Q.    I'M INTERESTED IN PURCHASING A RURAL PIECE OF PROPERTY,  HOW DO I FIND OUT IF IT HAS A WELL ON IT?
A.    One thing you'll learn very quickly when living in a rural setting, you learn to fend for yourself. Chances are if the property is undeveloped, it may not have a water well.  But thats not always the case.  If the property owner doesnt know for sure, check with the county for the tax lot records which may have that information.  The State Water Resources Department or their web site may also help.  If there are neighbors, ask if they can provide any information.  Check with a property title insurance company for information.  Contact a local well drilling company and ask them about it.  Quinn's Well Drilling Inc., has a treasure chest of information concerning area water wells and we may be able to help you. 
Q.   THE PROPERTY I WANT TO PURCHASE IS NEXT TO A RIVER, WILL THIS IMPROVE MY CHANCES OF HITTING WATER?
A.   Don't assume that you'll easily find water on your property when it is time to drill a well.  One customer purchased a beautiful spot next to the Rogue River and made it contingent upon a well that produced ample water for household use.  Needless to say, 400 feet of drilling produced one heck of a dirt pile and absolutely zip, zero, nada, none, no water!  So he was out the cost of the well, but not the cost of the property, even though it was an expensive lesson.  Check with your Drilling Contractor or the Water Resources Dept. before you make an offer on any property to see if that it is in a good water area.  We do have some very poor  water areas in this region. 
Q.    HOW DO I DETERMINE WHICH WELL DRILLING CONTRACTOR IS TRUSTWORTHY?
A.    When searching the yellow pages or the classified ads, you will come to one conclusion very quickly, they all say basically the same thing.  The size of the ad does not matter.  At this point confusion sets in and youre no closer to making a sound decision.  You need to look at what sets the well drilling contractors apart.  What does one contractor offer that others do not?  Could it be the years theyve been in business, their experience or the quality of service and products? 
Be an educated consumer, this is where you will separate the various well drilling contractors listed.  Ask neighbors and or a friend who they recommend, word of mouth is a very dependable source.  Contact the local Builder Association or Water Well Driller Associations for information.  Talk to each of the well drillers and get a feeling of who you may want to do business with.  Ask them what kind of guarantees they offer.  Have them look at the site to see if the equipment can get to the drilling site.  Every well drilling business has some kind of reputation if theyve been in the local area for any length of time.  Ask if they've drilled any wells the area of your well site?  Ask questions, get educated and you will find your selection will become much easier. 
Q.   DOES MY WELL DRILLER NEED ANY SPECIAL LICENSE TO DRILL WELLS?
A.    Yes, a well driller definitely needs to be licensed to drill wells.  In Oregon wells can be constructed by Licensed Bonded Water Well Constructors.  License Bonded drillers have had a minimum of one year experience training under a licensed driller and passed a written test with the state of Oregon to obtain a license.  Our drillers are licensed an have years of experience drilling wells in this area.
Q.    WHERE IS THE BEST PLACE TO DRILL FOR WATER?
A.    Location! Location! Location!  The more information you and the drilling contractor have, the better it improves the chances of a productive well.  Have the drilling contractor explain what he considers when choosing a drilling spot, such as low areas or natural draws.  Several things need to be thought about when doing this.  Obviously, you put the well where there will be the best chance of hitting water.  Thats why its really important to have a well driller with a history of drilling wells in the area.  His knowledge of the local geology, well log records and what success other people have had, is important.  The drilling contractor may recommend having a Water Witcher  survey the property and help locate a drilling site. 
Make sure you and the drilling contractor locate where the house, septic, garage and all pavement, driveways are going to be.  Are there any trees which will need to be removed or trimmed or will overhead power lines be an obstacle?  Remember a 30 to 40 tower must be raised into the air.  Inquire about surrounding wells either from neighbor, or with an address or legal description.  Locate the property boundaries.  There are cases of landowners mistakenly putting their well on the neighbors property because they looked at the fence line and not the property line.
Quinns can provide a computer printout of all registered wells in the area.
Q.   IS THE WELL THE FIRST THING WE HAVE DONE WHEN BUILDING?
A.    Since life is very difficult without water, its a good idea to know you have water prior to doing any other improvements.  Coordinate the septic system location with the well drilling site.  There are established distances called setbacks, that the well, septic, and house have to be from each other, and property lines.  Some folks put the well in last and get lucky, but its sure nice to know you have water before doing too many improvements or investing a lot of money in a project when lack of water may be an issue.
Q.    WHAT IS WATER WITCHING  AND CAN SOMEONE REALLY FIND WATER?
A.    One of the strangest practices performed is called Water Witching .  This is an ancient practice that came with the first European settlers.  Lots of people have heard of it, or have seen it done on Television, but what should you really believe. Witchers or Dowsers use a variety of materials for their dousing rods.  This includes the traditional tree limb forks from willow, peach or cherry trees or metal rods bent at the ends for handles.  The dowser holds the limb fork or rods out in front of themselves and walk over the property hoping to get a reaction from the limb or rods.  One Professor of Exploration Geophysics has an uncle who is very successful at dousing and swears by the practice. An Electrical Engineer has a theory why dowsing seems to work.  He noticed on his portable AM radio, that running water changes the reception and superimposes some strange sound on the RF signal.  The earths magnetic field definitely is deformed by underground water (or metal) objects.  Although hes not found any scientific studies which explore this phenomenon in any detail, but for some people they swear by it. Whether Witching  works or not, one thing for sure, drilling through dirt and rock is expensive and is a big gamble.  Anything you can do to increase the odds in your favor is worth trying.  The cost for a Dowser  is cheap, compared to the thousands you may spend on a dry hole.  What have you got to loose?
Q.    WHERE DOES OUR GROUND WATER COME FROM?             
A.    80% of our water is from local recharge, which is the rain cycle that we learned about when we were children in school.  Evaporation forms clouds, clouds equal rain, rain falls to the ground, seeps in through the cracks and crevices in the soil and rocks.  We recycle it by watering lawn, flushing toilets, piping it into storm drains, which goes to the river, which flows to the ocean, which evaporates etc.  Some of our water comes from irrigation ditch seepage, some comes from as far away as Crater Lake, Diamond Lake, etc., seeping through the cracks and crevices in the ground and we capture a small portion when we drill a well.
Q.   HOW MUCH WATER CAN WE EXPECT FROM OUR WELL?
A.    Hope for the best and expect the worst. There is no way anyone can look through the ground and see if there is water there and no drilling contractor will guarantee hitting water.  The formation of the geology encountered will determine the success of your well.  Water passes along cracks in the rock and this is where you find it.  The depth and yield of water is only known when encountered.  Your neighbors well may produce 16 gallons per minute at 150 feet, but in no way does that mean your well is going to also produce 16 gallons per minute at 150 feet.  It may produce more or less and be deeper or shallow.  If the drilling contractor is experienced and has worked in the area, that can greatly improve the odds of hitting water.  Some people have drilled on top of a mountain and wound up with a dust hole and another person will hit a highly productive water zone.  At some time you have to trust the input and recommendations of the drilling contractor and pick a spot.  Just hope for the best, and expect the worse.  
Q.    HOW DEEP WILL MY WELL BE?
A.    There is no way to determine how deep your well will be prior to drilling.  A competent and skilled drilling contractor will keep you informed about depth and if any water is discovered during the drilling process.  Your agreement with the drilling contractor needs to be very clear as to what he should do if a predetermined depth is reached and no water is encountered.  The drilling contractors goal is to drill a good clean productive well, but he cannot know beforehand, how deep the well is going to be. Every situation is different and sometimes the decision to keep drilling deeper to hit water is very difficult.  Keep in mind, a lot of people wind up with great wells and abundance of water at depths of 50 feet or 600 feet. 
Q.    HOW DO I KNOW I WILL GET GOOD WATER ?
A.    You dont, and no one else does either.  Its impossible for anyone to tell you what the outcome will be when you drill for water.  Drilling through dirt and rock is a gamble because you cant see whats down there.   No matter what the local geology is like, there will always be success and failure stories.  The smartest thing to do is get the odds in your favor as much as possible.  The experience and track record of a competent drilling contractor is invaluable in providing you with information about wells in the area.  Even though many think water witching doesn't really find any water, when you don't have any, it can't hurt.  There are areas, which have salt (chloride) or sulfur smelling water.  Neither one of these is a showstopper, there are ways to get rid of the salt or sulfur odor.  If this is the case, talk to the drilling contractor for information.   
Q.    IF I DONT HIT WATER ON MY LOT, WHAT DO I DO THEN?
A.    All is not lost, if you come up dry, there are alternatives.  If there is a neighbor with a good well, you may be able to make arrangements to share their well.  Some folks may even let you drill an additional well on their property and pipe the water to your property.  You may also consider an underground water holding tank, which can store a large quantity of water.  A water service comes out and fills it up on a predetermined schedule.  Consider installing storage tanks to hold non-potable rainwater runoff to use for irrigation.  In this area, it's possible to capture thousands of gallons of water.  There's always a way to deal
Q.    DO I STILL HAVE TO PAY FOR A "DRY HOLE"
A.    A Dry Hole is the last thing the drilling contractor or you want to experience.  This topic is a part of the contract or bidding process so that the customer fully understands that it costs as much to drill a dry hole as a successful one.  It's a gamble to drill for water and it can result in no payoff or a well with all the water you could ever need.  No drilling contractor wants to bill you for a dry hole, but it does happen.  
Q.   HOW MUCH WATER DO I REALLY NEED TO OPERATE MY HOME?
A.    A lot of factors need to be considered before this question can be answered.  How many people are in the home? Do you plan on doing considerable outside watering for the yard or landscaping?  Is there a swimming pool or livestock for a sprinkler system?  What is the difference between someone's water wants and realistic needs? Most lending institutions will require 5 gallons per minute for a 4 hour period.  Therefore most people are under the impression that if they only have 2 gallons a minute, which equals 2,880 gallons per day, they will have a hard time supplying a house.  NO PROBLEM!  The average household family of 4 only uses approximately 400 gallons a day.  With a low yield well you can also have a holding tank installed.  Holding tanks are usually buried in the ground, which helps to keep the water cool in the summer and insulated from the freeze in the winter.  Concrete tanks are made especially for holding and storing large sums of water, generally around 1500-2000 gallons.  With a holding tank you could wake up every morning with all that storage waiting for you.   
Q.    HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO DRILL A WELL?
A.    Prior to the drilling equipment showing up, the drill site may need preparation such as a road, gravel pad, power or phone lines moved, or trees and limbs trimmed.  Once the drilling rig is setup and working, it's a really exciting experience to watch...  Take some time to watch the operation, you will enjoy it.  Depending on the depth of the well and no unforeseen delays, the actual drilling should take one to two days.
Q.    WHAT IS THE WELL CASING ?
A.    The Casing is a steel pipe, which comes in various diameters to fit the core diameter.  The most common well casing is six-inch diameter.  This is the metal pipe you see sticking out of the ground when the drilling rig is done drilling.  There are state regulations that govern the proper placement of the casing in the well hole.  It's used to do several tasks.  One is to provide a seal at the top of the well hole and to prevent ground surface water from entering the well hole and contaminating the lower water table.  The metal casing can be extended into the well hole to prevent the hole from caving in or to seal off a portion of the well hole.
Q.    WHAT IS A LINER  AND WILL MY WELL NEED ONE?
A.     Lets imagine the earth as a layer cake and each layer of this cake is the  hard rock and each layer of the icing is soft rock.  So you can have several layers of hard rock and several layers of soft rock all within several hundred feet of earth. To drill through the hard rock might take a carbide drill bit with several thousand pounds of down force. While drilling through the soft rock might only take a few hundred pounds of down force. The soft layer of rock is usually where the water is located, running through the cracks and fissures of the less dense rock. In time, the soft rock may tend to deteriorate or wash out from between the hard rock layers. This could cause damage to the pump, pipe or electric wires.  In exceptional cases, the well hole could actually cave in and fill the well hole. To prevent any of these things from happening, a liner is pushed all the way down the drill hole, from top to bottom. A well liner is nothing more than 4-inch diameter PVC pipes.  Now, the liner stops the softer rock from entering the well hole. We still need to get the water out of the well hole so to allow water to the water pump inside the liner, narrow lengthwise slits are cut into the liner.  The water enters the liner through the slits below the water line, than gets pumped to your house or where ever you have it going.    
Q.    HOW MUCH IS MY WELL GOING TO COST?
A.    This depends on Mother Nature and how cooperative she is when drilling your well.  Your contract with the drilling contractor will explain what you may encounter for cost of the entire job.  The type of geography being drilled through effects the cost and of course the final depth.  Most drilling companies have a price for drilling through solid rock, boulders, shale and other types of rock. Another factor, which may impact the final cost, is how much casing is used or if a liner is needed.  The drilling contractor will give you all the information available to them and but as to what the final bill is going to be, no driller can say, prior to the well being drilled.
Q.    HOW DOES THE DRILLING RIG WORK?
A.    Simply put, the drill rig is like a 60,000-pound, 30-foot tall, super big version of the drill press you have in your garage or workshop.  Once placed over the spot where you want the well drilled a certified and state licensed well driller sets up the rig to find water.  The tower  is raised up from the cradle, which it lays on when the drilling rig is driven from one location to another.  The driller loads a 25-foot long drill rod into the drill head and a drill bit is screwed on to the ground end of the drill rod.  The drill head turns the drill rod and applies down-force to the drill rod to push it into the ground.  Compressed air goes down the drill rod (its hollow) and the air forces the tailings out the well hole to keep it cleaned out.  As the hole gets deeper, the driller keeps adding 25-foot lengths of drill rod until the desired depth is reached.  There is much more to this process than what has been explained, such as the experience the well driller has to have operating the drilling.  It takes years of working with and listening to the drill rig, to understand and interpret what the drilling equipment is telling him when it's working.  The driller really sees and feels what the drill bit and equipment is doing by the feedback from the gauges, sounds, vibrations and pressures which are induced by the drilling operation.  Its amazing to watch and experience, so if you have the opportunity to be there when your well is being drilled, don't miss it.
Q.    WHEN THE DRILLER FINISHED DRILLING MY WELL, HE TOLD ME IT PRODUCED 12 GALLONS PER MINUTE, HOW DOES HE KNOW THAT?
A.    When and if water is encountered during the drilling process, the driller will keep checking to find out how much water the well is producing.  It's a simple task and very reliable.  Compressed air is pumped down through the drilling rod and which forces whatever amount of water is in the hole, out the top of the well casing.  This water is allowed to collect in a depression around the well casing and the over flow is channeled so that it runs into a one-gallon container.  The time it takes for the water flow to fill the one-gallon container is measured with a stopwatch.  The sum of the time it takes to fill the gallon container is divided into one minute (60 seconds) and the result is the gallons of water per minute the well produces. On a 12 gallon per minute well, it would take 5 seconds to fill the gallon container.  So you divide 5 seconds into 1-minute (60) seconds and that comes to 12 gallons per minute. 
Q.    NOW THAT I HAVE A NEW WELL, WHATS NEXT?                              
A.    Once the well is established, it becomes just a matter of getting the water to where you need it.  This involves a pumping system, which will be matched to the yield or gallons of water produced per minute of the well.  Some excavating will need to be done to accommodate the water and electrical lines being placed underground below the frost line.  This is a depth underground where the water line will not freeze.  You will need to determine the location of the pressure tank, which will store a limited amount of water under pressure.  It is wise to have the pressure tank and any above ground water pipes insulated from freezing.  Also, consider having a small moveable doghouse size structure built over the well head.  Keep in mind, in the future, the pump will need maintenance or replacement.  This should be years away, but the point is, make sure not to build a tool shed or garage over the well head and not allow the pump and pipe to be pulled.  Even a large hole in the roof with a trap door is better than tearing off the roof.  Quinns Pump Service will gladly help you design and install your water pumping system and advise you concerning protective shelters for your system. We do everything including the plumbing, electrical, arrange for the excavating and permits or help find someone to build the pump house.  Quinns is a one-stop shop, we install them, fix them and if needed, replace them.  You will find our products, service and knowledge of wells, pumps, filter systems, holding tanks, second to none.  Call us and experience the peace of mind we provide and how easy it is to have us take care of all your well water supply issues.