Pounding the Well
/Yesterday was the first day of pounding the well at our future home! This video makes it look easy, but like any do-it-yourself project, there were a few hiccups along the way. Hopefully after another day or two we'll have our well completed! Thanks to Gus for helping Derek and me get the pounder rocking and rolling and the Meierottos for letting us borrow it!
Steps for Pounding Your Own Well
1- Have some great neighbors with a well pounder who let you borrow it. Figure out a way to get the massive contraption onto a trailer and take it to your future home site.
2- Dig a massive starter hole (approximately 15 ft deep) with the help of another neighbor and their heavy equipment.
3- Place a 20 ft casing in the starter hole, then fill it back in. Try to pick the rainiest, windiest, muddiest day possible and shovel it back in by hand.
4- Wait for the ground to freeze a bit and then start pounding! Pound for several minutes. Once the casing stops moving, send the driver down to the bottom of the pipe and let it crush apart the rocks.
5- Put a powerful air compressor hose down the pipe and flush out the crushed rock. We had already hit water by this point, but if you haven't yet hit water, dump water into the casing to help flush the rock.
6- Once the casing is sunk to the ground, weld another five foot section of casing and repeat steps 4 and 5.
7- Keep at it until you reach your desired depth.
We hope to have the well completed in the next day or two!