1. Are you licensed and insured?
In New Hampshire, well drillers are required to be licensed and display a 4x6 inch decal on both sides of their drilling equipment or service trucks. Reputable well drillers also carry insurance. Make sure to ask for proof of both before any work begins.
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2. Are they reputable?
Ask your perspective well driller if they have any references. Ask your friends and neighbors about the company and the kind of work they've done in the past. Typically, if a well company has been in business for decades, like Skillings & Sons has, it means they deliver quality work that has helped them attract new customers through the years.
3. What's covered in the contract?
When hiring a well drilling company, there should be an itemized list of the work items and cost of the service. This contract should cover the type of well to be drilled, an estimate of cost, including man-hours, and any guarantees on the work performed.
4. What are my water needs?
Talk to the well driller about the size of your home, number of family members and if there will be any other uses on your property that will require additional water, such as farming, housing large animals or running a small business. Most homes require a well water flow rate of roughly 6 gallons of water per minute, but that rate could be higher depending on your needs.
5. What type of well should I install?
For home use, there are two types of wells ' bedrock and shallow. Bedrock wells are common in New England because they yield a large amount of high-quality water. They are drilled deep within the ground, accessing streams of water that flow between the cracks in the earth's bedrock. Shallow wells, or dug wells, draw water from the surrounding water table. They are common in older homes and in the right location can provide an adequate source of water.
Irrigation wells are another option for homeowners looking to provide a new water source for gardens, animals or a small on-site business. These wells can be installed directly into irrigation systems for lawns and gardens and are a cost-saver for homes and businesses that pay for water on municipal systems.
6. Can I get enough water from my well?
Once your water needs are established, the well driller should talk to you about the potential output of your new well. Using geological information, as well as water yield data from wells in your surrounding area, your well driller should be able to give you an educated estimate as to whether a well on your lot will meet your water needs.
7. What do I have to do to prepare the lot for my well?
If you are constructing a new home, you may need to do substantial work to the lot before a well drilling service can do their job. Clearing trees, leveling the surface site and building access roads to potential drilling spots are your responsibility. Make sure you review what is expected before a drilling appointment is set.
8. Where can I drill the well?
State and local laws and guidelines will largely determine where your well should be drilled. Well regulations stipulate certain setbacks from roads, property lines, wetlands and buildings. It makes sense to have the well relatively close to your home, but if the well must be placed a sizable distance from the house, you will need to talk to the well driller about making sure the well pump is large enough to keep water flowing over greater distances.
9. How are you going to drill it?
Before work begins, review the well drilling procedure with your contractor. When will the crew arrive? How long with the process take? What is the diameter of the well hole? What type of casing will be used? What kind of well screen will be used? How long is the tested for proper flow? Will any follow-up testing be required?
10. How much will it cost?
With any large purchase, homeowners should get quotes from competing vendors. However, the lowest bid isn't always going to deliver the best results. Choose those estimates which are reasonably priced. Then consider references from friends and former customers. Look into their reputation with builders and the community. How professional was the staff when you met for a consultation? Combining these considerations with price will help you find the well drilling company that's right for you.
What do you look for in a drill rig? Do you choose a rig because of its capabilities to drill the majority of your business, or do you choose a rig that is capable of working outside your core scope of business? Do you look for new technology or stick with what has worked for the last 30 years? It is important to consider safety, ease of use and reliability. All three factors complement each other. Reliable equipment that is easy to use increases safety, when used within manufacturer recommended limits and operated correctly. Choosing the right rig for your business is no different from choosing the right tool for any job. You can easily install a drywall nail with a six-pound sledgehammer, but at what amount of risk? The same scenario goes for trying to break cement with a nine-ounce drywall hammer. The job can be completed, but how much time will it take?
Three questions need to be answered when investing in new equipment:
The first question to be answered is, what is 85 percent of my business? The rig required to do 85 percent of your business will be more productive than purchasing a rig that is designed for specialty projects. Sure, a big rig can drill any size hole. But at what cost? The next question is, what kind of geology will be encountered more than 85 percent of the time? Mud rotary is productive in high water table areas with consolidated and unconsolidated formations. Dense formations with low water table or fractured zones are more suited for air rotary. The downside to a smaller rig is the air compressor capabilities. A downhole hammer is invaluable in hard formation, especially when several hundred feet of hard formation will be drilled. The last question is, in what type of location does 85 percent of my business take place? Do you drill in the middle of fields, housing developments or urban areas? An ideal rig can be on and off location in less than an hour. The bigger the job, the more move in and out time is needed. However, the bigger the job, the more likely there will be a road built for access. Once all three of these questions are answered, it is time to choose the right rig for your business.
To help shed light on that decision process, I interviewed a colleague and good friend, Mike Epley. He has sold rigs in the Texas and the western United States for the past nine years. Texas is one of the most diverse states when it comes to geology, drilling conditions and types of drilling jobs.
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A. It depends on what the customer needs for their business. Are they replacing a rig or expanding their business? What is the scope of work that the rig is required to do?
A. Again, it depends on the required scope of work. In Texas, east of Interstate 35 and south is predominantly mud. Southwest and central Texas are 'Big Air.' The rest of the state requires the use of mud and air as required.
A. Many companies drill residential water wells. I am seeing a lot of diversifying to capture more work than just residential.
A. No. Sure, I have customers that use their residential rigs to drill some municipal wells. But the companies that are focused on drilling large-diameter municipal wells day in and day out have 50,000-pound capacity or bigger rigs set up just for that work.
A. Geothermal and cathodic drilling are very popular. I have always had customers drilling these types of boreholes. A good residential drill rig can easily be set up to drill other types of boreholes.
A. Cathodic has been around a long time. The past five years the work has increased quite a bit.
A. No. Installing cathodic protection on new and old pipelines is mandatory. I believe there are 5,000 new holes to be drilled in Texas this year.
A. The borehole size is larger but not outside what the rig is capable of. Geothermal drills 4.25- to 6.5'inch diameter holes to a depth of 400 to 500 feet. Cathodic drills an 8- to 10-inch hole to 500 feet. Once the borehole is drilled, both geothermal and cathodic require special equipment for product installation and pumping grout material down the hole.
A. I have a several customers set up to do the entire job from start to finish. It is very similar to large ground source geothermal projects. In the beginning, drillers would just set the loop and grout. Now many companies want to do the whole project from start to finish.
A. In the last couple years, a majority of drill rigs have been financed.
A. In the past, many of my customer's used local banks to do the financing. Lately, large equipment financiers have been competitive ' such as DLL and Wells Fargo.
A. Work with your salesman. Make sure your expectations of the rig align with the manufacturer's product specifications and capacity. It is important to purchase a rig that can be productive in your operating area. Take a good look at your scope of work and break down the operating costs. A good rig can't be all things to all jobs. Choose the rig that fits best for your company.
Readers with more questions can contact Mike Epley, GEFCO Southwest territory sales manager, at .
It all comes down to using the right tool for the right application. A rig capable of drilling 1,000 feet and setting large casing could be set up to drill a 100-foot hole, but at what operating cost? Big rigs require more horsepower and consume more gallons of fuel per hour. The same could be said for a rig designed to drill 300-foot holes. Yes, it could be set up to drill to 1,000 feet, but how much time and extra equipment will be required? Choose the rig that is best for your company's operating area. Next, choose a rig that can adapt and evolve to the work in your ever-changing drilling environment. Henry Ford said, 'If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.' His mindset pushed the automotive industry. In the drilling industry, I ask you, 'Do you need a racehorse or a workhorse?' Diversifying is essential to a long successful business, but what type of work is most relevant to your area?
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