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It's a good thing that I have no interest in rural areas, because I admit to a bias against septic systems. My grandmother lived in a rural area and had a septic system, and I recall we were admonished to never throw toilet paper into the toilet if we had only urinated. She kept a very large plastic wastebasket near the toilet for that purpose, and it was not emptied on a daily basis. It didn't smell, but I still remember thinking it was gross.
Well, SF... that's really not necessary, septic systems can handle a normal amount of paper just fine. They just need to be pumped once in awhile. How often depends on your system and your family size.
Once you understand them better, they're not that scary...
They have come a long way from the earliest systems!
At our beach house, probably built in 1900, indoor plumbing added sometime later, for the drain field they used foot-long sections of concrete pipe, spaced about a half-inch apart so the water would just leak out between them. Rudimentary, but it actually worked without problems for about fifty years!
We have a septic system now and prefer it over sewer. It definitely saves money. We take good care of it and don't flush anything down but toilet paper. The tank we have now is about 30 years old and has no problems whatsoever. The drain field is older and is fine as well.
I know what septic is and some high level pros and cons. But frankly I never owned a house with septic.
Question for you buyers: is septic an immediately turnoff factor? Or do you take a discount off the price since it's septic (by how much %)?
You buy septic if you have no other choice, for whatever reason.
Otherwise you don't buy septic.
I bought a property with septic 20 years ago because the property was otherwise perfect for me so I compromised. My new house is perfect without septic.
It's a good thing that I have no interest in rural areas, because I admit to a bias against septic systems. My grandmother lived in a rural area and had a septic system, and I recall we were admonished to never throw toilet paper into the toilet if we had only urinated. She kept a very large plastic wastebasket near the toilet for that purpose, and it was not emptied on a daily basis. It didn't smell, but I still remember thinking it was gross.
TMI?
Doesn’t have to be rural. Our house is just outside the city limits and we have septic and have to get our own trash pickup. This is Ocala, FL so not just a tiny town in the middle of nowhere.
We have had just as many clogs on septic as on sewer bc of too much paper (potty training girls!). The clogs were plungeable and had nothing to do with where the pipes led.
I honestly don’t see why people have a problem with having a septic tank. You more or less treat it the same as city sewer.
Septic is a turnoff for people like me who have always lived in homes with city sewer service. It is just an unknown to me. I wouldn't say I would NEVER buy a house with a septic system, but it would give me pause.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SFBayBoomer
It's a good thing that I have no interest in rural areas, because I admit to a bias against septic systems. My grandmother lived in a rural area and had a septic system, and I recall we were admonished to never throw toilet paper into the toilet if we had only urinated. She kept a very large plastic wastebasket near the toilet for that purpose, and it was not emptied on a daily basis. It didn't smell, but I still remember thinking it was gross.
TMI?
Not really. More an example of someone being CHEAP. Like when they refuse to throw out a pot of day-old coffee despite the fact that its disgusting.
When people talk about the cost of replacing an old septic system, they often don't think about what costs are associated with replacing/upgrading an old public sewer system. If your house is 40+ years old, it's pretty likely that the public sewer system is that old or older, and in need of repairs. When the township/city needs to spend $$millions$$ replacing that sewer system, guess where the money is going to come from? Many sewer systems around here were built during the 80s-90s housing boom, and there is a big issue with how these aging systems are going to be dealt with.
For my area, public sewer (about 20% of the houses in the township are connected) costs about $900 a year (and likely to increase.) That kind of money makes a septic system (required pump every 3 years - $250) start to look pretty darn good. Even if you need a system replacement at some point, if you can get 20+ years out of it -- and you ought to -- then you still come out ahead with septic.
Pretty straightforward. There are tons of homes up north with the original pipes approaching 100 years old that are doing just fine. City is simple - everything between you and the meter is on you. Everything concerning the meter and after the meter is on them.
I'd rather be responsible for just pipes then pipes and the entire septic system. City water continues to operate in the event of a power outage. If you have a gas water heater, you can still take a hot shower in a blackout!
We have lived in the city with a city sewer system and for the last 22 years have lived in the country with a septic system (which we're pretty sure was installed in 1970). We've had far fewer problems with the septic system than we did with the city system, and much less expense (knock on wood!). With the city system, we had orangeburg pipe and it had to be completely replaced (on us since it was on our side of the connection). Then the connection for our house and the neighboring property moved and disconnected itself from both and the entire street had to be torn up down to about 10 feet to get things fixed. That was a circus in and of itself. The only problem we've had with the septic system was that once, because we're on black gumbo clay soil what moves a bit and the connection between house and tank came slightly ajar and we had to dig down about 18 inches and re-adjust it.
Septic is a turnoff for people like me who have always lived in homes with city sewer service. It is just an unknown to me. I wouldn't say I would NEVER buy a house with a septic system, but it would give me pause.
City sewer systems are a turnoff for people like me who have always lived with a septic system. Just a few miles away, people pay $128 per month for base water and sewer service. That's over $1500 per year! Compare that with the average $200/year I pay to maintain my own water and septic.
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