Those of you with septic tanks....please educate me!

[bsnyder]

I'm a city gal, so I've always lived in homes that were on a sewer system. I really know almost nothing about septic systems.

We have a contract to purchase a vacation home in North Carolina. We're buying it with my sister and her husband. All the homes have septic tanks.

The man we're buying the house from has told us that he has never had a problem with the septic tank. After he bought the house, he paved some additional parking area next to the driveway, and then subsequently discovered that the septic tank was likely to be located under the area he paved.

We have now determined that this is indeed correct, and that we'll have to dig up part of this paved area to get access to the tank.

It's never been pumped out before, and the house is over 40 years old. The seller has been a widower for a long time (30 years) and has basically lived in the house by himself. My concern is that when we use the house, it will frequently be with a crowd of people (our family of 5 and my sister's family of 5). Not sure if that will put more strain on the septic system than it can handle.

So, is this something we should do right away (cleaning out the tank) or just wait until there is a problem???

 

[kendall]

Bet,

If you haven't already purchased the house, I would have the seller dig up the additional parking area and pump the tank at his expense. Or, get an estimate for the work and reduce your purchase price accordingly. What you need to worry about are (1) access to the septic tank for pumping, (2) how and where the septic field drains (has the additional parking area affected this) and (3) what the capacity of the septic tank is - if it is 40 years old, it won't be that big, and as a widower has hasn't really taxed the system. Local health regulations may require that there be access to the tank, and once you assume the property you may have to comply with current code. Good luck! Congrats on your purchase!

 

[bsnyder]

Thanks kendall. You've confirmed what I was thinking....

The drain fields are not under the paved area. That's a good thing, right?

I've had several septic companies come out to look. The first one did mention that because of the age of the house, that the tank is probably not big enough and that health department regulations would require it to be upgraded before the sale.. He said this in front of the seller, so I guess he won't be suprised if we come back and negotiate the price down to cover the cost of accessing the tank to assess its' size and condition.

Any idea what it costs to replace an existing one with a bigger tank????

 

[kendall]

I have no idea about the cost - I'm sure that would vary by region. Variables that impact it include the number of bedrooms/bathrooms in the house, the presence of a kitchen garbage disposal, and the amount of land, type/size/placement/efficacy of the drain field, and required size of tank for the size of the house. Definitely something to negotiate if you are going to have to bring the house up to code...if it has to be upgraded before the sale, then it sounds like the seller has the financial responsibility....

 

[judi]

I would find out how many leach beds it has. The more it has the better. For our family of 5 we have two leach beds. Septic tanks need to be emptied every 2-3 years. Septic tanks can cost 10,000 plus for a new one. Very expensive.

 

[bsnyder]

What's a leach bed?

I didn't even know what a field drain was until a few days ago, but I'm learning!

 

[judi]

A leach bed is a drain field. With a septic tank the heavier waste sinks to the bottom of the septic tank (this is what gets cleaned out) then you have an over flow that goes out to your leach or drain field and is kind of filtered into the ground. When a septic tank goes it usually will flood the leach bed/drain field, but not always. With a septic tank you need to watch what is being put down your drains. There are a lot of don'ts as to what can go into a septic tank. Septic tanks aren't bad to use, you just need to do a little research so you don't put out a lot of money for repairs or a new system. It costs us $175 every two years to have ours cleaned. I hope I haven't confused you more.

 

[bsnyder]

Judi, you haven't confused me at all. I appreciate the information.

 

[Mskanga]

I can second everything that has been said here , I have a septic tank.
Our home is 12 years old, we are a family of 4 and our tank has a capacity of 1000 gallons.
The first thing you want to make sure is that the size of the tank is up to code, old houses tend to have smaller tanks. The second thing you want to do is locate the lid to the septic tank and make sure it has easy access, if it's under paved area, the area needs to be ripped out.
To replace a septic tank can be easily $6000+ , in our area I know people who have been quoted $10.000 to replace it.
Septics, depending on the use and size family , are supposed to be pumped out every 2-3 years, if that one has never been pumped out.....I would be a bit nervous about that!
What I can honestly advise you to do is pay an inspector to do a complete and thorough inspection, they are supposed to find problems and make sure evrything is up to date.
Good luck!

 

[FloridaCat]

If the proerty is on a lakefront or any body of public waterway, you should have the County Health Department check it out.

I had over 20 years in real estate and most counties/State have laws whereby private septic systems have to be inspected prior to closing.

I would check this out before I went one step further. To me the paving over is suspisious as when septic systems start to fail the the waste starts coming to the surface.

You also know you may have one problem as he lived alone and you will have a group and any proplems will show up fast.

You can go to the County Health Department and get the information you need.

 

[reldridge]

I have never heard of a septic system being part of a real estate closing here in NC, unless it is showing obvious problems. Having said that, I would absolutlely make a septic system inspection part of the "offer to purchase". State code will not require the system to be "updated" for sale, but some local codes may prevail. With the age of the house, and with the knowledge that the tank has never been pumped out, I would assume that the system will surely have to be addressed before the level of use that you describe. The county health dept. has inspectors who are expert in this issue. Good Luck!! and welcome to North Carolina.

 

[mark & sandra]

We just had ours pumped a couple of days ago, at a cost of 175.00 . It is the 2nd time we have had it done in the 13+ years that we have been here. We 1st had it pumped out sept. 99 and we have 4 adults and 4 children in our house. One thing that my DH did when we first moved in was to put the waste line from the washing machine into a separate drywell. The guy who pumped our system said that removing the washing machine from our septic system probably added a year or two between pump-outs.

 

[DVC-Don]

We have ours pumped every 2 years ($130). The pumping gets the undisolved solids out, so the liquid can run into the leach field. Running the "grey" water from washers to a drywell is illegal here. A good friend of mine is in the septic business. He says they can easily run $10,000+ and 20 to 25 years is the average "life expectancy" of a septic system if taken care of.

One thing to watch for. This fellow has lived there alone and you will have more folks "dumping" into it.

Here, I found a link for you: http://www.extension.umn.edu/info-u/environment/BD317.html

 

[Chattyaholic]

Someone said septic tanks need to be pumped out every couple of years....that's not entirely true. We've lived in our house since 1980 and it's only needed pumped out a couple of times. DH and I are here alone now, but we raised two children in this house and have 3 bathrooms plus washing machine. If I were buying a home that had a septic tank where the access was covered I would want the owner to uncover it and pump it out at their expense, or lower the price of the house. And make sure you don't flush any "foreign objects" or that could cause problems.

 

[Kermit]

If that man hasn't ever had it pumped, my guess is that he is one of those people who doesn't put any toilet paper in the toilet. I grew up in a small town where a lot of my friends lived in the country, and some of them with septic tanks did that. They kept a trash can next to the toilet that was for toilet paper and emptied it frequently. However, if you've always had city sewage like I have, that idea is probably about as appealing to you as it is to me. I would definitely be afraid that adding all those people to the house and actually flushing things down the toilet would be very taxing to it.

 

[TeresaNJ]

Bet, absolutely, positively have that septic system checked before you purchase the house. In my previous home, which was new when we bought it, the septic guy advised us to not let the washing machine water run into the septic tank because the detergeant could kill the good bacteria that helps eat the waste. We did that, not knowing it was illegal. When we sold the house, which was twelve years old at that time, we told the buyer that we had the tank pumped every year, and I had all the cancelled checks for it. I didn't think it was unusual that we had to have the tank pumped once a year, as I grew up in the city, so was unknowledgeable about septic tanks. What I didn't know was that our drain fields sucked. Anyway, to make a long story short, the buyer of our house tried to put a bathroom in on the lower level of the house, which required special plumbing, but he had his non-plumber brother do it, and the system backed up into the house. He then proceeded to sue us, saying we knew the septic system was bad, and he could prove it because we didn't run our washer water into it, so we had to have known. Even though I had pictures of my backyard from twelve years previous showing the hose running from the washer, it didn't matter. It didn't matter that we had the septic system certified from an inspector prior to the sale. We still lost and had to pay for a new system, $15,000, plus our legal fees. What a nightmare!!!!