(704) 773-5121 Book my free water test

Well Water Treatment for Charlotte, Rock Hill and the Carolinas Piedmont

Nobody is testing your well but you.

North Carolina’s health department states it plainly: there is no mandated oversight of private well water quality, it is the responsibility of the homeowner. South Carolina’s environmental agency puts it in capital letters: SCDES does not regulate the water quality of private wells.

About 2.4 million North Carolinians drink groundwater. A city utility publishes an annual report covering a long list of tested contaminants. A well publishes nothing.

Our well water system is $4,500 installed, sized to your readings rather than to a catalogue page. And if your well needs less than the standard build, it gets quoted on its own and lands under $4,500.

What Piedmont bedrock produces

This is a well-studied region, and the problems are predictable.

The US Geological Survey’s survey of Piedmont and Blue Ridge groundwater found the most common exceedances of drinking-water criteria were radon, pH, manganese, iron and zinc. Here is what that means in a house, and here are the two things you cannot see, taste or smell.

The five common ones

USGS, Piedmont and Blue Ridge groundwater

  • Iron. Orange or brown staining in sinks, tubs and toilets. Rust-coloured laundry. A metallic taste. USGS found iron exceedances across more than half the geozones studied.
  • Manganese. Grey or black staining and a different taste. “Manganese exceeded the MCL of 0.05 mg/L for wells in six geozones.”
  • Sulfur. The rotten-egg smell, usually strongest at the hot tap.
  • Low pH. The quiet one. “All geozones, with the exception of the Grenville gneiss geozone, had multiple wells with pH values outside the range of 6.5 to 8.5, most of which were less than 6.5.” Acidic water dissolves copper from the inside: blue-green staining, pinhole leaks, a water heater that failed years early.
  • Hardness. Here, unlike on city water, a softener genuinely earns its keep.

USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5149 · read it

Arsenic, if you are in Union County

Carolina Slate Belt bedrock

  • Peer-reviewed analysis of more than 5,100 state-laboratory tests found 1,003 of 5,154 Union County well tests (19.5%) at or above the 10 ppb federal limit, with a maximum detection of 303 ppb.
  • Independently corroborated at 19.51% by a second study. The statewide rate is about 2.25%.
  • Union County Environmental Health attributes it to the Carolina Slate Belt, which it says has “a greater number of drinking water wells with arsenic than other regions.”
  • Arsenic has no taste, colour or smell. No field kit finds it. It is a laboratory test or it is nothing.

Eaves et al., NCWELL, Science of the Total Environment 2022 · Sanders et al., Environment International 2012 · read it

Radon, on the Mecklenburg and Gaston side

Narrower than the version usually quoted

  • North Carolina’s Radon-in-Water Advisory Committee sampled 358 private bedrock wells inside seven areas it mapped as particularly susceptible, areas that include parts of Mecklenburg, Gaston and Lincoln counties.
  • 99% came back above 300 pCi/L and 57% above 4,000.
  • EPA proposed 300 pCi/L as a limit in 1991 and never enacted it, so there is no federal standard to be over. That does not make it nothing.
  • Those seven areas do not include Union County. The radon story is Mecklenburg, Gaston and Lincoln. The arsenic story is Union. Do not let anyone swap them.

NC Radon-in-Water Advisory Committee Final Report, 9 March 2011 · read it

What a home test kit cannot do. A field kit cannot reliably detect arsenic, bacteria, radon, PFAS or lead. Those need a laboratory, and anyone who tells you their kitchen-counter kit found PFAS in your water is not being straight with you. For those, use the state programme, and we will point you at it whether you buy from us or not. South Carolina: SC DES sells a $20 coliform test and a $50 metals and minerals panel, free once a year for residents 65 and over or on public assistance. Their lab is not accepting metals samples between 1 June and 1 October 2026. North Carolina: your county environmental health department. Mecklenburg County runs well permitting and sampling.

Published pricing

Two standard rates. Both on this page.

A house is either on city water or on a well, so there are two prices. They are the same in every house we install in, they are the same on the invoice, and they do not move because you seem interested or because it is a Friday afternoon.

If you are on city water

The city water system

$2,900installed · about $121/mo, 24 months at 0%
  • Whole-house filtration plus softening, at the point water enters the house
  • Treated water at every tap, shower, ice maker and appliance
  • Takes down chlorine and the trihalomethanes disinfection leaves behind
  • Licensed install, tested before we leave, old equipment hauled away
  • Lifetime tank and valve warranty
Book my free water test
If you are on a well

The well water system

$4,500installed · about $188/mo, 24 months at 0%
  • Multi-stage treatment for iron, manganese, sulfur, sediment and low pH
  • Built for Piedmont bedrock wells in York, Lancaster, Union and Gaston
  • Softening sized to the well’s hardness reading, where it genuinely earns its keep
  • Same install standard, same warranty
  • Lifetime tank and valve warranty
Book my free water test

A premium national dealer quotes $7,500 to $11,000 for a comparable full system in this market. Ours are $2,900 and $4,500, installed, published. We are not going to characterize that gap with an adjective.

Market survey of the Charlotte metro, July 2026, compiled from Angi, HomeAdvisor, HomeGuide and published Culligan, Kinetico, RainSoft and EcoWater dealer quotes

Custom is quoted, and it usually costs less. If your house needs less than the standard system, a drinking-water system but no softening, say, that is quoted on its own and it lands under the standard rate. The standard is a ceiling for a typical house, not a starting point.

Every price we publish, installed: $2,900 city mixed-bed system with RO · $3,500 dual-tank city system with RO · $4,500 well system · $2,300 coconut-carbon or $2,500 catalytic-carbon system with RO, no softening · $700 tankless RO on its own. See the full pricing page for what each rate covers and what it costs to own.

Nobody publishes a lower installed price. Find one, we’ll beat it.

That stands against both rates, the $2,900 and the $4,500.

Published, installed, like-for-like, Charlotte metro. Show us a competitor’s own published installed price for a comparable whole-home system in our service area and we will beat it. It has to be a number they printed, not one somebody said in a kitchen, because a price nobody will print is not a price.

Send us the page

What we install on a well

Well water system, $4,500 installed. Multi-stage treatment sized to your readings, not to a catalogue page: sediment, iron and manganese, sulfur, pH correction, and softening matched to your actual hardness number. Licensed install, tested before we leave, old equipment hauled away, lifetime warranty on tank and valve. About $188 a month at 0% over 24 months.

And per the standard-rate rule: if your well needs less than the standard build, iron and sediment only, say, it gets quoted on its own and lands under $4,500. The standard is a ceiling for a typical well, not a starting point.

Arsenic remediation and UV for bacteria are the exceptions. Those are quoted as named, itemised lines with the lab result attached, and only if we identified them at the test. If we did not name it at the test, we do not add it afterwards.

Where these wells are

York and Lancaster counties in South Carolina, and Union, Cabarrus, Gaston, Iredell and the outer parts of Mecklenburg in North Carolina. Fort Mill’s edges toward Tega Cay, the large-lot parcels north of Huntersville, Weddington and Marvin and Wesley Chapel, and out past Gastonia into Gaston County.

How the free test works

Our free test covers iron, manganese, hardness, pH and total dissolved solids at your tap, in about 45 minutes, and you keep the readings. For arsenic, bacteria and the things that need a laboratory, we will tell you which test to order and where.

  1. Book the test

    Pick a time, including weekday evenings and Saturday mornings. It takes about 45 minutes and it costs nothing.

  2. We measure

    Hardness, chlorine, total dissolved solids, pH and iron, read at your kitchen tap while you watch. You keep the readings.

  3. You get a number

    The standard rate if the standard build is what your water needs, or a smaller custom number if it is not. Plus the running cost for the first year. Written down before we leave.

  4. We install

    Usually inside the same week. Licensed install, tested on the spot, old equipment hauled away.

Well water questions, answered with the research

How do I get iron out of well water?

With an oxidising filter sized to the actual iron concentration, which is why the measurement comes before the equipment. Iron shows up as orange staining and a metallic taste, and USGS found iron exceeding drinking-water criteria across more than half the Piedmont geozones studied.

USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5149

Why does my well water smell like rotten eggs?

Usually hydrogen sulfide, often strongest at the hot tap. It is treatable, and the right treatment depends on the concentration and on whether iron and manganese are present with it.

Do I need a water softener on a well?

Often yes. This is the case where softening genuinely earns its keep, unlike on Charlotte city water. But it should be sized to your well’s hardness reading, not sold as a default.

How often should I test my well?

More often than most people do. Neither North Carolina nor South Carolina requires any ongoing testing of private wells, so the schedule is entirely yours. NC DHHS states there is no mandated oversight of private well water quality.

NC DHHS, Private Wells: Facts and Figures · SC Department of Environmental Services

Should I test for arsenic near Charlotte?

If you are in Union County or on Carolina Slate Belt bedrock, yes. Peer-reviewed analysis found roughly one in five Union County well tests at or above the 10 ppb federal arsenic limit, against a statewide rate near 2.25%. It has no taste, colour or smell, so a laboratory test is the only way to find it.

Eaves et al., NCWELL, Science of the Total Environment 2022 · Sanders et al., Environment International 2012

All questions

Your town, with its own utility’s numbers.

Every town below has a different report behind it, so every page below prints different figures. Same two rates on all of them.

Towns we install in

Other services

Get your free water test.

Takes about 45 minutes at your own tap. You get the readings, the recommendation and the price in writing, plus a straight answer on which laboratory test to order for the things a field kit cannot see.

Call or text
(704) 773-5121
Email
hello@standardwaternc.com
Hours
Mon to Fri 8am to 6pm · Sat 9am to 2pm
Service area
Charlotte, Huntersville, Matthews, Mint Hill, Concord, Gastonia, Monroe, Indian Trail, Waxhaw, Weddington, Marvin, Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Tega Cay, Indian Land and Lake Wylie. Full list
Standard rates
City water system $2,900 installed, about $121 a month at 24 months, 0%. Well water system $4,500 installed, about $188 a month. Custom is quoted, and it usually costs less.

Book my free water test

Takes 30 seconds. No obligation.

Every price published, installed. Pick the closest one — the free test confirms it, and custom is quoted and usually costs less.

100% free · No obligation · We will tell you if you do not need us

Call Free water test