Extreme Budget Buster Septic Tank

[GOOFY4DONALD]

I am in the middle of a mini nervous breakdown and I was hoping maybe someone that has gone through it can help. We just moved into a new house. We live outside the city limits on 5 acres. We bought the house with an unfinished basement planning on finishing it ourselves. I just received news that our septic tank and well may not be large enough (unclear if he told me we need to dig a whole new one or just add capacity) and we may not ever be able to fininsh it. Has anyone out there gone through this? The house will be a HUGE waste of space if half of it cannot be used.

 

[HFC1969]

In Missouri...

Its not the size of the tank... but the amount of drainage field you have.

The lines that come off of the tank that distribute all the water that comes out of the tank.

And yes they base that on the amount of bedrooms we have...

To the best of my knowledge

 

[virginiamama]

Are you in the building permit application process? In Virginia as well, septic tank capacity is figured based on the number of bedrooms. Could you call the space "bonus room", and instead of having closets in the room which normally makes them "bedrooms" have a storage area/closet outside of the bonus room?

 

[puffkin]

My aunt had a similar problem Her house is about 20 years old and about 10 years ago they had to replace the entire septic tank because theirs was the builder installed the wrong kind and the township came and cited them (long legal battle but eventually they had to do it). 5 years ago they went to finish off their basement and major issues because of the size of their septic tank. It basically worked out that they scrapped their plans for an extra bedroom/bathroom and basically just did a rec room with a small open alcove for their office. They couldn't even finish off a section for storage as that would consitute a "closet". They had nice shelving built into the back corner of the basement that is closed off, but it is actually NOT finished space.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Well we were thinking if worse came to worse we would just do a rec room...my husband is doing all the work himself and I know we only need a permit if we want anothe bedroom and bathroom.

 

[gator75]

Been there done that. We are in ND here they go by the size of the house. We had ours made bigger new tank and bigger drainfield. The inspectors looked at the size of our house and the amount of baths and bedrooms. Let me tell you though no matter what you are dealing with in regards to a septic system they are always expensive.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Thanks for all the replies. I got a call from the head of the Heath Dept that handles the wastewater. He told me I can build whatever I want in the basement (including 3rd bathroom) as long as I don't add another bedroom (bedroom has to have a window and closet). But an office without a closet is fine. He just advised me that when it is time to replace it (in about 20 years) to make sure it is a 1500 gal tank.

 

[clanmcculloch]

That's how it works here in NH. It's based entirely on the number of bedrooms. It makes sense if you think about it. The number of people living in the house is typically defined by the number of bedrooms. Adding a den or rec room or office doesn't mean more people but adding a bedroom is usually because of more people. More people means more water and waste hence a need for a bigger septic system. An extra bathroom doesn't generally mean more waste or water because generally it's just so people who already there can spread out more or not have to wait on others or not have to go as far.

If you do end up increasing the number of people living in your house, I'd advise you to get your tank pumped more often and also coordinate showers and laundry so you're not pumping too much into your septic all at once or draining your well to low. The rules are there for a reason and the last thing you want is your well dropping too low or your septic backing up into your house.