Considering a well?
What we'd like you to know before we drill

01

Mains water and well water are not the same "water"

Mains water is river water that has been purified at enormous cost, sent through water mains and pumped electrically to each home. Turn the tap and you always get water of the same quality. That is because people keep working and money keeps being paid to maintain that system.

A well is different. A single pipe draws water up from invisible strata made of soil and sand. There is no treatment plant in between.Whatever is underground comes out as it is.

We use the same word, "water," but please think of them as completely different things. Whether or not you understand this one point makes a big difference in how satisfied you will be after getting a well.

02

What we cannot guarantee before drilling

We'll be honest with you.

We cannot determine in advance at what depth water will come out.We carry out a pre-diagnosis based on published boring data, geological maps from AIST and terrain data from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, but this is a "diagnosis of possibility," not a "guarantee." Strata can change within just a few dozen meters.

How much water will come out also cannot be known until we drill.Sometimes there is plenty; sometimes it is less than expected.

The water quality also cannot be known until we drill.It may be high in iron, or manganese or odors may appear. The deeper you drill, the stronger this tendency becomes.

Our estimates are based ona standard depth of up to 50 m. Within this range, the price is the same whether we finish shallow or have to drill to 50 m.

If 50 m does not give enough water and we drill deeper, we will bill the additional drilling and materials separately after the work is complete. The maximum depth our drilling rig can reach is70m. We will always consult you before deciding whether to keep drilling — we never drill deeper without telling you.

You might wonder why the price is the same even when the well turned out shallow.

For a 10 m well and a 50 m well, the drilling effort differs somewhat, butthe total amount of work hardly changes.Preparing equipment and materials, transporting and bringing them on site, setting up, assembling and adjusting the rig, leveling and cleaning after the work, packing up, and maintaining the equipment back at the shop — the steps other than drilling make up most of a well job.

That is whyas long as we stay within the standard depth, there is no extra charge whether the well is shallow or deep.The price stays as originally quoted.

03

The schedule cannot be predicted

We also want to tell you up front that we cannot promise a schedule for well work in advance.

We sometimes hit large stones at shallow depths. Drilling with our rig can take longer than expected. Partway through, the inside of the hole can collapse and sand or soil can fall in. When that happens, we move to another spot and drill again.

Digging underground means working with nature.As long as we are dealing with things we cannot see, these things will happen.

And only after one job is finished do we schedule the next customer who booked. If the previous site runs long, the next one moves too. Please understand in advance that customers are served in order.

Once the pre-drilling geological survey is complete,we will let you know the best drilling depth for your land, an estimated schedule and the cost.We cannot make promises, but we will share our outlook.

Besides wells, we also do handyman work.While drilling a well, we turn down other work as much as possible to keep the schedule open.Even so, urgent jobs sometimes come up. Please understand in advance that on those days we may be away from your site.

Also, we do not work solidly from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day.Start and finish times change depending on that day's plan.Some days we start early; some days we stop and wait. All of that is part of the schedule.

There is a reason we still take on jobs with a small rig.

With large machinery you can certainly drill faster and deeper. But the cost then becomes out of proportion for a home or office well.

Our rig is small, butwe use the pre-drilling geological survey and our experience to determine where and how deep to drill.That is how we can deliver home and office wells — which would be very expensive with large machinery — at a realistic price.

In Hokkaido there is still land without mains water. Those are exactly the places that need wells. That is why we work with a small rig.

04

What we ask you to prepare on the day of work

Well work only succeeds with the customer's cooperation. During the preliminary site survey, we will check the following together with you.

05

Six months after the water comes — a well is something you "raise"

The water is not clear and colorless from the moment it comes out.

Hokkaido in particular is land built on thick layers of volcanic ash.Sand and cloudiness will always appear.This is not a failure; it is simply what a well is like.

A well turns into good water as you use it. Pumping water draws out the fine sand around the well and opens up the water's pathways.For a while after the water comes out, you need to "raise" the well by repeatedly running and stopping it.

During this period you use a sand filter and other filters to remove sand and cloudiness. Filters also clog quickly at this stage. It takes effort, but once you get past it, the water settles down.

06

Until it becomes drinking water

Please think of household water and drinking water separately.

Household water for baths and laundry can be used once it passes through a sand filter. It may feel a bit like enjoying hot-spring water.

To use it for drinking, it must also pass through a commercial water purifier, andyou need a water quality test to confirm it is suitable for drinking.Once the water quality has settled, the customer arranges the test.

And now the most important point.After the water comes out, managing the water is the customer's responsibility.Our job covers drilling the well and setting up the equipment. After that, checking water quality, replacing filters and cleaning are the well owner's role.

Of course we will give advice and support. Please feel free to contact us when you have trouble. But we want to say from the start that this is on a completely different level from mains water, where you just turn on the tap.

07

A facility you will live with for life

About well maintenance and upkeep

A well is not finished once it is drilled.

08

Living with a well — after ten years

From the personal experience of Nojima, owner of Nojima Well Workshop

From here, let me talk about myself as a well driller. Not numbers or technology — just what I have felt.

About ten years ago, I drilled a well at my family home in Saitama. We stopped using mains water and switched the whole house to well water.I connected the well water directly to the bath and the boiler.

What surprised me was the bath. Even in quite hot water, 42 to 45°C,I could soak for an hour without feeling dizzy at all.

I wondered why. Tap water contains chlorine for disinfection. Well water contains no chemicals at all.Perhaps the body's sweat glands dislike the chlorine coming in and close up, making it harder to sweat.Perhaps that is what feeling light-headed in the bath is — that is how it felt to me.

One more thing changed.My body felt refreshed even without soap.Since then, I have lived for ten years using almost no soap. A life with neither soap ingredients nor chlorine going into my body.

Now I have moved to Hokkaido, and since my home is rented, there is no well. Instead, I put baking soda in the bath. It gave me a similar feeling.

A well is a gift of nature.It is neither colorless nor tasteless.Minerals and many other components are dissolved in the water. Even so — no, precisely because of that — I think the human body craves it. It tastes good.

Of course, for drinking water, to be safe we recommend passing it through a purifier and getting a water quality test. That is where you should be careful.