The Right Conditions

In certain portions of our region, drilled gravel (or screen) water wells can be another excellent option as a pure drinking water source.  In fact, drilled gravel water wells tend to be very high-yield water wells producing dozens of gallons of water per-minute.  Areas near significant bodies of water with coarse soil such as lakes tend to nicely support gravel water wells due to the shallow depth to water table.

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The Difference Between Drilled Gravel Wells and Dug Wells

It is easy to confuse drilled gravel water wells with dug wells because both wells are created above bedrock. However, unlike dug wells, drilled gravel wells are completely sealed from groundwater and rely instead on water far enough below the surface that underground gravel actually fully sanitizes surrounding water to provide safe drinking water. 

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How We Do It

The first stages of drilling a gravel water well are similar to drilling a bedrock well.  The difference is that instead of drilling through the overburden and into bedrock, we stop in the overburden when we reach significant water in gravel above bedrock.  A stainless steel, slotted screen, coupled to our six inch steel casing is lowered into place.  (As with all of our other well equipment, we use only the highest quality materials, in this case Johnson stainless steel screens).  The process of drilled water well development begins once the screen has been set at the proper depth to draw from an underground aquifer.  We then test the well recovery rate—how quickly water flows into the well after use—and measure the well yield (in gallons per-minute).

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Experience Has Taught Us

If you’re interested in a drilled gravel water well, understand that our decades of drilling in the White Mountains and Lakes regions of New Hampshire and Western Maine have taught us that conditions can vary by neighborhood and even house-to-house.  We will only drill a gravel water well if we’re confident that it will be a long-lasting water source.

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There’s Always a Bedrock Water Well

In some cases, after we begin attempting a drilled gravel water well we determine that the makeup of the overburden is not conducive to such a water well.  In those scenarios, we consult with the property owner concerning an alternate location on the property or simply continuing drilling in the same borehole to create a drilled bedrock water well.