Menlo Park sits on shale in the valley belt through the eastern suburbs, where the productive targets are intrusive contacts rather than the rock itself.
Drilling is comparatively quick here, which usually keeps the per-metre rate at the lower end of the metro range.
What Is Under Menlo Park
| Formation | Where it sits | What it means for drilling |
|---|---|---|
| Silverton Formation shale | The broad valley ground between the northern and eastern quartzite ridges | The thickest shale unit in the Pretoria Group and the rock under most of these suburbs. It drills quickly but is a weak aquifer in itself; yield depends on fracturing rather than on the rock mass. |
| Diabase dykes and sills | Cutting across the shale throughout the Pretoria valley | The fractured ground beside an intrusion is the target. The intrusive rock itself contributes little. |
| Weathered shale and residual clay | The upper section on most stands | Soft and often swelling. It has to be cased through to competent rock before the hole will stand open. |
Send your street and what the water is for, and get an itemised quote for Menlo Park.
Get a Menlo Park Borehole QuoteWhat That Means for Your Borehole
- Siting is about finding structure, not depth because the shale itself carries little water between fractures.
- Dyke contacts are the targets worth locating and they are exactly what a survey is looking for on this ground.
- Drilling is comparatively quick so the per-metre rate tends to sit at the lower end of the range.
Where We Work Around Menlo Park
- Menlo Park and Menlopark Extension
- Walker Spruit corridor
- Brooklyn and Hazelwood boundaries
- Menlyn approaches
- Lynnwood side
- Complexes and cluster developments
- Schools and church grounds in the suburb
What to Watch For Here
Modest yields are the norm and they are usually enough. Shale ground rarely produces the high-yield boreholes that dolomite can. What it produces reliably is a moderate sustainable rate, and for garden irrigation with a tank that is generally sufficient. Expecting a dolomite-scale yield on this ground leads to disappointment that the geology, not the contractor, is responsible for.
Swelling clay over the shale needs casing. The weathered upper section here is clay-rich and moves with moisture, so it has to be cased through before the hole is stable. That casing is not optional and should be priced per metre in the quote.
What the Water Is Used For
- Watering lawns and beds through the driest months of the year
- Topping up the pool, subject to what the analysis says
- A fallback for when the reticulated supply fails
- Estate common property and verge irrigation
- Reducing a municipal water account that has climbed steeply
Wellpoint or Borehole?
No. Wellpoints need loose sand and a water table within roughly seven metres, and neither is present on the valley shale. Groundwater here is reached by drilling.
Registration and Abstraction
A completed borehole here should be registered with the City of Tshwane, and the responsibility for that sits with the property owner rather than with the driller. Separately, the National Water Act governs how much you may abstract: reasonable domestic use and small-scale gardening generally fall under Schedule 1, while larger, agricultural or commercial abstraction may require registration or a water use authorisation from the Department of Water and Sanitation. The position on domestic registration was being actively revised during 2026, so confirm your obligations before drilling rather than afterwards.
Related Services
For the drilling process itself, the geology across the wider metro and how a quote is put together, see Borehole Drilling Pretoria.
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 - R1,000 /m | This is the quickest ground in the city to drill, and the per-metre rate reflects that relative to the ridges and the dolomite belt. |
| uPVC casing, installed, per metre | R400 - R700 /m | Set by diameter and class, with the quantity determined by the depth of the clay-rich weathered zone above the shale. |
| 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 | R70,000 - R200,000+ | 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 - 2026 guides quote per-metre drilling rates for Gauteng ranging from under R300/m to R1,500/m, a spread of more than five to one - 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.
Menlo Park Borehole FAQs
What is a realistic yield in Menlo Park?
Moderate rather than high. Shale carries water in fractures and along dyke contacts, not throughout the rock mass, so the strong yields seen on the dolomite south of the city are not the expectation here.
For garden irrigation with storage, a moderate yield is normally entirely adequate.
Why does the hole need casing in Menlo Park?
Because the weathered clay above the shale swells and moves, and an uncased hole through it will not stay open.
Casing also keeps surface water and shallow contamination out of the borehole, which matters as much for water quality as it does for stability.
Can I use borehole water for the pool?
Often, but have it analysed first. Iron and manganese in particular can stain pool finishes, and high hardness contributes to scaling.
It is a question the laboratory result answers cheaply, and it is far easier to ask before filling the pool than after.
Is a survey necessary on shale ground?
It is useful, because the targets are structural, dyke contacts and fracture zones, and those are exactly what a survey is looking for.
It does not guarantee water. What it does is reduce the chance of putting the hole in unfractured shale where it will produce very little.
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