Updated 2026-10-23
My borehole came out dry. What should I do next?
A dry borehole usually means the hole missed the water-bearing zone, not that the site has no water. Before drilling again, survey for water-bearing fractures: on a Bavarian granite hilltop with four dry boreholes up to 118 m, WaterLocation found water at 22 m just 47 m from one of them, giving 200 m³ a day.
Why boreholes come out dry
In granite, basalt, dolomite and under deep clay, water moves through narrow fractures rather than wide sand or gravel layers. A borehole a few metres to the side of a fracture can be completely dry. Conventional surveys look for aquifers that are often missing on such sites, so they come back negative.
Sites that started with dry holes
| Site | Before | Result | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mitterfirmiansreut, Germany (granite) | Four empty boreholes up to 118 m | Water at 22 m, 47 m from a dry hole | 200 m³/day |
| Catalonia, Spain (100+ m of clay) | Several failed boreholes | Water at 136 m, state pumping test | 648 m³/day |
| Ulrichstein, Germany (basalt) | Every earlier borehole failed | ≈200 m well, static level 87 m | 300+ m³/day |
| South Africa (dolomite), 2 farms | Five dry boreholes, one salty | Fresh water at 14 m and 97 m | 86 + 260 m³/day |
What to do before the next hole
- Collect the logs of the existing boreholes: depth, what was drilled through, any water strikes.
- Survey the site for water-bearing fractures and get a drilling point, a depth and a forecast yield.
- Drill only to that specification and run a pumping test to compare the yield with the forecast.
WaterLocation's discovery fee is paid only after the pumping test confirms the water.
Questions
Is it worth drilling deeper in the same hole?
Only if the logs show a water-bearing zone below. Otherwise a new point chosen by a survey usually costs less than more metres in the wrong place.
Do the old borehole logs help?
Yes. Send them with your survey request; they help the analysis.