DRILLING AN OFFGRID WELL

Our feeling was this; a well digging company will not choose the digging site for a well. They ask you where you want them to dig. At $25.00 a foot we wanted someone with any kind of experience to help us make the decision. Since both well witches chose approximately the same site, we took their advice.

The day the well drilling company came, they told us that our site was not 50 feet from our property line and should be moved. I thought Ron would have a heart attack. He called the well witch to confirm the change in the location. He said it was okay.

The well driller said to Ron, "Unless you are the most unlucky person to choose the wrong 8 inches to drill, you will hit water". Well, that comment was no help to Ron's growing anxiety.

Even our well driller was concerned for Ron's obvious over the top crazy making state of mind.

They drilled about 200 feet the first day. We knew that the average well in this area was about 350 feet. We also knew we could have a $10,000.00 hole in the ground that we would have to pay to cap off and register the hole with the state.

They came back the next day and drilled another 60 feet and hit water, but, needed to go deeper for better water flow. The final drilling was 360 feet with a good well with sufficient gallons per minute. I do not have any pictures of the actual drilling. I was not down here at the time.

Ron called me to tell me we had a water. I in turn called my entire family. We registered the well with the state.

The cost of drilling an offgrid well is high especially with no guarantees. Prior to our decision to drill for water we did check into water delivery. We calculated the water usage by the cost by our estimated lifetime. Water delivery to our property would have cost a minimum of $400.00 to $500.00 per month. There was an extra trip charge and with the size of their trucks we would need two deliveries per month.

Thanks to my sister we were able to drill the offgrid well. Thanks Sis.

Now we have a viable off grid piece of property not just a plot of land in the desert. Our concerns are that it will develop out here and our offgrid well will be sucked dry. Most people don't think about the quality or quantity of their water supply. Most people have no idea how much water or energy they use. We didn't.

Caution should be taken when dealing with contractors especially if you are inexperienced. Ron and I knew enough that contractors wanted our business for our offgrid well. We were unprepared for our first contractor who gave us a bid.

Ron and I were having difficulty obtaining bids for our well. This was during the building frenzy in Arizona. We gave a check to the first contractor who came out to the property. This contractor was supposed to submit our permit for our request to drill a well.

We waited six weeks and no permit. We called the company repeatedly, eventually they would not take our calls. They held our check and would not return it.

I contacted the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and we received our check back within a couple of days of the BBB contacting them.

We kept getting bad feelings from this company but we wanted our well drilled. Pay attention to your feelings. Turns out this company shared their equipment with another company, took our money but could not do the work for several months.

We wanted our well done but $20,000.00 is a huge vote for one company. We vote with our dollars everyday.

We received an estimate from another company and our well was completed in 3 weeks. We filed all of the paperwork ourselves for intention to drill a well and received the permit in a couple of days.

This company was willing to listen to us when we told them we wanted a solar submersible well pump. He had not even done one but was willing to research to get it done. We told him what company to buy it from since we had already done the research.

We were happy to cast our vote for the company that drilled our well.

	Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Web www.offgrid-desert-living.com