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Photograph of a drilled well casing How to Find the Well Where is my water well?

  • POST a QUESTION or COMMENT about how to locate the well by a search of the property, of records & sketches, or by using special tools & equipment to find buried components.

How to locate a water well or well casing:

This article describes how to find a water well at a property. We describe a series of steps and methods that can help find the well when its location is otherwise not obvious.

Finding the well without having to dig up the property like a madman can be important when well or well piping, pump, or foot valve repairs are needed or when we need to sanitize or shock the well.

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Water Well Location - how to find the well

Pitless adapter sketch (C) InspectApedia
  1. Start finding your water well by looking inside to find the cold water inlet pipe or water pressure tank in your building. (If you can't find the water pressure tank in your home, note that at some properties the pressure tank may be located outside in a well pit. If that's the case the well pit itself will also contain the well. )
  2. Find where the water pipe from your well enters the building - usually at a basement or crawl space, or if your home is on a slab, look in your plumbing or utility area.
  3. Often the water well is located on the same side of the building as that into which the well pipe enters the structure (but not always!)
  4. Outside, look for a well casing projecting above ground level. If you know where your septic system is located, the well should be somewhere else, 50 to 100 feet away or more.
  5. Below in response to reader Ted we list more-detailed steps to follow to find your well.

Reader Question: how do I find the well opening?

3/24/2014 Ted said:

How do i know if my foot valve is bad on a two line system. and how do I find the well opening.

Reply: How to Find a Water Well:

Ted,

If your well and pump system keeps losing prime that's a good clue that there may be a bad foot valve (or a leak in well piping).

I can't know where your well is located, but there are some common approaches starting by noticing where well piping exits the building, inspecting the site for places we would NOT put a well (like near a septic field), contacting well drillers to ask who drilled the well (often they have records of its location), inspecting the site for obvious clues (depressions, well casing visible above ground), and ultimately, using equipment to follow well piping.

In addition to some practical suggestions I'll make in a moment, here are some related "how to find" articles that give useful techniques for finding a component that is not in plain sight.

All of these "how do I find ..." topics use similar thinking and approaches, combining a search for records or sketches, an inspection of the site for reasonable locations where the well or septic component or buried tank might be located, and if necessary the use of equipment or even modest excavation.

Photograph of a drilled well casing ... Photograph of a drilled well casing

  1. Look on the property for a well casing, cap, or well pit. If inspecting the property itself does not disclose an above-ground, visible well casing and cap then you may have an older well whose casing top was left buried. Look for a steel casing like the one in our photo at above left.

    At an older property the casing may be at ground level (photo at above right) or even buried completely, or as we show at our

    SEPTIC VIDEOS

    the well casing may above ground but not obvious because it's hiding in a clump of bushes.

    Look for a pipe of any size sticking up out of the ground. A well casing may vary from 2" to 6" in diameter or more. A driven point water well pipe may be just an inch in diameter.

    Look for a pit, vault, or well-pit, constructed of metal, stone, concrete, concrete block, typically with a removable cover, often 3' to 6' across.

    Look for long depressions where soil may have settled over a buried water well line between the building and the well pit or well casing. Follow the depression to its end and look there for a water well, casing, or well pit.

    Keep in mind that an older well casing top may be completely buried. Look also for a depression in the soil, perhaps just a foot or two in diameter.
  2. Look for locations where a well would be likely to be placed: continue by looking in the building for a sketch of well location - often left in a basement or crawl area over or close to the pressure tank and pump/controls, or sometimes even sketched on a ceiling joist or wall where the well pipe exits the building.

    Often in older neighborhoods the same well driller installed all of the local wells and knew about where the aquifer ran at an accessible depth. For example we sometimes find that along a suburban street all of the local water wells are more or less in a line from property to property.

    See WELL CLEARANCE DISTANCES for examples of areas where you would not expect to find the well. This data can help focus a search for the actual well location.

    If your well is a jetted or driven point well you probably won't find a 6" diameter steel casing but rather a much smaller 1-2" diameter galvanized iron pipe.

    See details at DRIVEN POINT WELLS

    and JETTED WELLS
  3. Call local well drillers: if that doesn't come up with a sketch of well location, continue by calling all of the well drillers in your area to ask if one of them installed the well.

    Attempting to locate a buried well pit cover in New York I called local well drillers. Even though the home had been built in 1924 I found that a local well driller actually recalled the event and could immediately tell me where the well was located - in that case from memory but more often from records.
  4. Check municipal records: for properties served by a community well or well system (as opposed to private wells), both registration and regular testing are required (except for small systems) in most countries including the U.S. Each well will be identified, registered, tested periodically, and the well location as well as recent water test results should be available.

    Example: "NUMBERING WATER WELLS in CALIFORNIA", [PDF] California's state well numbering system, "Water Facts No. 7", California Department of Water Resources,

    (1 of 4 water district agencies), Northern District 2440 Main Street Red Bluff, CA 96080-2398 (530) 529-7300 www.dpla.water.ca.gov/nd. Retrieved 2017/03/23, original source: http://www.water.ca.gov/pubs/conservation/waterfacts/ numbering_water_wells_in_california__water_facts_7_/water_facts_7.pdf

Well or water locating device detects groundwater - Zhongyun - cited & discussed at InspectApedia.com

Illustration: the 300M portable underground water detector -TC300, PQWT-TC300, by Zhongyun, a Chinese corporation who describe the product as a Mapping with One Button Water Detector.

Watch out: a groundwater-detector like the device above may not be suitable for locating a well nor locating the best place to dig or drill a water well.

  1. Pipe tracing or well locating equipment: well piping can often be traced using pipe locating equipment.

    A simple metal detector can often follow buried metal water pipes from the building to the well. But if your well is piped using plastic or ABS piping a metal detector won't help.

    A long plumbing snake or pipe inspection camera can trace the water pipe between building and the well location or well casing.

    Your local plumbers and some well drillers have electronic equipment that can trace piping. such as a magnetometer or an electro-magnetic anomaly detector that can follow well pipes or spot a buried well casing.

    Some people swear by dowsers who use a willow-switch to "follow the water pipe" but in my own research I've not found scholarly studies that support that claim. Most independent studies of dowsers found that their performance in finding water or water wells was no better than random.
  2. Dig if dig we must: A last resort is a series of small test excavations to follow the well line.

 

Research on Well Location Methods & Dowsing

 




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Reader Comments, Questions & Answers About The Article Above

Below you will find questions and answers previously posted on this page at its page bottom reader comment box.

Reader Q&A - also see RECOMMENDED ARTICLES & FAQs

On 2020-02-05 - by (mod) -

Tyler:

With the water softener on "bypass" you can eliminate that from the "no water" problem.

Before digging up like madmen, let's step through some easier diagnostic procedures starting at

NO WATER PRESSURE https://inspectapedia.com/water/No_Water_Pressure.php

and let me know what you find.

On 2020-02-05 by Tyler

I'm at my buddy's house he said he doesnt have water so we replaced everything on his water softer downstairs rewired it still no water went outside looking for the well cap no where started digging been digging for two days and found the water pipe followed for 16 feet and still no water cap

On 2020-01-15 - by (mod) -

Jackie

With the ducking apology that I can't be as informed nor as smart as your on-site plumber, I can't imagine how he or she knew that you need a new well for-sure from having to replace an above-ground pump.

It is true that IF the well has run dry and you run the pump "dry" it is likely to be damaged and could need replacement.

But you could get that same symptom from repeated loss of prime ( a bad foot valve in the well) or from leaks in well piping between house and well.

Hire a well driller or a more thoughtful plumber to find the well, inspect its water level, and perhaps check the piping and foot valve for leaks.

See

WATER PRESSURE LOSS DIAGNOSIS & REPAIR

as a good place to start figuring out what's happening.

Keep me posted


On 2020-01-15 by Jackie

Had a plumber replace our water pump but still have no water.. He told us I don't know what to tell you other then to call a well driller cause you need a new one. First off how can he tell it's dry and needs a new one. Secondly we paid 500 to have him say this can they leave us with no water.

On 2019-11-24 by Sean jones

Super helpful, thank you very much

On 2019-02-11 - by (mod) -

Judy the article above has my very best suggestions for finding a well - I don't know anything at all about your specific property.

Try those steps and let me know what you find and what questions remain.

On 2019-02-11 by Judy

We can not fine my well any were 757-417-5248


...

Continue reading at WELL CLEARANCE DISTANCES or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see WELL LOCATION, HOW TO FIND FAQs - questions & answers about how to find the well, posted originally at the end of this page.

Or see these

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Suggested citation for this web page

WELL LOCATION, HOW TO FIND at InspectApedia.com - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.


Or see this

INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES: ARTICLE INDEX to WATER SUPPLY, PUMPS TANKS WELLS

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