My in-laws have about 140 acres in Gonzales County (in Cheapside). The property has no potable water and no electricity. There are not any structures on this place (other than deer blinds and a small camper). My in-laws are gracious enough to say "have at it" when it comes to working on the place and setting up deer feeders etc. Eventually I would like to get a more permanent structure (house or manufactured home) on the place. My questions are

How much to run electricity to the place?
My guess is the closest place with electricity is about 1/2 mile (as a crow flies). Our place does not border a highway, it is one back from the place on the highway, which has electricity.

Second question: How much to drill a well?
I know it depends on how deep, and type of soil, but I am looking for a general number. The area is mostly a clayey loam.

Any help would be appreciated. It would probably be a few years before I did any of this, but I need a starting place.

Thanks

its about 1-2k just to have a electricity box put in so I have no idea how much to have them run a bunch of extra poles and wires.

Water could be in the 2500 ball park.

Richter Well Drilling is who does all our well service. You need to call GVEC about the electricity hook up and they will tell you.

That is a hell of a well. We drilled a couple of dry holes and it cost me 900.00 for each try. If we hit it would have been 2500 to case it and have a pump put on. The electricity is a different monster. That can get real expensive anywhere from 5,000 to 10,0000 but the best thing to do is ask the co-op.
JMHO

Can you please post up the contractors conntact info or PM me?

Thanks

TxP

Tx Phantom - I have used Richter both times on our old well and the new one at my place and they do really good work.

Richter Well Drilling Inc
815 Prototype Rd
Flatonia, TX 78941 (361) 865-3518

Thanks man - passing the info to my buddy. He's in Palestine tho - I wonder if that's too far...

Thanks again!!

TxP

We just put a well in around Junction. We got several bids and they were all about the same except for one and he was about $5000 higher the everyone else. It definitly pays to shop around.

The well cost us right at $7000. Caution, they still charge you for the hole even if they don't find water. So, you may be looking at a $4000 post hole if it comes up dry. We hired a dowser or waterwitch for a $100. I think there is something to it, but nobody can explains how it works. We drilled the hole exactly where the dowser said to put it and got a really strong well. All the drillers recommended it. Of course the water witch could have been the drillers brother in law or something.

I actually tried it myself and the rods really did cross on their own. We went to town and bought some brass welding rods. You bend handles in them, hold them level in front of you and take off in a fast walk. Everytime we paseed that one spot, they would cross. I even started gripping them a little harder and they still crossed. Beats all I ever seen.

The electrical Co-op put in the electrical for $1026.00. The price was the same for everyone out there no matter how far they have to run it. It was really a good deal.

Good luck to you.

Helomech, do you ever eat Coffee's Landing? We almost overdosed on crab legs one night!

You need to check with several water well drillers. Most in the area will have an idea as to how deep they will have to drill. The cost of a water well is based on the depth, here in Abilene, in parts of the north side you can get a good well at less than 30 feet, in other parts of town you can drill 200 feet and still not get water. As was said that can make for an expensive post hole.

The guy next to us at the house just dropped one in, run him 3500 set up.

Power I would think a small solar system if they start charging to much. I have been to a few places way out and that was a cheaper option in the long run.

The brass welding rod works for finding culverts and tunnels under ground too. The government uses(d) that to look for tunnels along the border.

I have 180 acres in NE Stephens county and I am in the same situation without electricity. The closest power pole to me is about 1/2 mile and I checked with TXU that runs the electricity in the area and they quoted me nearly $15,000 to run electricity to my place.

I definitely can't afford that, so I have been using a generator for the past 3 years to run my 38' travel trailer. The generator works great, but I still wish I could figure out some way to get electricity to my place.

Does anyone have any better or cheaper ideas??

Lone Ranger, do you have an electric cooperative in the area? They generally are cheaper than TXU, when we had ours done WTU and the coop where in the area and the coop hooked us up for nothing. But that was about 15 years ago and I know a lot of things have changed in that time.

But it is worth checking into.

The elec. company outside of Winters CoOp hooked us up for $300, they charged for the pole, box, and the hole. We did have a line that run arcoss one end of the place and they tapped it and ran about 300yds for free any further it was some crasy price per foot, we move camp to the power. And a small solar set up is a lot cheaper than 15000 and power is always there with no gas. and no I dont sell the systems just seen them work way out west, the one guy I asked about price around 5000 and it ran a good sized cabin and meat locker.

Thanks for all the information. In July, I plan on stopping by the GVEC office in Gonzales. Hopefully it won't be outrageous.

I don't know if there is a coop in my area or not. I am about 9 miles due south of Graham, so if anyone on here knows if there is a coop in the area or not, please let me know.

Also, I plan on checking into the windmill power as I have plenty of wind in the area.

Maybe it wouldn't be so much to run it underground, instead of a bunch of poles? If it wasn't such a long stretch, I'd suggest getting a ditch witch, some pvc, and trench you a line.