What to Know About Wells
Water is one of the most vital resources in life. So, it's no surprise that when purchasing land, where your water will come from should be one of the first things you think about. For many of us, water is easily accessible and is often provided by the city in which we live. But what happens when the property you're purchasing isn't serviced by the city?
There are a few other options when it comes to sourcing water, depending on the county your property is located in and other local government requirements. One of the most common water sourcing options for properties that aren’t serviced by a city water system is to install a well.
In this article, we’ll cover the basics of what a well is and how it works. We’ve created a couple of state specific well finder guides to help you locate existing wells near the area you are hoping to purchase land. Using our guides may help give you an idea of how deep neighboring wells are, which can help to give you a cost estimate for installing your own well.
To search for wells in Teller County, Colorado, download our step by step guide, here!
To search for wells in Mohave County, Arizona, you can click here!
Water wells are holes that are drilled into the ground. The deeper you dig, the more likely you are to hit an aquifer — a source of water that can be accessed by drilling into the earth. Water wells can be shallow or deep, depending on your needs and location.
Depending on where you live and what kind of soil is on your property, you may only need a shallow well to hit an important aquifer. In other locations, such as rocky ground with few groundwater sources available, you'll need to drill deep into the bedrock.
The depth of the well depends on:
The property location.
The type of soil you have.
The type of aquifer you are drilling into.
How much water is available at that depth - if there isn't enough, then digging a deeper hole might be necessary
The cost of a water well depends on its depth and components. To determine the depth of your well, a soil sample must be taken by a professional contractor. This will help them determine if you have an adequate amount of sand, gravel and rock that can support drilling in the area chosen. If there is not enough soil material to support drilling then they may have to drill deeper than planned or choose another location for installation. The cost of drilling also depends on whether it's done by hand or with machinery, along with other variables like equipment rental fees and labor costs for setting up the pump system once it's all done.
With all of the above mentioned factors, the cost of a well can vary greatly, even within a small area. The best way to get an accurate cost estimate is to call up a local company. Still, they won’t know exactly what the final cost will be until they’re done drilling.
However, when looking at purchasing land, many people just want an idea of how deep the wells are in the area. Are we talking about wells that are 100 feet deep or closer to 1,000 feet? To help our customers get answers to this question, we’ve created a couple of FREE guides, showing you how to search for existing wells in specific areas. Although the guides we have created are specific to Teller County, Colorado and Mohave County, Arizona, you should be able to research any county in the U.S. by following along with the steps in either of our guides.