Sediment from new well, newly constructed home.

I've browsed through this forum and all over the net but can't find any good answers. I have a newly constructed home (we moved in on 9/27/2011). We get our water from a well that was drilled back in May 2011. My neighbor across the street with a 10 yr old well said he had sediment issues (forgot to ask him when he started getting issues) where he was going through a new filter on his whole house filter sys every 4 days and ended up installing a "sleeve" around the casing as well as pea gravel poured around the sides. I asked my builder about this before we closed on the house and he said it's hit or miss but normally the sediment will clear up as it is probably just from the drilling. He also stated that the pump is definitely NOT on the bottom of the well. The well is approx. 400 ft deep with a 2.5 gpm yield (sad I know). Here it is Nov 6th and I'm changing the paper filter out once a week so far (charcoal filter was every 4 days). I change it when we lose significant pressure or pressure all together. That's roughly over 30 days of normal water usage.

My question is how long should I wait before I need to take any further steps should the sediment NOT subside?

thanks,
David

I disturbed a 20 year old well, and it took months for sediment to subside.

You don't say how big your filter is. For whole-house, 4"x10" is minimum; any smaller just clogs too quick. Some would say larger.

Can you see muck particles? I had large sand and peat. Lehman's has a screen pre-filter which catches my larger stuff. I wish FiltersFast carried this product... Lehman's price is high, and they should offer a smaller model to better suit typical home water flow.

In the main filter, I like the string filters over the paper ones. The depth seems to trap more different sizes of guk over a longer time.

My filter was up on the cellar rafters so I got soaked when I changed it. I moved it down to chest-level on the wall with a large basin (shallow storage bin) under. Also 1/4-turn stop and dump valves. (SharkBite fittings are expensive but make complex plumbing easy.) I'm down to a few minutes per filter-change and no wet shirt.

I also tapped the outdoor spigots after the screen but before the main filter. I sometimes use a lot of hose-water and that does not have to be "clear" (but I do want to block the large grit which jams the faucet).

I'm here because FiltersFast has GOOD prices, which is a consideration when you need one every 3 to 10 weeks.