Buying a new house - bad septic inspection

[ruadisneyfan2]

We have public sewer here but after buying 2 homes, I would say the few hundred $ spent on your own inspection (without frozen ground) by an inspector of your choice would be a few drops in a bucket compared to the potential cost down the road once you're locked into this deal.

Personally, I don't see how you would even have enough information without another inspection to make a decision.
If the frozen ground made the inspection limited, having another one done now would be $ well spent. If repairs need to be made, you could get some price quotes before getting yourselves locked into buying.

Of course no one can predict the future, and unexpected repairs can arise any time when you own a home but you should be prepared to fix any known problems. I would make it a high priority to discover any possible problems that currently exist so you know exactly what you're getting into.

We bought our current home 17 yrs ago. It was a 40 yr old fixer upper. The home inspection mentioned a possible crack in the heat exchanger of the furnace. (Also mentions that do to limited access to that part of the furnace it had to be viewed with a mirror, so the crack was not definite.) My brother who does HVAC told us worse case scenario is we'd need a new furnace but also said don't sleep there one night without a carbon monoxide detector.

Long story short, we put a new furnace in before we moved in but at least we knew before we signed the contract how much that would cost and then planned for it.

There's just no way I could enter into something so binding as home buying without knowing some definite repair prices whether it's septic, roof, major appliances, etc.

 

[CopperWife]

Thanks for all your replies...

I am having a septic repair guy come out to the property on Monday to hear what he has to say. Then we will go from there...

 

[seashoreCM]

... it 'could' be just the pipe itself.

Septic systems can have one or more of the following problems that are pretty much independent of each other.
1. Pipes connecting the various components could be clogged, crushed, or leaking.
2. The septic tank might have broken parts (baffles, etc.) inside or be cracked.
3. Rain water or ground water may be getting into the septic tank because the hatch doesn't fit right or the tank is cracked in a certain way. (It is improper to pour gutter water or driveway runoff or sump pump water down the drain to a septic system.)
4. The leach field (drain field) might be clogged by grease (tank scum), fine particulate matter (tank sludge) or biomat (organic growth that specifically targets septic systems).
5. Due to changes in surface drainage or a poor choice or lack of choice of location to begin with, the leach field is continually saturated with rain water.

The need to pump the septic tank of sludge and scum is not a "problem." All septic tanks need this periodically. But if the tank is found to be overfilled with these materials due to too infrequent pumping, clogging of the leach field is more likely to happen or have happened.

In many communities including all in Massachusetts, if parts of a septic system fail, a new system built to higher standards is needed. Typically a septic tank with two chambers is needed. This way, if sludge and scum exit the main tank, most collects in the second chamber rather than go right to the leach field.

... When we saw the place the first time, I asked the broker what was wrong with it, since I knew it was "as is."

Brokers are not required to do the homework to find all the problems with a house. But the more information they can find out, the less chance there is of working with a buyer and having the buyer back out after considerable time has been spent. Also, brokers must not give out misleading or incorrect information.

Have used any kind of toilet paper - would never put flushable (supposively) wipes in the toilet anyway.

These materials and also vegetable waste (ground up by the sink disposer) are not inherently destructive to a septic system but will shorten the time interval before the next pumping is needed.

 

[Annadesu]

If you can get it inspected, find out a rough estimate of cost... Then do that. If you can't do that, then don't risk it. Some repairs are $80, some are $10,000. We are buying a house with a septic, as well. We just paid the extra money to have it looked at, and said "If it's bad, atleast we only spent $500 instead of $90,000 on the house".

 

[DonaldnDaisy5]

As someone who has had to put two septic systems into two different houses, I say RUN do not walk away!

We ran into so many issues with our second house and trying to fix the system and what our county wanted us to do with it, it would have cost us well over 10,000 dollars.

Our first house the system failed the inspection our buyers were having, we honestly had no problem prior but inspection was done in winter and the ground was frozen. We put a new system in quick for cash and magically the quoted price dropped by several thousand dollars and we were still able to sell.

 

[Firedog]

If it's just the main line from the house to the septic tank that needs replaced this is something that could be as cheap as $600.