Last week the well was drilled.

I was nervous whether we would find water or end up with a dry hole. This was exacerbated after researching information on neighboring wells and finding that most were almost 400 feet deep and only yielded 1-2gpm.

http://www.maine.gov/dacf/mgs/pubs/digital/well.htm

This is what led me to having a test bore conducted to review the soil composition and possibility for a gravel well which could potentially yield much more water from the unconfined sandy aquifer. However, when that turned-up unfavorable results, my only option was to drill a bedrock well.

Fortunately, I fared much better than my neighbors and ended up with a 240ft deep artesian well that yields 10 gpm! Typically a bedrock well required a pump to extract water from deep below the earth; however, an artesian well naturally flows at the surface without a pump! My well at the time of drilling was flowing 1-2gpm from the top!

As a result, the driller needed to install two pitless adapters in the well. One receives the pipe from the pump deep below the earth and feeds it via a pipe to the house below the frost line. The other pitless adapter simply drains the casing below frost-level to a safe point off the hill to prevent the top of the well from freezing and dislodging the casing seal from the bedrock below.

Below you can see the new stream created on my property by the flowing well!

After the well was drilled, the driller installed a 1″ pipe and wire from the well to the house and graded the site nicely.

Inside they installed a 40 gallon pressurized well tank and control equipment. I opted for a 3-wire stainless steel Goulds pump with a 40/60 pressure switch. The pump was set at 200 feet, which allows space for sand and debris to settle in the well bore hole. Water is pumped from that depth to the house via a 1″ potable water pipe which feeds the pressure tank.

A pressure switch turn the pump on when the pressure in the line reaches 40PSI (A faucet is opened and the pressure tank is empty) and shuts it off when it reaches 60 PSI (A faucet is closed and adequate water is stored in the pressure tank). Other equipment you see pictured below include the pump starter, disconnect, and lightning arrestor.

Now that all the well is drilled and equipment is installed, another milestone has been achieved. Water!