Edgemead has the generous stands and established gardens that make irrigation demand high, sitting on ground where cover depth over the rock decides your options.
That combination is why storage features in more Edgemead systems than in the surrounding suburbs.
What Is Under Edgemead
| Formation | Where it sits | What it means for drilling |
|---|---|---|
| Malmesbury Group | Beneath the area and at surface across the higher ground | Modest default yields. The productive holes are those that intersect fracture and fault zones. Salinity tends to run higher than in sandy ground. |
| Cape Granite Suite | Reaching into parts of the area | Weathered mantle and jointing hold the water. Contact zones with the shale are worth targeting. |
| Sand and superficial cover | Variable, thicker toward the Cape Flats side | Where it has useful depth it can hold shallow water. Where thin, it is only overburden to drill through. |
Send your street and what the water is for, and get an itemised quote for Edgemead.
Get a Edgemead Borehole QuoteWhat That Means for Your Borehole
- Ground conditions are inconsistent across the area, so a neighbour's quote is a poor guide to yours.
- Salinity testing is standard practice here, not an optional extra on the analysis.
- Size the pump from the yield test, never from what the hole did during drilling.
Where We Work Around Edgemead
- Edgemead central and the older streets
- Welgelegen and the Monte Vista boundary
- Bothasig-side approaches
- Complexes and retirement developments through the suburb
- Larger stands backing onto open ground
- Edgemead schools and institutional grounds
- Plattekloof boundary properties
What to Watch For Here
Established gardens outrun modest yields. Mature Edgemead gardens carry a heavier peak irrigation demand than the ground here reliably sustains at that moment. That is a storage problem, not a pump problem, and fitting a bigger pump makes it worse.
Iron staining on paving and walls is a common complaint where the water draws from the sandy cover. It is straightforward to treat, but only once concentrations are measured.
What the Water Is Used For
- Irrigation for established gardens on generous stands
- Complex and retirement development landscaping
- Grounds at schools and institutional properties
- Pool make-up water, normally once iron has been dealt with
- Indoor non-potable use where the two supplies are properly isolated
- Continuity cover when the mains supply goes down
Wellpoint or Borehole?
Rarely an option. The rock sits too close to surface for a driven point across most of this ground, and the water table is below practical suction lift. Thicker sandy cover toward the flats is the only setting where it is worth assessing.
Registration and Abstraction
Boreholes and wellpoints here must be registered with the City of Cape Town. 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.
Related Services
For the drilling process itself, the geology across the wider metro and how a quote is put together, see Borehole Drilling Cape Town.
Borehole Prices in This Area
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 | R450 - R1,100 /m | Depends which formation you hit. Sandy cover drills fast; the Malmesbury rock and granite beneath it do not. |
| uPVC casing, installed, per metre | R400 - R700 /m | Diameter and class. Weathered-zone thickness is not known until drilling starts. |
| Mobilisation and site establishment | R2,500 - R9,000 | 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 | R65,000 - R190,000+ | 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.
Edgemead Borehole FAQs
Will a borehole keep an Edgemead garden going through summer?
Usually, but with storage rather than by pumping harder. Mature gardens here have a peak demand that commonly exceeds what the ground sustains at that instant.
A tank filled steadily at the sustainable rate and drawn down quickly when irrigation runs is the standard answer. Over-pumping to meet the peak directly damages both borehole and pump.
Why is Edgemead borehole water staining my paving?
Iron, often with manganese producing black rather than reddish marks. Both dissolve invisibly so the water arrives clear, then oxidise on contact with air and deposit on surfaces.
Treatment is oxidation followed by filtration, specified from measured concentrations rather than guessed at.
Is a wellpoint an option in Edgemead?
It depends on cover depth over the rock, which varies across the suburb. Where the sand is deep enough and the water table shallow, a point can handle garden irrigation cheaply.
On the larger stands with heavier demand, a point often falls short even where it is technically possible, and a borehole with storage is the better answer.
What does a borehole cost in Edgemead?
Drilling is per metre, so the total follows the depth reached, and that depends on how much cover sits over the rock beneath your stand.
Budget separately for storage, which is needed more often here than in the smaller-garden suburbs nearby. The indicative ranges below cover the whole project.
DRILLING IN EDGEMEAD?
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