If you recently purchased a piece of property that doesn't have access to city water and doesn't already have a well on it, you will have to pay to have a well drilled on the property. Well drilling is not something that most people have to deal with or encounter on a regular basis.

When to Drill

If you plan on building a home on your property, when the well is dug depends upon the water needs of the construction project. Typically, the well is not drilled until the framing for the home is finished. Most well drilling companies wait until the framing of the home is completed before drilling the well to ensure that you know where you want to put the home, and thus, where you want to put the well. You don't want to drill a well during the planning phase, only to decide that you want to build your house in a different location. You want to make sure that you're committed to where you want your home to go before the well is drilled.

Where to Drill

Well drilling companies use a lot of different techniques to determine where to drill. They use a variety of technology tools to find the perfect location to drill your well. They generally use surveying as well as geological information, historic records, and water table information.

Most water drilling companies will pick a couple of different sites to drill the well and select the best location together with you. If for some reason the drill does not produce a well, they will use the information they collected to determine a better location for drilling a well.

How Deep to Go

It is not always necessary to draw a really deep well in order to get water. The depth of your well depends on the local water tables.  

Not all wells need to be deep. The one thing to watch out for with a shallow well is contamination. With shallow wells, you need to be more careful with cleaning and taking care of your well to ensure that the water doesn't get contaminated.

The well drillers will let you know how deep your well goes and what type of maintenance you'll need to engage in to keep the well working properly and to keep the water safe to drink.

How Long It Will Last

Although wells go dry, this is not that common. Generally, when you fail to get water from your well, it is because of another issue, such as a a clogged screen that needs to be cleaned. Occasionally, wells do run dry when the water table in the area drops. When that happens, sometimes your well needs to be drilled deeper, and other times you have to drill an entirely new well if the water table for the area has not just gone deeper, but either moved or dried up altogether. 

To learn more, contact a company like Elk Point Drilling Corp.