Drilled well
A drilled well is a well excavated wholly or in part by a percussion or rotary drill that works by cutting or abrasion. Virginia's private well regulation sets it apart from a bored well, made with a soil auger, and a dug well, made with hand tools, a power shovel or trenching machinery.
A drill, an auger or a shovel: Virginia names the well for what made the hole
Virginia's private well regulation does not define its common well types by depth or by age. It defines them by the tool that opened the ground.
| Well | What made the hole | What VDH says about its water source |
|---|---|---|
| Drilled | A percussion or rotary drill, working by cutting or abrasion | Can be shallow or deep, and may draw from aquifers found in fractures in bedrock |
| Bored | A soil auger, by hand or by power | Generally shallow, under 100 feet, drawing from near-surface water table aquifers |
| Dug | Picks, shovels or other hand tools, or a power shovel or other dredging or trenching machinery | No description on VDH's private well program page |
Two more definitions in the same section describe what a finished well is made of. Casing is the hollow cylinder, typically steel, plastic or concrete, installed to keep the well open and to provide a seal. Grout is the stable, impervious bonding material that seals the annular space against the intrusion of objectionable matter.
Whatever the tool, the paperwork is the same. Work to build, alter, abandon or deepen a private well after November 6, 2024 needs a written construction permit from the commissioner first (a replacement pump, an equivalent seal or cap, or casing extended above the ground does not count as an alteration), and the well goes into operation, other than to test its mechanical soundness, only after the health department inspects it and issues an inspection statement.
A well is not the only water source on a rural tract. The private well regulation excludes wells constructed for the modification or development of springs. What a spring is has its own entry, and so does a pond fed by one, under spring-fed pond.
Class III casing depths are floors for construction, not a measure of how deep wells run
A private drinking water well in Virginia is a Class III well, and the regulation splits the class three ways by how the well is made and how deep it is cased and grouted.
Class IIIA and IIIB wells are drilled; Class IIIC takes in drilled, bored, driven or jetted wells other than those two. Each class carries a minimum casing depth, 100 feet for Class IIIA among them, and the full set, with the regulation's exceptions, is tabled in wells explained.
Every one of those casing figures is a minimum the builder has to reach. None of them says how far a well on a given tract will have to go to find water; the casing depth is only the least the rule accepts. Measured depths are a separate question, taken up in how deep wells are in Southwest Virginia.
Which class a new well is built to is set by the local or district health department, or the division, not by the owner or the driller.
Depth and class say nothing about output either. How much water a finished well delivers is its well yield, a separate figure the water well systems provider certifies on a VDH form when the well is completed.
Selling a house or tract with a drilled well on it?
Tell Lowell what you know about the well, its age included, and he will go through which permit, class and completion papers a well of that age would or would not have. No cost, no obligation.
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Questions about this term
Is a drilled well always deeper than a bored well?
Not by definition. Virginia's regulation defines each by the tool that made the hole, a drill for one and a soil auger for the other, and says nothing about depth in either definition. VDH does say bored wells are generally shallow, under 100 feet, and draw from near-surface water table aquifers, while drilled wells can be shallow or deep and may draw from fractures in bedrock.
Can a bored well be built as a Class IIIA or IIIB well?
No. The regulation defines Class IIIA and Class IIIB as drilled wells, so a bored drinking water well falls in Class IIIC, which covers drilled, bored, driven or jetted wells other than IIIA and IIIB. Class IIIC carries its own casing minimum, with listed exceptions, one of them for a bored well whose only aquifer lies between 11 and 20 feet.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- 12VAC5-630-10, definitions of drilled, bored and dug wells, casing and grout Virginia Administrative Code
- 12VAC5-630-220, construction permits and inspection statements for private wells Virginia Administrative Code
- 12VAC5-630-320, operation before inspection only to test mechanical soundness Virginia Administrative Code
- 12VAC5-630-30, wells excluded from the private well regulation Virginia Administrative Code
- 12VAC5-630-350, applicability and who determines the class of well Virginia Administrative Code
- 12VAC5-630-360, Class IIIA, IIIB and IIIC wells Virginia Administrative Code
- 12VAC5-630-410, casing depths and their exceptions Virginia Administrative Code
- Va. Code 32.1-176.4, yield certified at completion Code of Virginia
- Private well program: drilled and bored wells Virginia Department of Health
- Real estate transfer FAQ: private well records before 1990 Virginia Department of Health