Borehole Installers Big Bay | Borehole Drilling Big Bay

Big Bay sits on coastal dune sand immediately behind the beach, with newer development and modest erven shaping how drilling works here.

Shallow water makes the drilling simple; salinity and construction are where the care goes.

What Is Under Big Bay

The formations below are what a rig actually meets on a Big Bay property, and between them they govern the depth, the casing requirement and what the hole will realistically give you.

Formation	Where it sits	What it means for drilling
Aeolian and coastal sands	The thick sand sheet underlying the whole coastal strip here	An unconsolidated primary aquifer with a shallow water table. Holes are relatively shallow and need screened casing and a gravel pack rather than plain casing.
Calcrete and cemented horizons	Interbedded within the sand at varying depths	Hard bands that slow drilling and occasionally perch water above the main water table.
Malmesbury Group bedrock	Beneath the sand, at depth	The base of the useful aquifer. Drilling into it typically yields less than the sand above it.

Send your street and what the water is for, and get an itemised quote for Big Bay.

Get a Big Bay Borehole Quote

What That Means for Your Borehole

Depth is not the variable here. Construction is. Screen selection, gravel pack and development determine whether the hole produces sand-free water for years.
Salinity rises as you get closer to the sea, and over-pumping a coastal hole can draw seawater in. The sustainable rate matters more than the maximum rate.
Iron staining is the most common complaint, and it is a treatment question rather than a drilling one.

Where We Work Around Big Bay

Big Bay and Eden on the Bay
Sunset Beach approaches
Bloubergstrand boundary
The Waterstone and newer estates
Erven facing the beachfront
The West Beach side

What to Watch For Here

Newer estates often have their own conditions. Drilling hours, rig access routes and surface plant positioning are frequently governed by the HOA as well as the City.

Salinity is the defining local parameter, and sustainable abstraction rather than maximum abstraction is what protects it.

What the Water Is Used For

Irrigating coastal gardens and lawn
Rinsing salt off paving, walls and vehicles
Pool top-up, subject to what the analysis says
Standby supply through restrictions and outages
Keeping mature planting alive through summer

Wellpoint or Borehole?

Yes. This is prime wellpoint ground. Shallow saturated sand is exactly what a driven point is built for, and for garden irrigation it is often the right answer on cost alone. A borehole earns its place where you need more volume, cleaner water, or a supply that does not drop away in a dry summer.

Water Quality in Big Bay

Coastal sand aquifers are typically high in iron, which stains paving and plaster a rust colour, and increasingly saline closer to the shoreline. Both are manageable and both are best established by analysis before the system is designed rather than after the first stained wall.

A water analysis is what turns that from a general expectation into a number for your specific hole, and treatment should be specified against the result rather than against the area's reputation.

Registration and Abstraction

Boreholes and wellpoints inside the City of Cape Town must be registered with the City. Separately, the National Water Act governs how much you may abstract: reasonable domestic use and small-scale garden watering generally fall under Schedule 1, while larger abstraction may require registration or a water use authorisation from the Department of Water and Sanitation. Requirements change, so confirm your position before drilling rather than after. Requirements change, so confirm your position before drilling.

Related Services

Borehole Water Survey South AfricaDeciding where to drill Borehole Testing South AfricaWhat the borehole sustainably yields Borehole Pumps Installation South AfricaPumps sized to tested yield Borehole Tank Installation South AfricaStorage for irrigation peaks Borehole Water Testing South AfricaQuality and salinity analysis Borehole Drilling Prices South AfricaHow a quote is structured

For the drilling process itself, the geology across the rest of the country and how a quote is put together, see Borehole Installers South Africa.

Borehole Prices in Big Bay

Drilling is charged per metre, so depth drives the total. The ranges below are framed for local ground conditions and access.

Item	Indicative range	What moves it locally
Drilling, per metre	R400 - R900 /m	Sand drills fast and holes are shallow, so drilling is rarely the biggest line on the quote here.
uPVC casing, installed, per metre	R450 - R800 /m	Screened casing plus gravel pack through the producing zone. This is where the money goes on a sand hole.
Mobilisation and site establishment	R2,500 - R7,500	Access and site conditions move this; a site visit settles it before quoting.
Water survey	R5,000 - R12,000	Targets structure rather than depth. Worth most where yield is fracture-dependent.
Yield testing	R3,500 - R15,000	Establishes the sustainable rate that pump selection depends on.
Pump, supplied and installed	R15,000 - R45,000	Greater depth means more head, which means a larger pump and heavier cable.
Storage and booster	R12,000 - R35,000	Needed wherever peak demand exceeds the borehole's sustainable rate.
Typical complete project	R55,000 - R145,000+	Everything above, excluding treatment, which depends entirely on the water analysis.

These are indicative ranges, not a quotation. They are compiled from published South African supplier and contractor pricing to give you a starting point for budgeting. They are not our rate card, and no figure here is a commitment.

Treat them as a broad guide only. Published borehole pricing in South Africa varies enormously - different 2026 guides quote per-metre drilling rates for the same province that differ by a factor of three - because depth, geology, access, specification, distance and fuel costs all move the number. Depth in particular is not known until the hole is finished. Figures generally exclude VAT unless noted, and change over time. Only an itemised written quote against your actual site means anything.

Big Bay Borehole FAQs

Do Big Bay estates allow boreholes?

Many do, but the estate's own rules apply alongside the City's registration requirement, and they vary between developments.

Confirm access routes, permitted drilling hours and where surface plant may sit before booking a rig, because a clash on the day costs a mobilisation fee.

How deep is the water table at Big Bay?

Shallow, as it is right along this coastal strip, which keeps drilling quick and relatively inexpensive.

The cost centre on a sand hole is the screened casing and gravel pack rather than the metres, and that is where the specification actually matters.

Will a Big Bay borehole stain my paving?

Quite possibly, because iron is the standard nuisance in the coastal sand aquifer and it oxidises to a rust colour the moment it meets air. It is cosmetic rather than dangerous.

Iron removal is routine treatment once the analysis quantifies it. Sizing that filtration off a real water test rather than a guess is what keeps it from being a running battle.

Can over-pumping a Big Bay borehole draw in seawater?

Close to the coast, yes. Pulling harder than the aquifer recharges can draw the saline interface inland and toward the hole, and once salinity climbs it does not reverse quickly.

That is the practical argument for yield testing: it establishes a sustainable rate, and the pump is then sized to that rather than to whatever the hole can be forced to give on the day.