Summary: Wondering why you should bother contacting a water finding company before you start drilling? Here are three frustrating things that happen when your well’s flow rate is next to non-existent.
You may feel reassured by the fact that it isn’t actually all that common to end up drilling a dry well. However, shallow wells with low water yields are a frequent occurrence. Here are three reasons you should start dialing your local water finding company today, before you even think of drilling that well.
1) Well drilling gets more expensive when you turn it into a “hobby”
Well drilling really should be a one-time event. However, if your first well drilling adventure leaves you with a dry or low-yielding well, it can start to look more like a hobby—one that you keep doing over and over again. But, really, what are the odds that you are going to drill a dry well twice in a row? It’s important to remember that not all low-yielding wells are the result of poor location. Some simply haven’t been dug deep enough, and some were equipped with the wrong size of borehole and pipe casing. No matter the cause of your well’s current drought, though, it’s still going to be an expensive fix. In some cases, you can still use the original well and have the drilling company drill it deeper. It’s still expensive, but it’s probably your best-case scenario. Having to refit your borehole and casing can get a bit more costly, and still more expensive is the prospect of having to drill a whole new well somewhere else in your yard.
2) Were you planning to remodel your house? ‘Cuz you are now
If your well isn’t dry and is just low-yielding, there may be ways for you to make do. This is probably going to be less expensive than drilling or refitting a whole new well, but it isn’t going to be cost- or labor-free. To make your low water yield work, you are going to have to re-fit your whole house to make it use less water. That means installing water-saving faucets and shower heads, a low flow toilet, and looking into water saving appliances like the washing machine and dishwasher, to start. It may also mean moderating your daily water use: no jumping in the shower while you run a quick load of laundry through the wash; no doing laundry and dishes at the same time. It may not seem like much, but the disruption to your daily schedule could make even the simplest of chores and tasks a lot more time consuming—and that’s frustrating as…well.
3) Your water supply becomes a lot less stable
If you drill a dry well, then you don’t have much of a choice but to drill another well, unless you can succeed by drilling the well deeper. However, if you drill a low-yielding well, the frustration may lie in unpredictable and unstable availability. Too dry or too shallow, and your well can be easily impacted by drought, or even by nearby construction that even slightly shifts the water table. Not knowing if and when your water will replenish—and not being certain of the quality of that water when it does come back—is more than frustrating.
Of course, the most frustrating thing about drilling a dry or shallow well is the hindsight of it all. The entire dilemma would have been easily preventable if you had simply contacted a water finding company before you started drilling. Companies like American Water Surveyors have the resources, technology, and expert knowledge to be able to identify the best location for your well. Don’t wait until you make a mistake you are sure to regret. Call AWS today.
