Menlyn sits on shale ground in the middle of Pretoria's busiest commercial node, where the geology is straightforward and the site conditions are not.
Most projects here are commercial, and the constraints are services, paving and operating hours rather than rock.
What Is Under Menlyn
| Formation | Where it sits | What it means for drilling |
|---|---|---|
| Silverton Formation shale | The broad valley ground between the northern and eastern quartzite ridges | Fast drilling and a poor aquifer on its own. Water is confined to fractures and bedding partings, so the rock between them contributes almost nothing. |
| 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 | Unstable and moisture-sensitive at the top. Casing down to competent rock is standard practice here. |
Send your street and what the water is for, and get an itemised quote for Menlyn.
Get a Menlyn Borehole QuoteWhat That Means for Your Borehole
- Siting is about finding structure, not depth because the shale itself carries little water between fractures.
- Drilling is comparatively quick so the per-metre rate tends to sit at the lower end of the range.
- Yields here are usually modest but workable which is well suited to irrigation with storage rather than to high continuous draw.
Where We Work Around Menlyn
- Menlyn retail and office node
- Menlyn Maine precinct
- Waterkloof Glen boundary
- Menlo Park approaches
- Ashlea Gardens side
- Hotel and hospitality properties
- Residential apartments in the node
What to Watch For Here
Commercial sites are congested below ground. Retail and office developments carry dense service runs, basement structures and stormwater infrastructure. Locating all of it before drilling is a necessary first step, and it often narrows the viable positions to one or two.
Trading hours govern the programme. Drilling at an operating retail or office site usually has to happen outside trading hours or in phases, which lengthens the programme without changing the drilling itself. That should be reflected in the quote rather than discovered later.
What the Water Is Used For
- Commercial and retail landscaping
- Continuity cover during water interruptions
- Wash-down, cooling and general non-potable site use
- Cutting the volume bought from the metro each month
- Common areas across complexes and estate developments
Wellpoint or Borehole?
Not an option. The residual clay over the shale is not the unconsolidated, permeable material a driven point needs, and the water table sits well below suction range. A drilled borehole is the route to groundwater here.
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 | Shale drills faster than the quartzite and dolomite elsewhere in the metro, which usually keeps the per-metre rate lower. |
| uPVC casing, installed, per metre | R400 - R700 /m | The weathered clay above the rock is what has to be cased through, so its depth decides the length required. |
| 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.
Menlyn Borehole FAQs
Can a commercial property in Menlyn run on borehole water?
For irrigation and non-potable uses, commonly. For potable supply to a commercial building the requirements are much more demanding and include treatment and ongoing monitoring.
Volume is the other question: sustained commercial abstraction may need registration or authorisation from the Department of Water and Sanitation rather than falling under Schedule 1.
How is drilling handled at an operating retail site?
Usually outside trading hours, with the working area barricaded and reinstated before opening. That phasing lengthens the programme.
It should be priced into the quote from the start, because it is the main reason a commercial job costs more than a residential one of the same depth.
What is the payback on a commercial borehole here?
It depends entirely on how much water the site currently buys and what it is used for. Irrigation-heavy sites tend to see the clearest case.
Any honest projection has to wait for the tested yield, because a system sized against an optimistic figure will not deliver the savings assumed for it.
Is the geology under Menlyn difficult?
Not particularly. It is shale valley ground, which drills reasonably quickly and carries water in fractures and dyke contacts.
The difficulty on a Menlyn site is almost always above ground rather than below it.
DRILLING IN MENLYN?
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