Well Drilling in Rockingham County, NH

• Coverage includes Londonderry, Derry, Chester, Candia, Raymond, Epping, Nottingham, Northwood, Kingston, Hampstead, Atkinson, Windham and Sandown.
• The neighboring Hillsborough County page covers Amherst, Hollis, Bedford and the Souhegan valley.
• The NHDES Water Well Board licenses drillers and receives completion reports for every new well.

• New bedrock wells for subdivisions and single lots
• Replacing shallow dug wells on older farmhouses
• Hydrofracturing to raise yield in a tight bedrock well
• Pump and pressure tank work
• Testing and treatment for a sale
• Well relocation when a septic replacement needs room

• Local depth: using the 323-ft USGS median for wells built since 2000, the site calculator's formula gives $9,575–$25,495 for a complete well. At the all-years 75th percentile (360 ft) it gives $10,500–$27,900, and at the 90th (505 ft) $14,125–$37,325. The calculator's method is depth × $25–$65 per foot plus permit, pump and tank allowances, so the result is an estimate.
• Rock versus drift: USGS records code 6,339 wells to bedrock with a median near 280 feet, while 515 wells in stratified drift have a median near 35 feet.
• Yield work: a low-yield bedrock well may need hydrofracturing or a deeper bore, priced separately.
• State fees: the NH Code of Administrative Rules (We 303.02) sets $100 per well completion report, usually included in the driller's price.

• Step 1, town check: there is no state construction permit for a private home well in New Hampshire, so ask your town's building or health office about local permits and setbacks first.
• Step 2, contractor: hire a driller licensed by the Water Well Board. The NH Code of Administrative Rules (We 303.02) sets the rotary drilling license at $225 a year.
• Step 3, record: RSA 482-B:10 lists what the driller must log, including total depth, casing, depth to bedrock, yield test and static water level.
• Step 4, filing: the record is due within 90 days of completion under RSA 482-B:10, and NH rule We 303.02 sets a $100 fee for each report.
• Step 5, water test: NHDES recommends testing for arsenic and other contaminants once the well is in service.

• Bedrock: USGS records code 6,339 of the county's wells to bedrock, with a median near 280 feet across all years. Water in the crystalline bedrock moves through fractures, so yield depends on how many fractures a bore crosses, and a bore in the hills west of Route 125 can come in very differently from a neighbor's. Where the bedrock fracture zone is tight, drillers may hydrofracture rather than go deeper.
• Shallow aquifers: sand and gravel along the Exeter, Lamprey and Spicket river valleys feeds shallower wells; USGS records code 515 stratified-drift wells with a median near 35 feet and 40 wells in marine deposits near the coast.
• Depth trend: wells built since 2000 have a median near 323 feet (n=1,153), deeper than the all-years figure.
• NHDES says its dashboard combines test results from more than 23,000 private wells from 2006 to 2020, broken down by town.
• Census ACS puts the median year built at 1983 across about 137,794 housing units.

Londonderry · Derry · Chester · Candia · Raymond · Epping · Nottingham · Kingston · Hampstead · Atkinson · Windham · Sandown