Scarborough is hard rock close to the sea on small, often steep stands, which makes it one of the more constrained places in the metro to drill.
The site visit decides more here than the geology discussion does.
What Is Under Scarborough
| Formation | Where it sits | What it means for drilling |
|---|---|---|
| Table Mountain Group sandstone | The mountain ground rising directly behind and above the properties | Hard quartzitic rock where water occupies fractures. Yield depends on intersecting them rather than on depth reached. |
| Cape Granite Suite | The lower ground and coastal margin | Weathered mantle and jointing carry the water. Depth to fresh rock varies over short distances. |
| Thin coastal and slope deposits | The narrow strip along the shoreline and at the foot of the slopes | Generally too thin and variable to be a target in their own right. |
Send your street and what the water is for, and get an itemised quote for Scarborough.
Get a Scarborough Borehole QuoteWhat That Means for Your Borehole
- Access usually decides the project ahead of geology on steep, constrained stands.
- Measure salinity on properties close to the shoreline.
- Small stands limit siting, which reduces what a survey can offer beyond confirming the one available position.
Where We Work Around Scarborough
- Scarborough village and the coastal stands
- Misty Cliffs approaches
- Cape Point road properties
- Kommetjie-side approaches
- Holiday and rental properties
- Smaller village stands
- Properties on the slopes above the village
What to Watch For Here
Small stands and hard rock together limit the options severely. Where the drillable area clear of structures and services is very small, there may be only one viable position, which reduces what siting can contribute beyond confirming it.
Remote location adds to mobilisation. Distance from base is a real line item here, and it is worth having it quoted explicitly rather than buried in a lump sum.
What the Water Is Used For
- Garden irrigation on village stands
- Holiday and rental property supply
- Standby supply where municipal reliability is a concern
- Pool replenishment after the water has been checked
- Small guesthouse and hospitality use
- Landscape maintenance on coastal properties
Wellpoint or Borehole?
Rarely viable. There is little sand of usable depth and hard rock sits close to surface, so a driven point has nothing to penetrate. A drilled borehole is effectively the only route on the great majority of properties here.
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 | R600 - R1,300 /m | Hard quartzitic sandstone and granite are the slowest drilling in the region, and access is often constrained. |
| 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 | R95,000 - R250,000+ | 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.
Scarborough Borehole FAQs
Is drilling practical in Scarborough?
Often, but the site visit decides it rather than the geology discussion. Small stands, hard rock close to surface and steep ground together limit where a rig can work.
Where the drillable area is very small there may be only one viable position, which is worth establishing before any quote is prepared.
Why is Scarborough drilling expensive?
Three things compound. Hard quartzitic sandstone and granite are the slowest drilling in the region, depth is unpredictable because yield depends on hitting fractures, and the distance from base pushes mobilisation up.
Ask for mobilisation as an explicit line item rather than allowing it to sit inside a lump sum.
Can a holiday property here rely on a borehole?
It can, and dry-run protection matters particularly where irrigation runs unattended, because a pump losing water with nobody present will destroy itself.
Given the remoteness, a fault here is more disruptive and slower to attend than in the metro, which makes proper protection and sensible controls worth the extra.
Is a wellpoint possible in Scarborough?
Rarely. There is little sand of usable depth and rock sits close to surface across the village, so a driven point has nothing to penetrate.
A drilled borehole is effectively the only route to groundwater on the great majority of properties here.
DRILLING IN SCARBOROUGH?
Send your street and what you need the water for, and get an itemised quote.
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