Buying a house with a septic tank?

[PAhippo]

Originally Posted by HansProof

If you're rural you're on septic period. If, and that is a big IF, you have the tank pumped regularly, not too much can go wrong. Septic is all I've ever known and I've never had problems. Folks get in trouble putting off the maintenance until the pipes to their leach field get clogged up. Then, well then you have a major problem

I also have had septic tanks-never lived a place anything different. If you don't use them as a garbage disposal, they're really no problem.

[luv4horses]

All the houses out my way have septic tanks, even the $1M+ homes. Never hear of problems from the septic system per se. My system is so old it is grandfathered in (old farm) and there have still been no problems. I have it pumped every few years, add powdered bread yeast every so often, and add something to prevent tree root growth every quarter. In addition, we never put toxic chemicals down the drains since that would kill off the beneficial organisms that are "taking care of business".

[silibran]

My experience on this is that we knew we would have to have our septic inspected before a sale could go through. So we had it done right after we listed, on the advice or our excellent realtor. He told us that in his experience bad septic inspections caused lots of grief if found between accepting a contract and closing. So we did it preemptively. Luckily for us our system was found to be OK. My understanding was that this was required by the lender.

We lived in our house for 26 years. We did occasional maintenance including a pump out. We also had work done a year or so before we listed. The main concern at the time of listing was for the drain field. They ran water through it for several hours to see if anything bubbled up in the drainage field. I can't remember if they ran water directly from the well or from pipes in house. But I know we were relieved when nothing showed up.

With the inspection done, by a septic guy--not a home inspector--we simply had the documentation in with all the other paperwork pertaining to the condition of house for any prospective buyer to see. And this was good enough for the lender.

We had to go through a well inspection too. A well guy did ours, and it is accepted by the county and the lender.

I would never live on well and septic again, ever.

[Tom2020]

I've lived in a wonderful location that was on septic. I take that back, it was actually cesspool. We had a service that added chemicals monthly. It was no problem at all. What was a problem was that the previous owners had not been careful about pouring grease down the kitchen drain (such as when cooking and washing pots and pans). One time we had to have the kitchen line cleaned out, and it was full of white oozing grease that had accumulated over the years. But that had nothing to do with the cesspool (and thankfully the previous owner had used the monthly chemicals to keep the grease dissolved in the cesspool).

Lesson learned: It is not so much the makeup of the sewer system (septic, cesspool, sewer), as it is the care that the previous homeowner has shown towards protecting the plumbing. If there are problems with the system, it is often due to homeowner neglect (no matter what type of system).

I'd not hesitate to buy a house on septic once it has been inspected first by a qualified professional.