Bore Hole DIY / Drill Hire /

1connect

Hi I am looking to get a bore hole water supply (drinkable) to save on water bills.

These holes on their own can cost about 5k or so ... so I am looking to hire the gear and do it myself as the breakeven cost would be too long its not cost effective to "buy" a 10k "full on" solution off the shelf.

Anybody have any experience of this? I believe most bore holes hit the aquafer at 60 to 100 foot.

So I need:

Drilling Rig Hire
Kit and the consumable Supplies
Base instructions on how to do one (it's not rocket science - its a hole in the ground)
Plans for Pump and filtration equipment

Looking to pay bargain basement money for a DIY solution.

Useful comments from people with first hand experience are very welcome.

I believe quite a few farms / farmers have done this DIY route?

ChiefGrasscutter

Well....... here are some of the issues.........
Regulatory:
All boreholes deeper that a certain depth (can't remember figure) are required to be notified to the BritGeoSurvey- to ensure their construction complies with the various regulations in respect of boreholes.
All private drinking water supplies are required to be regularly tested by (I think) the local council who have to power to close them down or require additonal filtration if the water analysis proves defective: you pay for all these tests etc.

Theroretical:
You need to get yourself a serious education in geology and specifically hydrology - ie water bearing strata. It all depends what is below your land in terms of strata layers. If there are no water bearing capable formations (aquifers) below you then you can drill and dig as much as you want and you ain't going to find water: or you may find it in small quantities or appalling quality or it may be too far down to pump it up (unless you are a water utility company with deep pockets for a very big pump)
You speak of "the aquifier" as if it exists across all of Britain - it doesn't. To give an example I have an aquifier (sandstone) below me and I have an old house well with water at 50ft depth. Go only a few miles away down a hill and the aquifier ends and then you have to go down 100ft though clay to get to another much deeper though bigger aquifier (limestone)
Go a further 10 miles and you are in a river valley and you can dig down 100's of feet and you won't get much water - 'cos there is no aquifier below.
Then there is the problem that just because there is an aquifier below you does not mean that drilling down will result in a successful well (as is true equally in the oil industry). If the local strata in the immediate area of the hole is not sufficiently porus then the well will deliver a very poor flow - solution is to drill again somewhere else - maybe only a few meters away.

Practical:.....
errr... the drilling of deep holes is not exactly a DIY task. You need to properly install a casing/lining in them. Most important is the seal the top so that impure surface water contamination cannot leaking directly down the hole into the aquifier. You may pass other minor aquifiers on the way down. These have to be sealed off again to prevent cross contamination.
The design of the casing at the bottom of the hole is critical to the functioning of the well and is matched to the aquifier strata to avoid the seepage influx holes possibly clogging.
Pump: you'll need a downborehole stainless steel borehole pump: which will be in the multiKW range and probably into the low £K pricewise as well.

As you have discovered from a cost analysis point of view unless you are a really big water user (farmer etc) or have no access to mains water (remote building) it is not cost effective to install a borehole. The £10K feels about right for an off the shelf solution.
(Oh yes and big water users would need a water abstraction licence as well to be allowed to extract large quantities from an aquifier - would not affect a domestic borehole)

forgotmyname

If you can do it for £3k approx 10 years worth of water bills at current prices, Thats what ours are on a meter anyway.

Add to that electricity to pump the water and any purifiers you may need.

Do you plan on living long enough to save that much money?

I would have thought the pump would use more electric than the water costs.

hwalkerh

There are many things to consider here.

Depending on the amount of water you will be using you will need to apply for a licence to take the water. You should contact the environment agency for advise. Also you may been to do test pumping.

Do you know if and where there is water on your land and if there is actually the water you require available.

I don't think that it is a diy job really as there is the need for the proper depth and to make sure that you don't contaminate the aquifer. You will also have the cost of the council coming to test the water for you.

These are all things you need to concider