Can You Drill a Water Well in Winter?

With winter barreling down on us here in New England, many homeowners in Connecticut may be assuming the season to install a new well is over. It’ll have to wait until next spring or summer, right?

In reality, winter can be the ideal time to drill a water well! Greco & Haines – offering trusted, front-to-back well system services for customers all across the Constitution State since 1963 – is your go-to source for the finest professional well installations. Our services are available seven days a week and 365 days a year, so we’re here for you when it comes to new installations all winter long.

Why Winter Can be an Optimal Time to Install a Water Well in Connecticut

It’s not only possible to drill a well in the winter: It’s actually an advantageous time to do so in many aspects. Let’s run through some of the pluses of wintertime well installation in Connecticut.

Drilled Wells in Winter

While a shallow, surface-layer dug well may sometimes be tricky to put in place in the harsh winter conditions, deeper drilled or artesian wells can readily be excavated during this season.

After all, the drilling equipment we use here at Greco & Haines is designed to bore through hard bedrock to tap confined aquifers and other groundwater sources. The narrow upper level of frozen soil – let alone any surficial snow or ice cover – which it might encounter in deep winter is no problem at all.

Less Impactful & Messy Work

The hard ground and snowpack of wintertime can make for a cleaner, lighter-impact well installation. That’s often very much true compared to operations in the spring. Many mistakenly think spring is better for drilling a well, but doing the job that time of year often translates to a muddy, profoundly rutted work site. That sloppy ground can even make for more dangerous conditions.

By comparison, the frosty, often snow-covered substrate of winter means the ground’s more buffered from the erosive force of heavy equipment, and workers on the site often enjoy firmer footing.

Timing, Timing, Timing

With the rush of new construction in the spring and the peak building window between then and fall, you may be facing a lot of competition trying to schedule a well installation. Winter weather means many parts of construction projects go on hold or proceed in more of a fits-and-starts manner. That doesn’t have to be true of drilling a well, so winter can be an efficient time to tackle that part of the job, quite possibly with more flexibility over scheduling and a shorter wait time.

Furthermore, drilling a well in winter means you’ll have a ready source of on-site water when the springtime thaw arrives. That can certainly be a significant benefit when it’s time for new construction to get underway in warmer weather.

Site Evaluations & Well Installations in Connecticut From Greco & Haines

With more than a half-century of experience installing, maintaining, and inspecting well systems of all kinds, the Greco & Haines team ought to be your number one choice for setting up your property with a new well this winter.

Whether drilled, dug, or driven, we can help you select the best well type for your property. Our rigorous evaluations include considerations of introductory bedrock geology, soil type, and topography, plus household demand, energy supply, and the layout of any features that may influence the siting of the well, such as septic tanks, leach fields, and livestock facilities.

Other Winter Well System Tips & Tricks

What if you don’t need a new well? Maybe you already have one and, instead, you’re curious about the unique challenges winter could pose, such as frozen pipes, malfunctioning well pumps, or road-salt contamination.

Our Greco & Haines Learning Center comes packed with relevant guides and advice for any situation. Here are a few articles you may want to look into as the temperatures drop and the snowflakes begin to fly:

Contact Greco & Haines—Your Trusted Well Water Company in Connecticut—With Any Well Installation Needs This Winter

If you’d like to schedule a new well installation – or have any questions about how a well might work on your property or which kind would be best – don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Greco & Haines crew! Reach out if you have any well upkeep or repair issues or need well-water quality testing in Connecticut.You can contact us at the Greco & Haines website via our online contact form. You can call us at 203-735-9308, 203-777-2256, or (toll-free from any Connecticut area code) 1-800-922-2958.