No government agency publishes what a new well or a pressure tank swap costs across the US, and well prices vary more by state and by what lies underground than almost anything else a household buys. So every cost page on The Private Well shows its work in three layers: the published figures side by side, a build-up from parts you can check, and an explanation of why the numbers differ. Our cost pages cover drilling a new well, replacing a pressure tank, well inspections and sealing an old well. This page sets out how each layer works and where its limits are.
General information, not professional advice. Your pump and tank makers’ manuals and a licensed well or pump contractor decide what’s safe for your system; your state or county decides what needs a permit or a licence.
The three layers
1. Published figures, side by side
Each cost page opens with a small table of named published figures. For each one we give who publishes it and what kind of source it is, the figure and its unit (per foot, per tank, per job), the date it was published or read, what it includes, and one short line on why it might lean high or low. We label them “published estimates” and look for at least three for each job. Where we find fewer from sources we accept, the page says so plainly, for example “only two published sources were found”, and we never add a weaker source to make up the count.
We never average them into one number, and we never call a price fair, overpriced or what you should pay. A 2024 bid on a city utility’s well program and a 2021 association figure measure different jobs in different places; blending them would hide what each one means.
The sources we accept, best first:
- State agencies, extension services and geological surveys that publish cost figures, such as the California State Water Resources Control Board’s 2024 cost appendix or a state health department’s figure for sealing a well.
- Public bid tabulations and contract awards: what drillers bid on a county, state, town or utility contract, named and dated. They show real prices line by line, but public works can lean high (prevailing wages, larger wells, remote sites), and we say so.
- Government fee schedules and program documents: a county’s fee for a well evaluation, a state’s notification fee, a USDA or state program document that states a cost.
- Association figures, such as the National Ground Water Association’s per-foot drilling figures, labelled as association figures.
- Makers’ list prices and dated retail prices for parts, such as a tank, a cap or a switch, used as material prices only and written as “listed at the retailer on the date we read it”. We name the retailer but don’t link to it.
- A well or pump business’s own published rate sheet may count as one source for a job, named as that business’s own rates with its region and the date we read it. It is never linked and never a recommendation, and its blog articles are not a source.
Two kinds of figure look like prices but are not, and pages keep them apart, labelled. A program’s cost-share cap (“75% of the cost, up to $2,000”) says what a program pays, not what the job costs. A federal farm program’s payment rate is what that program pays a farmer for a practice, not a market price. News stories quoting a driller give useful context but never carry a figure alone.
2. A line-by-line build-up
Next, we build the cost from its parts, so you can hold a real quote against it line by line:
- Drilling, per foot times depth, from the dated public rows above.
- Casing, grout and screen, per foot, by diameter where a source gives it.
- Parts, such as a tank, a tank tee or a cap, at dated retail prices.
- Permit or notice fees, from the state or county fee rules we have read, with their sections.
- Labor, as hours times a rate. Where a public source prints a labor or rig rate, we use it and name it. The hours are labelled “our assumption”, explained in a sentence, and editable in the calculator.
For scale, pages give the national median hourly wage for the trade from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 data released 15 May 2026: $28.94 for earth drillers other than oil and gas (code 47-5023, the group water well drillers fall in, which also includes blast-hole and mining drillers), $30.67 for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters (47-2152) and $30.38 for electricians (47-2111), read 11 November 2026. A median is the wage half of workers earn more than and half less than. It covers employees only, not the self-employed, and it is pay to the worker, before benefits, the truck or rig, insurance, overhead and profit. It is never what a driller or an installer charges.
3. Why the numbers differ
Finally, we explain what each source includes or leaves out, and why a real quote may differ: the rock or soil being drilled, depth, casing diameter and material, how far the casing runs, grout, a screen in sand and gravel, setting up the rig, a yield test, the pump and tank package, trenching and wiring to the house, permits, travel, and the year of the figure. Bid prices already include the bidder’s labor, overhead and profit, so we add no markup to them unless you set one in the calculator.
A worked example
Here is how two published per-foot drilling figures turn into very different totals for the same 300-foot well, with 100 feet of 6-inch casing:
| Line | Working | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Drilling, association figure | 300 ft × $30 a foot for a 6-inch well (NGWA, 2021; drilling only, survey year not stated) | $9,000 |
| Drilling, public bids | 300 ft × $100 to $125 a foot (San Antonio Water System bids, 2024; mud rotary) | $30,000 to $37,500 |
| Casing | 100 ft × $21 to $25 a foot, 6-inch PVC installed (Washington State Parks bids, 2025) | $2,100 to $2,500 |
Neither drilling figure is wrong. One is a national association figure for drilling alone, a few years old; the other is what bidders asked on a 2024 city utility contract in one Texas region, using a different drilling method. That gap is the reason we show figures side by side and never blend them. The well drilling cost estimator lets you put in your depth, casing and your own quoted rates, and shows each line with its source.
A smaller job works the same way. Our build-up for replacing a 32-gallon pressure tank adds the tank at dated retail prices ($319.99 to $512.95), a 1-inch brass tank tee ($46.95) and labor of 2 hours at $125 to 4 hours at $165, using the hourly rates in a Vermont town’s 2023 drilling estimates, with the hours as our assumption: $616.94 to $1,219.90 before tax. It leaves out a new switch or gauge, a service call, disposal of the old tank, any permit and tax, each of which can be a line on a real quote. The pressure tank replacement page sets this beside the published installed prices.
The cost register
Every shared figure, such as a per-foot rate, a fee, a wage or a part price, goes into one register before a page uses it. For each figure the register records the value, the unit, the source and its link, the date we read it, and what it measures. Pages and calculators draw from the register, so the drilling cost page and the estimator agree, and a change is made in one place.
Price tables are rechecked once a year, county fee schedules each January and July, and BLS wages when the next annual wage data come out. Older figures stay on a page only with their year in the same sentence (“a 2015 utility bid”), and we don’t inflate them with an index. A page shows an updated date only when its content really changed.
What we don’t use, and why
- Lead-generation and contractor-matching cost guides, home-warranty sellers and affiliate sites. Their figures come from sites that earn when you request quotes or buy, and their methods are rarely published. We don’t use them for any price, not even as “according to”.
- Drillers’ and pump shops’ blog articles, and home improvement media cost guides. Not a source for a price, a step or a life expectancy.
- Figures we can’t trace. If we can’t find where a number came from or what it measures, we leave it out or say plainly that it is unconfirmed. Where no acceptable source publishes a figure at all, such as an installed price per foot for 4-inch casing or for a well liner, pages say so and point you to the line on your driller’s quote.
What an estimate can’t know
- What is underground. Nobody knows the depth to water, the rock or the yield until the well is drilled. State well-record databases show what nearby wells found, and your driller’s experience in the area counts for more than any national figure.
- Your region. Our figures come from named places and years. Prices, wages and demand vary by state and county.
- Your system. The age and layout of the well, the pump, the tank and the wiring, and access for a rig or a pump truck, all change the job. Some problems show only once work starts.
- Permits and rules. Your state or county decides what needs a permit, a notice or a licensed contractor, and what it costs.
So our numbers are estimates, not quotes, and never a verdict on whether a price is right. Use them to ask better questions: a licensed driller’s or pump installer’s written quote, line by line, prices the real job. Sources we use lists every price source with who publishes it and why it might lean, our disclaimer sets out the limits, and if a figure looks wrong, please tell us.
Sources on this page checked on 11 November 2026.