Question about well and septic

[Soarin_04]

We love our well / well water. We had the water quality checked, and it's great (and as someone else has posted, other water now tastes like swimming pool water to me), and our well was apparently dug deeper than most so even when we had a drought a few years ago and others had to re-dig, we were fine, however...



Did we get taken when it came to the septic. Yes, they "checked" it and yes, it was "fine"...

..until three years ago when it was determined that the field is pretty much saturated, the pipes should be replaced, and we'll need to have a turkey mound installed. Apparently, the previous owner didn't have it drained every three years or so as recommended and she did minimal upkeep on it (or a lot of other things that later surfaced).

Estimated cost? $20,000.

We're in the process of nickle and diming and trying to save to replace it, and we're kind of limping along with it.

Don't go with what the owner / realtor says. Get an independent person to investigate it. It'll be worth the peace of mind.

 

[marie1203]

I think is very important to get an inspection. We have a septic and never had a problem with it. Make sure to asked when was pumped last time.

 

[dawson5]

we just had our leach field replaced in October. It cost $5600. Nothing wrong with the tank, no need to replace that. Should have taken three days, ended up being a week because our field was so saturated, when they pumped the tank it kept flowing back into the tank. We ended up having to have it pumped three times before they could install the diverter valve and have the health department come and okay it. (The guy they used for pumping had a 1000 gallon tank. I let him pump twice, got fed up and called the gal who does ours. She has a 2500 gallon tank and charges per trip-$150- as opposed to his $100 for the first 500 galls and $25 for each 100 gallons after. She actually gained their business because of our job.)

OP Did your son have it inspected? Make sure the leach field is up to date with the area. Our original lines were for 1000 square feet. The new system uses 1200 square feet. We were able to put in a diverter valve and after about 5 years, we should be able to go between the two fields. We should never run into this problem again. Our soil is very clayey (?sp) and doesn't handle this well. This is why the new rules with a larger leach field. Our home is only 18 yrs. We're seeing a lot of these replaced as homes sell in the neighborhood.

After this happened, from what I found out, have the septic tested before it is pumped. If the tank is pumped, they really can't accurately tell if the field is working properly. What I've read is that they put 200 gallons into the tank (most tanks hold 1000 gallons), so if it's empty, you can't see how it handles that amount of waste.

Another thing with the well, find out about the codes for this. I believe we have a four inch well. A friend of ours had to have his well drilled because when his filter went out, they could not fix it. He had to have it re-drilled to the four inch code being used now. I hope that makes sense.

Also, we have a disposal. No problems using it. Mostly just what is left on the plate. Our issues arose from our soil, not from the disposal. Whatever you do, don't put coffee grounds down the drain. We've never used the RidX, our septic lady told us if we wanted, put yeast in there.

One other thing. Our whole area is septic and well. There is a part of town east of us that they are going to add sewer lines to and take them to the town north of us. This will cost them $2500 for the sewer lines and the sewer fees will be $75/month on up.

 

[Kycha]

No problems with a dishwasher - or I wouldn't be living in the country. I can live without the disposal with no problem.

Obviously - the decision to add a disposal is your son's. He should just do very careful research. While we've not looked at this in years...our thoughts have always been - a septic is designed to handle human waste, not food products.

My Mom just had a home built and the home builder refused to install a garbage disposal. And was told if she installed a garbage disposal on her own, it would void the warranty on the septic system. So that is something else to take into account.

 

[hinodis]

we just had our leach field replaced in October. It cost $5600. Nothing wrong with the tank, no need to replace that. Should have taken three days, ended up being a week because our field was so saturated, when they pumped the tank it kept flowing back into the tank. We ended up having to have it pumped three times before they could install the diverter valve and have the health department come and okay it. (The guy they used for pumping had a 1000 gallon tank. I let him pump twice, got fed up and called the gal who does ours. She has a 2500 gallon tank and charges per trip-$150- as opposed to his $100 for the first 500 galls and $25 for each 100 gallons after. She actually gained their business because of our job.)

OP Did your son have it inspected? Make sure the leach field is up to date with the area. Our original lines were for 1000 square feet. The new system uses 1200 square feet. We were able to put in a diverter valve and after about 5 years, we should be able to go between the two fields. We should never run into this problem again. Our soil is very clayey (?sp) and doesn't handle this well. This is why the new rules with a larger leach field. Our home is only 18 yrs. We're seeing a lot of these replaced as homes sell in the neighborhood.

After this happened, from what I found out, have the septic tested before it is pumped. If the tank is pumped, they really can't accurately tell if the field is working properly. What I've read is that they put 200 gallons into the tank (most tanks hold 1000 gallons), so if it's empty, you can't see how it handles that amount of waste.

Another thing with the well, find out about the codes for this. I believe we have a four inch well. A friend of ours had to have his well drilled because when his filter went out, they could not fix it. He had to have it re-drilled to the four inch code being used now. I hope that makes sense.

Also, we have a disposal. No problems using it. Mostly just what is left on the plate. Our issues arose from our soil, not from the disposal. Whatever you do, don't put coffee grounds down the drain. We've never used the RidX, our septic lady told us if we wanted, put yeast in there.

One other thing. Our whole area is septic and well. There is a part of town east of us that they are going to add sewer lines to and take them to the town north of us. This will cost them $2500 for the sewer lines and the sewer fees will be $75/month on up.

Who do I have inspect the well and septic? He hired a home inspector. Do I need some kind of specialist in this field to look at it? Where does he take the water to test it?

 

[mtblujeans]

We have a well, septic, water softner, garbage disposal, and dishwasher. The septic is supposed to be 'pumped' about every 5 years. I don't put egg shells down the garbage disposal and I've never had a problem with it. We tested our water from an outside source in order to know what to set the water softner at. We put salt in it about once a year. You're supposed to stir the salt around every once in awhile to keep it working properly. We have a gravel pit nearby so we have a Brita filter on the kitchen faucet where we get most of our drinking water. We change that filter about every 3 months.

 

[horseshowmom]

Who do I have inspect the well and septic? He hired a home inspector. Do I need some kind of specialist in this field to look at it? Where does he take the water to test it?

County Health Department

 

[dawson5]

The septic should be tested by a septic company--when we bought or built our last three houses, this was required by the bank. I would ask friends who have gone through this process on who is good. Or look in the phone book and see who pumps the septic, either they will or can recommend someone. Ours have all been entirely different from the home inspector.

The pumping you need to get recommendations on. What is good for one, might not be good for others. I have six people in my house, four bedrooms, two and a half baths. We need ours pumped every other year. My neighbor has same bedroom/bath ratio but has three daughters. Our septic lady flat out told her women were heck on systems and to pump every year. She had to have hers replaced seven years ago--houses in our neighborhood are 18 years (give or take a year). Hers went way before it should have.


ETA: Where at in Michigan? We used to live in Battle Creek. I can try and find numbers of who we used there.

One other thing, when it comes time to pump, call around. We had to have our tank emptied before we sold and found everyone in the BC area wanted over $250 to pump. Our realtor found a guy in the next town to do it for $170. She wondered aloud if they were allowed to cart waste from one county into another. Never did find out if it was allowed or not.

 

[Hardy]

We have a septic tank and a community well. The well we have a bill for, whenever someone bothers to come out and read it, might be 3 months, might be 6 the upside to that is whenever something fails, we don't pay for it. The downside is, we don't have control of it.......like this morning, we had no water. The pump probably lost power, just have to wait for someone else to deal with it (of course I have a ton of laundry to do!). The water is extremely hard, lots of iron in our water. We drink our water, and have never had a problem. It is occasionally tested (by law, it must be) and has never had an issue. There is no flouride in well water obviously. Something to discuss with your dentist for kids....our dentist does not want our kids to have extra flouride, they just use a rinse, others may have a different opinion.

Our house was built in 74 I think, and the septic tank is just as old. We had it pumped last year, all was well with it, and it hadn't been pumped for 10 years before that (according to the most recent receipt I could find when we bought the place). Older systems are very simple and don't require any fuss.

We have a disposal (put very minimal stuff down there) and we have a dishwasher...I only use natural detergent, the regular stuff is harsh on the septic and can contaminate ground water.

You also want to limit things like bleach going down drains b/c it is bad for the balance of the septic....and try not to overload the system, like doing a load of laundry once a day, instead of 6 loads in one day.

And our septic guy also told us NO rid-x or any of that stuff.....it is bad for the system. He said it causes a weird oil slick kind of situation and the tank doesn't work properly.