HomeWell servicesWell Replacement
New well beside the old one
Well replacement, with the house never left dry
A new bore sited and cased to do better than the old one, brought online first, and the old well plugged and grouted under its own permit.
At a glance
- Permits
- Construction for the new bore, abandonment for the old
- Sequence
- New well online before the old one is plugged
- Siting
- 75 ft from any septic component
When a well is finished, and when it only looks finished
A well does not fail all at once. It produces less every summer, starts throwing sand, needs a bigger pump than it should, or the casing rusts through and surface water finds its way in. Each of those can be a repair. The point at which it stops being one is when the cost of the next repair is most of the cost of a new bore.
Call Flamingo looks at three things before recommending replacement: what the completion report says about the original construction, what a camera or a sounding shows about the casing and screen today, and how the yield compares with what the aquifer at that depth should deliver.
Where the old well was a shallow water-table bore, replacement is often the moment to go deeper. A Floridan well beside a struggling shallow one is a different class of supply, not a like-for-like swap.
Replacement rather than repair
Signs the well itself has reached the end
- Sand or grit arriving at the taps after every pump change
- Yield that keeps dropping even after the pump has been lowered
- Rust flakes or a casing that a camera shows split or holed
- Muddy water after rain, which means surface water is getting in
- A well too shallow for the demand the house now puts on it
- An old dug or driven well with no record of how it was built
How a replacement is sequenced
The new site is chosen
Far enough from the septic system (75 feet for a drinking well), clear of the old bore, and where the rig can actually reach.
Both permits are filed
Construction for the new well, abandonment for the old one, with the same office.
The new well is drilled and brought online first
The house is never left without water. The old well keeps running until the new one has been tested and connected.
Equipment is moved or replaced
A pump sized for the old well is rarely right for the new one, so it is checked against the new yield rather than assumed.
The old well is plugged and grouted
Filled from the bottom up with neat cement or bentonite per the rule, casing cut below grade, and the abandonment report filed.
The setback is usually the whole puzzle
On a rural lot with an acre to play with, siting is easy. On a quarter-acre lot with a drain field, a tank, a property line and a driveway, the number of places a drinking well can legally stand 75 feet from everything can be zero. That is when the drain field has to move, or the well has to be an irrigation well at a shorter setback with the house on utility water.
Because Call Flamingo works both systems, that conversation happens on one visit with one plan, rather than two contractors each blaming the other's setback.
Straight answers
Questions this job raises
Can the old well be kept as an irrigation well?
Sometimes, if it is sound and the permit allows it to remain as a non-potable well. Often it is the failing casing that prompted replacement in the first place, in which case it is plugged.
Will the house be without water during replacement?
No. The new well is drilled, tested and connected while the old one stays in service. The switch-over is a matter of hours.
Is a replacement well drilled in the same hole?
No. A new bore is drilled at a new location and the old one is abandoned under its own permit. Re-drilling inside a failed casing is not how the rule is written.
Next door to this job
Work that usually comes up in the same visit
Well Drilling
New residential, irrigation and replacement wells, permitted before the rig arrives.
Well Abandonment
Old wells plugged and grouted to state rule when a property connects to utility water or drills new.
Deep Wells
Floridan aquifer wells cased through the clay, with a submersible pump set to the water level.
Free estimate, then the work
Call Flamingo quotes well work at no charge and schedules seven days a week across the Jacksonville area.