Cost and difficuty of connecting house to city sewer? (Austin: how much, plumbing)

[yam]

I looked at a house today which was not connected to city sewer (rollingwood). Sewer is available at the street but the current homeowner elected to stick with their septic system. What is involved in connecting to city sewer, and what does this typically cost?

[ROY DUBOSE]

so much is going to depend on the location of the city waste water line and the existing plumbing configuration to the structure. a part of that variable will be the soil conditon (rock or dirt -- you get the picuture) and requirements the city may have to disable the septic. about the only thing you can "depend" on are basic charges the city has for tying-in. more than likely, the cost out weighed the benefit to the current homeowner and should be a guide. septic systems, operating and maintaned correctly, are no problem -- just takes a little more awareness and discipline on the homeowner's part. get a quote and make a decision

[yam]

I understand that it can vary. However I know that several hundred homes in Rollingwood connected to sewer a few years ago, and I'd imagine this house and lot ought to be similar to most of those.... just hoping someone around here knows about how much the typical homeowner paid for one of these connections.

[ScoPro]

My brother's house in Balcones Village on 183 north was annexed by Austin 12 years ago and the city put in new sewage lines.

Brother said his septic tank was in the front yard - the plumbing estimate to deactivate (fill in ) the old tank and trench a new sewer pipe from his house to the street hook-up was $4,000. Then on top of that there would be a Capital Recovery fee paid to the City of Austin for about $4,500.

He declined to do that and is still on septic.

His neighbor's septic was in the backyard, and wound up paying a total of $9,000 to hook up to the city sewage.

This was 12 years ago, and they were uncomplicated conversions. It may be more difficult in Rollingwood, depending on the elevations, distances, rock excavation, etc.

Today, it could run double the figures above. You'll just have to get an estimate and check to see if there's any kind of Capital Recovery fee from the City.

That's all I got.

[yam]

Thanks Scopro. That's the kind of data I'm looking for. Hoping to get a few more datapoints here if I can, especially from anyone in Rollingwood. The lot is flat.

[CptnRn]

I have heard of a few instances where the elevation of the sewer line at the house was relatively low compared to the connection point in the street. Which made it very difficult to get a decent slope in the line. That would be the first thing to investigate.

[Rehsa]

We want to renovate and add onto our house. If we "move" the plumbing but do not add any plumbing, will Austin require us to switch from septic to City sewage?

[emileNOLA]

I'll second Scopro's numbers, capital recovery to COA runs around 5000K.