Silt in Well Water

LESLIE: Jason in Louisiana, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?

JASON: I just have a problem with my well pump that I have here. From my knowledge of talking to a few people, they dig the wells pretty shallow here in Louisiana, because they don’t have to dig any deeper than 40, 60 foot.

TOM: OK.

JASON: And I had a well-pump guy come out because I had a pressure problem.

TOM: OK.

JASON: He rebuilt my well pump itself. Got great pressure after but then the next, few following days, I started getting a gray silt that started being pumped into my home.

TOM: OK.

JASON: And I flushed out the system, restarted it. It clears up for a few days and then problems persist again. What do you think could be the problem with that? He told me I may need to dig a new well and go down a few hundred foot but other people say they’re all shallow wells.

TOM: What kind of filtration system do you have on the home? Because it seems to me like if you’ve just got a fine-grade silt, that that could be dealt with by a filter rather than replacing the well.

JASON: I recently have installed a whole-house filter out there since.

TOM: OK.

JASON: That seems to be aiding in fixing the problem. I noticed a significant difference in my water.

TOM: OK. So this is progress then.

JASON: I think that could have potentially fixed it but that filter seems to be getting pretty dark pretty quick.

TOM: Mm-hmm. Well, they always get dark pretty quick but that doesn’t mean that they’re totally blocked. Usually, they’ll discolor pretty quickly, because they look so pretty and clean coming out of the box. I wouldn’t – yeah, I wouldn’t run out and replace the well right away. I mean it might be that the increased pressure is causing a little more debris in that water than what you’re accustomed to. But if the filter is holding it, I would just live with that.

JASON: OK. Yeah, because I have the whole-house filter and I also put a filter on my sink water in my kitchen, so whenever I cook …

TOM: Yeah. Just make sure that you replace it per the manufacturer’s instructions. In other words, don’t let it go for an extensive period of time, because then it could get worse and it could affect your water pressure.

JASON: Right. I think there are recommendations every three months on this filter that I bought.

TOM: There you go.

JASON: OK. So you think that – yeah, because the guy was quick to jump to want to charge me $2,800 to redrill me a well.

TOM: Of course. He needs the job.

JASON: And I just said, “No, I don’t foresee that happening.”

TOM: Yeah. Proceed slowly, my friend. Jason, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.