We're having a seller for a piece of land in Burnet drill a well for us before accepting the property.

What would be the minimum GPM to put into the contract?

10?

What is the well being used for?

GeorgiAg said:

---

What is the well being used for?

---

4 person home in Burnet

I'd say 10 is a pretty good number for a typical residence. You can probably search for a good range based on home size or whatever.

Agree with 10. Mine is about that and is fine for a 5 br 4 and 2 1/2 baths. Never had any issues in the house or out.

GeorgiAg said:

---

Agree with 10. Mine is about that and is fine for a 5 br 4 and 2 1/2 baths. Never had any issues in the house or out.

---

Perfect. Folks we know out there (parents being one of them) are saying theirs are at 4gpm and they say that's fine. My research doesn't entirely support that, although some calculating does.

If you were down in that range, would you be concerned for the future, or would you just anticipate a tank on down the line?

If you well flow rate is low, then you will probably need a cistern for storage.

4 would probably be fine unless you plan to do some heavy watering. Most showers run around 2-2.5gpm for reference.

As a person that has sold a decent amount of real estate, id be hesitant to sign anything that guarantees a certain amount. Could spend $20k on a well that doesn't meet the metric, and end up with a buyer that flakes. Theyd be better off to compensate you to hire your own driller.

CS78 said:

---

4 would probably be fine unless you plan to do some heavy watering. Most showers run around 2-2.5gpm for reference.

As a person that has sold a decent amount of real estate, id be hesitant to sign anything that guarantees a certain amount. Could spend $20k on a well that doesn't meet the metric, and end up with a buyer that flakes. Theyd be better off to compensate you to hire your own driller.

---

That's why I'm not too eager to walk away since we have the seller willing to assume the risk of the well. Good points.

My well out here by Oatmeal is 20 gallons per minute. That said the San Gabriel River runs through our place so get good water flow from that source

SquareOne07 said:

---

GeorgiAg said:

---

Agree with 10. Mine is about that and is fine for a 5 br 4 and 2 1/2 baths. Never had any issues in the house or out.

---

Perfect. Folks we know out there (parents being one of them) are saying theirs are at 4gpm and they say that's fine. My research doesn't entirely support that, although some calculating does.

If you were down in that range, would you be concerned for the future, or would you just anticipate a tank on down the line?

---

I'm not any kind of well expert, but both my set ups had water/pressure tanks with a rubber bladder inside. It fills the tank to a certain pressure, then when you use water, it draws water from the tank. When the water pressure in the tank drops to a certain point, it kicks on the pump to refill the tank. If I'm using a faucet, I can sometimes tell when the pump in the yard turns on because the pressure suddenly increases. If you have low gpm, you can get a bigger tank to help offset the low gpm. I haven't read this site completely, but a quick google search found this and it looks on point.

https://waterdefense.org/water/well/pressure-tank-sizing-guide/


A few houses ago I drilled well that was only about 5 gpm but it was for irrigation only. But with irrigation you can just increase the number of irrigation zones. I tried to fill a pool with it and it failed half way through. It eventually recharged, so no problem there. I had a pump saver device on it. That water was full of copper and turned Coca Cola brown with the chlorine so I definitely don't recommend that. Just had to add a chemical to chelate the cu, but had some moments of panic until someone knew how to fix it. So be careful filling a pool with well water!

I'd go higher so that I have reserve capacity in the event I want to do something else and not lose pressure inside the house. But that's me.

CS78 said:

---

4 would probably be fine unless you plan to do some heavy watering. Most showers run around 2-2.5gpm for reference.

As a person that has sold a decent amount of real estate, id be hesitant to sign anything that guarantees a certain amount. Could spend $20k on a well that doesn't meet the metric, and end up with a buyer that flakes. Theyd be better off to compensate you to hire your own driller.

---

No way in hell I'd agree to this as a seller. I'd drill the well first, and then sell it "as is."

The first well I drilled and only got only around 5 gpm, I had to drill stupid deep to even get that. Then you have to put in a bigger, more expensive pump. I had to leave the house during the drilling because the anxiety was killing me. Every minute of drilling is $$$$$$$$$.

As a buyer and future owner of the property, I would want to oversee and have my own well drilled. By a reputable company.

The other thing I would add about a water tank is you definitely want one. If you don't have a tank, your well pump is cycling on/off every time you use water. The larger the tank, the less it cycles -- longer pump life.

Mas89 said:

---

As a buyer and future owner of the property, I would want to oversee and have my own well drilled. By a reputable company.

---

Good idea. I would also call a local well driller for a price, depth, and typical GPM. Take it as a credit off the sale price.

It's going to depend on what GPM the well itself will produce. There are lots of Edwards wells in the hill country that may produce less than 5 GPM.
There is no way a driller can guarantee a GPM of any given well. He can do a comparison from wells in the area and give a guess but each well is usually different.
You can always pump your well to a large holding tank and then pump out of it to your house at whatever GPM you need.
Lots of landowners do that in the Llano, Kerrville, Junction area.
Just giving you an option in case you are in an area that can't give you a well in the 10GPM producing range.
We have a well in Kimble County that only makes about 2-3GPM. I installed a 12,000 gallon tank and pump out of it with a 1HP Centrifugal pump.
I can run our sprinkler system, take showers and wash clothes all at the same time
and have plenty of water.
In your contract specify you want a "Pump Tek" device on the controller of the well pump. It protects the pump if it should run out of water down hole.
It will automatically shut off the pump if it runs out of water.
Congrats on your new place!

tamc93 said:

---

Mas89 said:

---

As a buyer and future owner of the property, I would want to oversee and have my own well drilled. By a reputable company.

---

Good idea. I would also call a local well driller for a price, depth, and typical GPM. Take it as a credit off the sale price.

---

I agree. What if seller drills down 40 feet, gets flow and tells the driller to stop? I would want at least a 100 foot well. What if the well is 500 feet but they tell driller to put in an undersized or cheap pump? Pulling a burnt out pump and replacing it costs $$$ down the road. (Been there.) I would want control over the process.

When I had wells drilled, they've all told me there is no way to predict depth/GPM. Neighbors drilled 100 foot down and got stupid good gpm, like 30s. They ended up selling water to two neighbors for irrigation. A stones throw away, I drilled 500 (? - however deep, it hurt) feet and got less than 5 gpm. We were discussing hydrofracking. I'm near Atlanta and we all have huge underground veins of granite, so you have no idea what's going on down there and where you'll hit good flow.

No idea about geology/water table where you live, so calling a local guy for info and getting a sales credit so you control the process is excellent advice. You may come out ahead or you may come out behind, but you'll know it's done right.

tamc93 said:

---

Mas89 said:

---

As a buyer and future owner of the property, I would want to oversee and have my own well drilled. By a reputable company.

---

Good idea. I would also call a local well driller for a price, depth, and typical GPM. Take it as a credit off the sale price.

---

This information is available online for other wells in the area so you can get an idea. https://www3.twdb.texas.gov/apps/waterdatainteractive/groundwaterdataviewer

Didn't scroll all the way down. Rather be fishing already posted the Texas Water Board viewer.

Gunny456 said:

---

It's going to depend on what GPM the well itself will produce. There are lots of Edwards wells in the hill country that may produce less than 5 GPM.
There is no way a driller can guarantee a GPM of any given well. He can do a comparison from wells in the area and give a guess but each well is usually different.
You can always pump your well to a large holding tank and then pump out of it to your house at whatever GPM you need.
Lots of landowners do that in the Llano, Kerrville, Junction area.
Just giving you an option in case you are in an area that can't give you a well in the 10GPM producing range.
We have a well in Kimble County that only makes about 2-3GPM. I installed a 12,000 gallon tank and pump out of it with a 1HP Centrifugal pump.
I can run our sprinkler system, take showers and wash clothes all at the same time
and have plenty of water.
In your contract specify you want a "Pump Tek" device on the controller of the well pump. It protects the pump if it should run out of water down hole.
It will automatically shut off the pump if it runs out of water.
Congrats on your new place!

---

This is what we do. Since it is on a hill, I can gravity feed to lower pastures if I have an issue with power or need to work on the well itself.

Our well does 50gpm, but we still pump to a 7,000 gallon in ground cistern.

Keep in mind that flow rate and static level are not the same thing. You can have a 10gpm we'll go dry and you can have a 4gpmrun for generations. The bigger question for me is the odds of running dry. 5gpm is fine if you can get it to a cistern or storage tank. I don't condone watering lawns so that's a non issue for me. I have 1000 feet of drip line in my garden. Even if I could water it all at the same time, even that wouldn't use 5gpm. You just have to work smarter.

I have a question for the drilling gf experts. Someone up in this thread said something like "I wouldn't accept less than xxx gpm". I am not aware of the drillers ability to force an aquifer to "producer better". Lithology has a lot to do with it and unless you have a choice to pull out, cap, and move over 100', I don't see how there is any decision to make on it. Is that incorrect?

Pump to storage tank 2500+ gallon. Pump from storage tank to house. Treat of water for any issues in well house. If a pump goes out, I want it to be the one I can change and not the one that is 1,000 ft below the surface.

Quote:

---

Pump to storage tank 2500+ gallon. Pump from storage tank to house. Treat of water for any issues in well house. If a pump goes out, I want it to be the one I can change and not the one that is 1,000 ft below the surface.

---

Was going to say this also. Do a smaller HP pump in ground that'll get you at least 7-8 GPMs& pump to a storage tank with a high/low shut off switch. At that point you can do a centrifugal outside the tank & run to your filtration system and on into the house. If you irrigate, tap the line upstream of the tee to the filters so you aren't watering the grass with treated water.

I'd like to have 15 GPM's to my house.

Install as many storage tanks as you can. Route some or all of your gutters into the storage tanks as well if practical.

I will also add that if you are rural and a fair distance from a fire department you can oftentimes get a substantial discount on your homeowners insurance if you have a large tank for the fire trucks to pump out of.
We did that and plumbed the tank with a fitting the fire department gave us and the insurance agent came and looked at it and took pictures and it got us a fair break.
Just offering the idea.

BrazosDog02 said:

---

Our well does 50gpm, but we still pump to a 7,000 gallon in ground cistern.

Keep in mind that flow rate and static level are not the same thing. You can have a 10gpm we'll go dry and you can have a 4gpmrun for generations. The bigger question for me is the odds of running dry. 5gpm is fine if you can get it to a cistern or storage tank. I don't condone watering lawns so that's a non issue for me. I have 1000 feet of drip line in my garden. Even if I could water it all at the same time, even that wouldn't use 5gpm. You just have to work smarter.

I have a question for the drilling gf experts. Someone up in this thread said something like "I wouldn't accept less than xxx gpm". I am not aware of the drillers ability to force an aquifer to "producer better". Lithology has a lot to do with it and unless you have a choice to pull out, cap, and move over 100', I don't see how there is any decision to make on it. Is that incorrect?

---

Not an expert at all. Hydrofracking, but that is a crap shoot. May boost GPM, may not. Every time I've ever dealt with a well drilling company, it has been "it is what it is, we'll drill and see." I think you decide to drill, and they tell you what you have. You can keep drilling and see if it improves, but the deeper you go, the bigger pump you need to pull the water out.

The other thing to keep is mind is the volume of the well cylinder. I hit water at about 20 feet, but as I mentioned earlier, terrible GPM. But when you get down deeper, you have water in the well cylinder. Volume = Pi * radius^2 * height. A 500 foot well that is a foot wide will have ~ 3,000 gallons of water volume in it. But the water table won't be at surface level, so it's less than that.

In the Burnet area, I would also worry about the water quality.

10 miles outside of Burnet. We have added a water tank to our system, not out of necessity,but rather to future proof it. We've had our water quality tested a couple of times and no problems.