

[agmantoo]

The actual name of the driver/pounder is a percussion drill. Here is the basic unit from which a modern percussion rig evolved.
http://www.wellspringafrica.org/drildesc.htm
It is unlikely that you will find anyone to put a well in with a modern percussion rig as most of these drillers starved to death because they got water too readily. Air drilling rigs with costly bits replaced them. These new rigs pass by a lot of water that the old percussion rigs would have sourced as the unit hammered away fracturing the rock as it went.

[Sparticle]

Thanks for all the info. We're not worried about power and are probably only going to buy a place with a spring or creek. That's our hope. But during the dry season they can run low or dry (right?). So we wanted to think about putting in an affordable well. We have found some with wells, but they don't have springs. We could do without a well if there were a year round spring, but that could be risky I suppose?

The guy that was going to do the well pounding explained it to me like Agmantoo explained it, fracturing the rock as it went so it was much more shallow. More of a creating a new path and pooling? for the existing water that is in the layers. All I know is that it was WAY cheaper than a drilled well and we knew people who had a well done that way that worked great.

[Bluegirl]

It's not just southern Missouri that is rocky. The only alternative to a deep well would be a cistern. In answer to your question, what did old timer's do, they built cisterns to catch rain water. And the cisterns were large, round and made from field rock. Today's cisterns are made from concrete, and catch run off from the roof of houses or other farm buildings. If it is a dry year and it does not rain, there are people who haul water to you for a price. Or, you can haul water yourself. All you need is a big plastic tank (purchased at any farm supply store) and a truck to transport.

I grew up on a 365 acre farm in Pike County MO. We had a deep well with an unlimited water supply. The water was safe to drink but smelled of rotten eggs (sulfur). We used this water for livestock and for bathing, but we drank from the cistern. The cistern water was sterilized with household bleach. I can't recall the amount, but it didn't take much. The farm was made up of the remains of five old homesteads. All that was left were the old stone foundations, the root cellars, and the cisterns.