Well Rehabilitation

  • Have you been changing your filters more often than you used to?
  • Have you been noticing iron staining on clothes or in your toilets and sinks?
  • Have you been running out of water?

If so, your well is a candidate for Water Well Rehabilitation.

The situation is not always bleak when a household water well fails to produce the amount of water that it did when it was first installed. Instead of the expense of abandoning the well and installing a new one, Partridge Well Drilling Co. can often “rehabilitate” the well and restore flows that provide enough water for all of a family’s daily needs.

The performance of wells (vertical or horizontal) generally degrades with time. Even the efficiency of a properly developed water well will decrease through time. In order to maintain the highest well efficiency it is important to be able to identify the cause of the decreased performance and equally important—the remedy.

Several factors are involved in a decision to rehabilitate a well, including the ground formation that the well is drilled in, the construction of the well, and the problem that has caused the decreased flow. Sometimes, the water table in the area has dropped and simply drilling the well deeper is the answer.

Partridge Well Drilling Co. is a well and pump service company that offers a broad range of water well drilling and well rehabilitation services to water supply and environmental markets, including industrial and municipal water wells, as well has homeowners and business owners.

We are at the forefront of the water well rehabilitation and well maintenance field in Florida and Georgia. In business for over 100 years, we offer our customers the latest and most effective well technology. Our highly trained and experienced staff will identify your issues and find a way to fix your well problems. Staffed by highly trained professional field crews, Partridge delivers 100% environmentally sound solutions with unprecedented success.

Questions and Answers about water well rehabilitation.

How can you tell if water well rehabilitation can work?

The first step is for us to do tests to see if rehabilitating measures will be successful. The well will often be shut off for 24 to 48 hours to see if the static level—the level of the water table in a well when the pump is not operating—returns to or gets near the original level. If so, rehabilitation will usually work. Before starting the project, we will lower a downhole video camera into the well to make sure no other problems will be encountered.

What are reasons for drops in water production?

Along with the water table dropping, which has happened in several parts of the country because of drought, there can be other reasons for reduced productivity. The most common is the plugging of holes along the well’s casing and incrustations forming on the well screens. The amount of water going through the well system will drop significantly if several holes or portions of the screens are clogged. Calcium carbonate, iron bacteria, silt, clay, and “slime,” a combination of sediment and deposits, are all common well cloggers.

What methods are used to rehabilitate a well?

Two typical methods are (1) using chemicals to dissolve the encrusting materials so they can be pumped from the well, and (2) cleaning the well with a brush that can be attached to a drilling rig. High pressure jetting, hydrofracturing, and well surging are also procedures in which water is injected into the well at extreme pressures. We will often use a combination of these methods.

What chemicals are put in the well? Are they safe?

For iron bacteria and slime, a liquid bacteria acid is effective. For clogs with carbonate scale, sulfamic acids are used with inhibitors and modifiers. If the bacteria problem is persistent, some of the more aggressive chemicals are muriatic acid and hydroxyacetic acid. The chemicals are placed in the well and agitated frequently for 24 to 72 hours. The chemicals are safe to use, and the well is then pumped with water before a water test is given to ensure that the well system is ready to be put back in service.

What is the difference between high pressure jetting, hydrofracturing, and well surging?

High pressure jetting features a tool with an adjustable, multihead, water-powered jet that lowers into the well and injects water at a high pressure, dislodging debris from the well. With hydrofracturing, water is sent into the entire well at an extreme pressure. The water removes debris from the clogged perforations in the casing and can crack the formations underground to create new sources of water. Well surging is the repeated injecting and flushing out of water in a well system. With repeated flushing, the debris is washed away.