Anyone ever put in a hand pump?

[XemaSab]

I think depth to groundwater is less than 20 feet.

What are the legalities of this, and how much would it cost?

[sandsavage]

1. We have hand put down 3 wells

all can be used as hand pumps. They are twenty feet down. We have nothing but sand with a tiny amount of top soil. All wells were tested and the water is perfect very safe to drink.

You would need to purchase a well point this goes on the end of the pipe. It has a point and the case is full of tiny holes for the water to pour into it and up the pipe. The hand pump goes on the pipe.

It has been awhile but think you could do it for just a bit over two hundred dollars. We dug down about three feet. Put the point and one piece of pipe on it, placed in the hole. I think the pipe was about six foot. We drove that down with an old antique fence post pounder. LOL But others have capped off the pipe with a driving pipe cap. You can buy these where you buy the well pipe. Then have someone hold a two by four on top of this. You will pound that two by four with a sledge hammer.The pipe goes down pretty fast. Unless you have to go through hard pan. ACK! you want to go slow, break your well point and you have to pull up and start with a
new point.You just keep adding pipe until you are down to the twenty feet. You Drop a string with a weight on the end to check when you hit water. Then put your pump on and prime it and you are good to go. The water will have to be pumped a bit to clear out any sand you will get from the drilling.

Now this is a pretty old hen trying to describe this. My husband could do a much better job. Any more questions, maybe he will pitch in for me.

Might I say this. Good for you wanting to know how to do this!

[sandsavage]

2. Whoops forgot something

Here in Michigan the well has to be 28 feet down for legal drinking water.In our area the water table is very high. Not sure what other states laws are.