Well abandonment is the work of sealing an old well so it can never carry water or contamination again. It is also called well decommissioning. Most homeowners find out they need it at a bad time. A new well goes in and the old one has to be sealed. A buyer's inspector flags an unused well in the back field. We handle well abandonment across South Jersey, from our Vineland and Clayton shops down to Cape May County. Old farm wells and summer cottage wells turn up on properties here all the time.
New Jersey treats an abandoned well as a direct path from the surface into the aquifer. Rain, road runoff, fertilizer, and septic waste can run straight down an open casing. That is why NJDEP sets sealing standards and requires a licensed well driller to do the work. Capping a well with a plate or a bag of concrete does not meet those rules. The casing has to be filled from the bottom up with the right grout. A sealing report then goes to the state, and you keep a copy for your file.
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Most well abandonment jobs start with one of four situations. A new well is drilled and the old one is now out of service. A property is being sold and the title work turns up an unused well. A well runs dry, collapses, silts in, or fails a water test and cannot be repaired. Or a lot is being developed and the old well sits where the building goes. In each case the old well has to be closed the right way.
Real estate is the most common trigger we see. Buyers, lenders, title companies, and township health departments all want a well either in service and tested or formally decommissioned. A well sitting in the yard with no paperwork holds up settlement. We can usually seal the well and get the report filed inside a normal closing window. Tell our office manager your closing date when you call. We schedule sealing work around closings all through Gloucester, Cumberland, Salem, and Cape May counties.
No. New Jersey requires abandoned wells to be sealed by a licensed well driller. The state also sets how the sealing has to be done. We see homeowners drop a plate over the casing or pour a bag of concrete in the top. Some push the pipe over and bury it. None of that closes the hole below. Water still moves down the borehole, and the well is still on record as open. The township can require the job be redone, and it usually costs more the second time.
There is also the safety side. An open casing in a field or a yard is a hole someone can step into. Old dug wells are worse. They can be three or four feet across under a rotted wood cover or a few boards. A well on your property can hurt someone or contaminate the water supply next door. That liability lands on the property owner. Sealing the well the right way ends that exposure and puts a state record behind it.
First we find and open the well. On older properties that can take some digging. A farm well may sit under a slab, a shed, a deck, or a foot of fill. We measure the depth and check the casing. The pump and drop pipe come out if they are still down there. If the casing is collapsed or the borehole is blocked, we clear it or drill it out. The goal is a clean, open hole from the bottom to the surface.
Then the well gets filled. We set a tremie line to the bottom and pump grout up from there. Grout placed from the bottom up fills the whole column evenly. Neat cement or bentonite grout is what the state calls for, matched to the well. The grout comes all the way to the surface. We cut the casing off below ground level and cap it. The ground goes back the way we found it. The well sealing report goes to NJDEP and you get a copy for your file.
From the first look at the property to water proven at your tap, here is exactly how it goes.
A real person answers, takes what is happening at the house, and gets you on the schedule. A no-water emergency moves to the front of the line, whatever day of the week it is.
We check the property and the state well records for your block, then give you a free estimate with a real number. Depth, casing and pump size set the cost, so we look before we quote.
The rig or the service truck shows up when we said. Permits are filed before drilling starts, and the owners are on the machines. Anything unexpected down the hole, you hear about it right away.
The job ends with proof: yield checked, pressure holding, and the water tested. You get the paperwork, and the well record goes to the state. If anything acts up after, you call the same number.
Common questions about well abandonment across all of South Jersey. Yours not here? Call and ask the crew directly.
When the taps go dry, we find out why. Our crew handles well pump repair day or night, from Vineland and Clayton to Cape May County. We answer the phone 24/7.
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Replacing a worn out well pump or pressure tank on shallow sand wells and deep coastal wells alike. New pumps sized to the well and to the water the house uses.
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We test well water across South Jersey, then build the treatment system the results call for. Iron filters, acid neutralizers, sulfur removal and UV disinfection, sized to your well.
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We install, replace and repair water softeners for well and city water homes. Every job starts with a hardness test, so the unit we size matches your real demand.
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We drill and equip wells for farms, nurseries, campgrounds, and commercial buildings across South Jersey. That means bigger casing and higher pumping rates, sized to the water your operation uses each day.
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We drill the vertical wells and ground loops that ground source heat pumps run on. Your HVAC contractor handles the equipment inside the house. We handle the drilling and the NJDEP well permit.
View DetailsDrilling, pumps, pressure tanks, testing, treatment and sealing. The rigs and the service trucks belong to the same outfit, so one call covers the whole system.
A house without water is an emergency, and we run the operation that way. Call day or night. Phone triage is free, and if it needs a truck, a truck moves.
We look at the actual property and the well records for your block, then price the job in writing. You hear what is worth doing and what is not before anything starts.
Based in Vineland and Clayton, working six counties. We know what Cohansey sand, acidic water and shore-side salt do to wells here, and we drill and service for it.
No water, weak pressure, a well to drill, water that needs testing or treatment? Call or send the form and we will price the job from your property, free. For a house that is dry right now, the phone answers 24/7.
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