View Full Version : Water Diving for my borehole
I want to have a bore hole drilled at home and I have a spot where I want it drilled. I called a few companies for a quote and they all want to send some dude out first to do some divining and charge about R2000 for a guy to walk around and identify spots where there will be water. Then they will only quote me for the hole.
Now lots of neighbours have boreholes from 9m deep to 60m deep with around 30m being the average. One even has water pouring out of the ground continuously and has a full dam as well as filling another 2 neighbours dams.
According to the bore hole companies I've called, the water runs in veins and if you just drill anywhere you not going to hit a vein and won't hit water. The diviner can apparently tell where these veins are and even how deep they are. Some diviners use rods and some use electronic gizmos.
To me this water divining seems like a con. Loads of heighbours have bore holes so there is water available in our area. But to tell me that on spot X there is water and on spot Y 5meters from X its dry seems like fairy tales.
So what are your experiences and views on the matter?
PhreakBoy
19-07-2010, 12:02 PM
Try searching the subject on this forum. I recall quite a few related discussions.
EDIT: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/209472-Finding-Borehole?highlight=borehole
b_crazy
19-07-2010, 12:02 PM
Your title suggests you want to go diving in your borehole. Not advisable:erm:
Try searching the subject on this forum. I recall quite a few related discussions.
Yep, I did. But nothing really helpful found.
I have a spot where it will be convenient to have the hole and I want it drilled there.
Now the drillers are telling me I can only have it where a man with a stick says I can have it.
Your title suggests you want to go diving in your borehole. Not advisable:erm:
lol, can't change that now. damn.
PhreakBoy
19-07-2010, 12:15 PM
Yep, I did. But nothing really helpful found.
I have a spot where it will be convenient to have the hole and I want it drilled there.
Now the drillers are telling me I can only have it where a man with a stick says I can have it.
From this explanation it would seem as though one does not actually need to hit a vein, but rather just a spot in close proximity with the right type of rock:
A borehole needs to find an aquifer zone where your drilling encounters a water bearing permeable rock. Basically a borehole drilled to depth below the water table will eventually fill up with water infiltrating from saturated cracks in the bedrock and the pore spaces in the soils. The speed at which the water infiltrates is dependent on the permeability of the bedrock. Rock is not a predictable material. The cracks/pore are not uniform which means every hole you drill will yield varying water infiltration rates.
Pooky
19-07-2010, 12:23 PM
I think those rods work with magnetic fields; or laylines, something like that.
As far as I know they seem to work.
Claymore
19-07-2010, 12:26 PM
I think those rods work with magnetic fields; or laylines, something like that.
As far as I know they seem to work.
There's a million dollars waiting for someone who can demonstrate water divining working. No-one's got it yet...
(Oh - water's not magnetic, so magnetic fields aren't very helpful).
Yeah, I read that. But still unsure. So nobody actually hits the vein, if you hit it you going to get water gushing out. You just drill till you deep enough in the water table and in material where the water easily fills the bottom of your hole. Is this correct?
copacetic
19-07-2010, 12:29 PM
It's utter rubbish as far as I know. Sounds like the borehole companies are making two grand for a friend of theirs who owns two rods.
Balstrome
19-07-2010, 12:39 PM
Just take a look at www.randi.org and search that site for dowsing
Pooky
19-07-2010, 12:43 PM
Ask your neighbours how they knew where to drill...
They all fell for the divining story, pooky. I'm sure they'd buy a cirby and join Amway too though.
Pooky
19-07-2010, 12:52 PM
They all fell for the divining story, pooky. I'm sure they'd buy a cirby and join Amway too though.
But then howcome they have water?
Well, I think the have to find then vein and hit it story is BS and they have water because there is water everywhere in this region.
Mantis
19-07-2010, 01:25 PM
I don't believe the stick thing. But when our kitchen floor started cracking, the insurance company sent guys with a little meter thingy. They walked around watching the meter, stopped at a spot and said that we had an underground pipe leaking at that spot. Broke through the concrete and low and behold, there it was ...
... unless they broke the pipe when they broke through the concrete lol
ruan567
19-07-2010, 01:38 PM
Dowsing is absolute nonsense and if you pay for it you are being ripped off.
trinityEon
19-07-2010, 02:09 PM
I think the iPhone 4 even has an app that you can download to use as a divining rod, not sure how accurate it is though :D
Well I finally got my hole drilled where I wanted it, by a really good company. Ended up costing around R28K. Drilled to 42m and cased the full 42m. If the rock was harder lower down full casing wouldn't have been needed and would have been R10k cheaper. There's enough water to run a farm, was pushing out 80 000L/h yesterday. Turns out hitting water shallow isn't actually good as you won't always have water through the year. With a deep hole there will always be water and more of it.
The foreman who has been drilling 36years explained divining to me. Its BS, but the truck is insanely difficult to position as its huge and there's a second compressor truck also. So the diviner looks for an easy position for the truck to get to and then shakes his sticks at that spot. He says only on farms, do they decide a general place because of the hills and valleys, based on experience.
So I would highly recommend these guys, the only honest guys I found in the business. Really happy with the service levels, everything was communicated and explained and there were no hidden costs.
Gerristen Drilling situated in Durbanville and been in the business over a generation. 4rigs and drill from as small as household boreholes to as big as water plants for towns.
Pierre Gerristen
zero-eight-two 870 5756
gregmcc
13-11-2010, 09:05 AM
Go outside and turn your back to the garden. Throw a empty beer bottle over your shoulder. Wherever it lands start digging.
Just saved you R2000 :)
Go outside and turn your back to the garden. Throw a empty beer bottle over your shoulder. Wherever it lands start digging.
Just saved you R2000 :)
Only if the truck can park there !
Imminent
13-11-2010, 10:24 AM
wow theres a guy in our town who digs boreholes with an archaic borehole machine and costs like R8k on average to fit the boreholes. These "modern" companies are really making a killling :P Costing you quite a bit extra
Assegai
13-11-2010, 01:23 PM
DanH, what was the final cost after pumps etc. were fitted?
I am looking at getting a borehole too. My neighbours all have boreholes and hit water at around 60 - 100 meters. They all made use of a diviner.
Based on your experience and the info gained from talking to your driller, would you say it is safe to just pick a convenient spot and have them drill there?
DanH, what was the final cost after pumps etc. were fitted?
I am looking at getting a borehole too. My neighbours all have boreholes and hit water at around 60 - 100 meters. They all made use of a diviner.
Based on your experience and the info gained from talking to your driller, would you say it is safe to just pick a convenient spot and have them drill there?
So you're all sitting on top of a big aquifer. The diviner had nothing to do with. Divining is a scam.
HavocXphere
13-11-2010, 11:19 PM
Groundwater at 9m for neighbor and 42m for you. o_O
Either you're not in the Netherlands or the 9m guy sunk his bore hole into a municipal water/sewerage pipe.
If you want to be semi-scientific about it: Find a map, mark all the known successful positions. Work out centre of the grouping & then take the closest spot on your property to that. Still only marginally better than gregmcc's empty bottle throwing technique but yeah.
Pitbull
14-11-2010, 06:20 AM
I want to have a bore hole drilled at home and I have a spot where I want it drilled. I called a few companies for a quote and they all want to send some dude out first to do some divining and charge about R2000 for a guy to walk around and identify spots where there will be water. Then they will only quote me for the hole.
Now lots of neighbours have boreholes from 9m deep to 60m deep with around 30m being the average. One even has water pouring out of the ground continuously and has a full dam as well as filling another 2 neighbours dams.
According to the bore hole companies I've called, the water runs in veins and if you just drill anywhere you not going to hit a vein and won't hit water. The diviner can apparently tell where these veins are and even how deep they are. Some diviners use rods and some use electronic gizmos.
To me this water divining seems like a con. Loads of heighbours have bore holes so there is water available in our area. But to tell me that on spot X there is water and on spot Y 5meters from X its dry seems like fairy tales.
So what are your experiences and views on the matter?
If you have ever lost about R 60k for drilling a borehole drill hitting nothing, then you would pay R 2k gladly ;)
wow theres a guy in our town who digs boreholes with an archaic borehole machine and costs like R8k on average to fit the boreholes. These "modern" companies are really making a killling :P Costing you quite a bit extra
Well if they'd hit water at 20m and had hard rock right down it would have also been R8k. But water only started at 32m, was only strong at 42m and the soft rock would have closed the hole if it wasn't fully cased.
DanH, what was the final cost after pumps etc. were fitted?
...
They only finished drilling on Friday so we going to start the pump story tomorrow.
I was quoted R13200 for a pump and motor down 42m with full electronic 3phase control gear to provide 3bar pressure at the surface so it can run sprinklers, etc.
But I want to investigate a setup with a lower spec pump down the hole, filling a huge tank. Then a booster pump which pumps water into the existing water pipes and a filtration setup before the water enters the house. And cancelling the municipal connection.
...
I am looking at getting a borehole too. My neighbours all have boreholes and hit water at around 60 - 100 meters. They all made use of a diviner.
Based on your experience and the info gained from talking to your driller, would you say it is safe to just pick a convenient spot and have them drill there?
Well the guy who's been drilling for 36years said its a load of BS.
Once you see the size of the rig you will realize you can't just drill anywhere somebody gets a strange feeling. You can only drill where the truck can get too which will be very limited unless you have an empty plot.
The truck is about 10m long, as wide as a dump truck and like a 50m turning circle. The second smaller truck with the compressor must be there too within about 20m to supply compressed air down the hole when drilling.
You can even have it in the middle of your driveway. They will cut off the casing below the level of the driveway and put a drain cover on top.
Groundwater at 9m for neighbor and 42m for you. o_O
Either you're not in the Netherlands or the 9m guy sunk his bore hole into a municipal water/sewerage pipe.
If you want to be semi-scientific about it: Find a map, mark all the known successful positions. Work out centre of the grouping & then take the closest spot on your property to that. Still only marginally better than gregmcc's empty bottle throwing technique but yeah.
Small holdings, the 9m hole dude is my neighbour's neighbour, about 300-400m away. He complains when his neighbour with a 30m hole pumps for long as the 9m hole goes dry.
There are 2 guys further away in the same area that don't even need to pump, the water comes up like a spring.
If people in the area have a bore hole, there's water everywhere, just a question of how deep.
I here what you saying, if the people east of you have water at 20m and people west of you have water at 60m, drill on the east side. But its so gradual, it won't make much difference on your property. They drill with 6m extension rods, so they going to drill the rod right down to make a sump space. so a meter or 2 doesn't make a difference.
Pitbull
14-11-2010, 11:34 PM
Small holdings, the 9m hole dude is my neighbour's neighbour, about 300-400m away. He complains when his neighbour with a 30m hole pumps for long as the 9m hole goes dry.
There are 2 guys further away in the same area that don't even need to pump, the water comes up like a spring.
If people in the area have a bore hole, there's water everywhere, just a question of how deep.
I here what you saying, if the people east of you have water at 20m and people west of you have water at 60m, drill on the east side. But its so gradual, it won't make much difference on your property. They drill with 6m extension rods, so they going to drill the rod right down to make a sump space. so a meter or 2 doesn't make a difference.
Just a question:
How did you register the small holding without a borehole?
When I bought a piece of land a few years ago I could not register it till I had water on it.
HavocXphere
15-11-2010, 12:21 AM
Small holdings, the 9m hole dude is my neighbour's neighbour, about 300-400m away. He complains when his neighbour with a 30m hole pumps for long as the 9m hole goes dry.
There are 2 guys further away in the same area that don't even need to pump, the water comes up like a spring.
So effectively they aren't hitting the water table but rather some isolated underground water pocket/spring.
The area was unfarmable farm land which was cut up into roughly hectare pieces and auctioned for residential property but zoned as small holdings.
There's municipal water connections, electricity, telephones, narrow tarred roads with no lines, refuse collection and that's all. No sewage, no street lights, no storm water drains, no postal delivery.
I'm not sure on the details of small holding classification, but basically we pay less rates in relation to the size of the property, but don't get any services, besides refuse removal. And we can keep horses, chicken, etc as pets.
I suppose so, just opening a spring.