A house with a private well? (San Antonio, Van: credit, houses, buy)

[juststart]

I am newly moving to SA and try to learn about housing there. During searching around the Cross Mountain area, i found that several houses have private well as a water source. I am not familiar with it. How does this work? How about sewage water?

[Hedgehog_Mom]

If a house has a private well, it's probably safe to assume that it has a septic tank for sewage water.

[TrapperL]

Cross Mountain is in far northwest part of Bexar County. About 50 years ago when I was working after school for Mr Rosenkrantz, we were digging water wells in that area. Depth ran some where from 350 to 400 feet deep to hit good water that was in the Edwards Reservoir. At that time, it was some of the purest water in the world. It does come with a lot of minerals and most folks will put a water softener in to take it out. It can eventually plug up the plumbing pipes with calcium. The well most likely will have submersible pump and it usually needs replacement every 10-15 years. The well piping must be pulled to do it as the pump is on the bottom end of the pipe. It CAN be a not so cheap date depending. The sewer is most likely a septic system. If it is septic, NEVER use a disposal, never put grease or oil down the drain,never use any of the septic "fix in a box" additives like Rid-X. Use only yeast cakes and you'll never need to have it pumped out. Put one cake per month down the commode and the yeast will turn all of the solid waste to a liquid and out the lateral pipes it goes. I would strongly suggest getting individual inspections for the septic system and the water well. Any water well company can do it and give a report on it. Any septic system company can give you a report on the septic system. Might look to Haskins Pump Service for the water and Van Delden for the septic. You can maintain a water and septic system and you can also forget to maintain it. It can be an expensive date to ignore it.

I'm sure TexasRedNeck will be along to explain water softeners. He's the water guru in this part of Texas and if he doesn't know, nobody knows. But then he's only been doing it since Jesus was a little boy.

[TexasRedneck]

I resemble that remark, TrapperL......

Chances are that you'll want a softener, true - personally, I'd avoid any house that's not preplumbed for one. Doing it after the fact (and doing it PROPERLY) can be an expensive proposition - and very few softener companies will do it properly, in my experience. That's why I use a certified Master Plumber to do anything other than a basic loop connection - I KNOW they're going to do it in a safe, proper and legal manner. I use a couple of different ones, because I've come to find that each has their "niche", depending on just what is needed.

Make the seller provide a "standard potable water test" that is done by an accredited lab - two I recommend are San Antonio Testing and PCS Labs. PCS is on the NE side of SA, SA Testing is DT by the old stockyards. They have always been more than fair with their water testing charges. Tell them you want the basic test, along with TDS and Hardness.

[flashfearless]

Some areas cannot dig into Edwards aquifer and must dig deeper into aquifers below Edwards that will cost even more.

[juststart]

Hats off to TexasRedNeck and TrapperL. I got several key points from you.

[AFMike]

My neighbor had their pump replaced yesterday...$3600! Sounds expensive but it was 16 years old so it came to about $19 a month for water, just need to plan for it.

Septic systems (Aerobic type with sprinklers) need to be under contract for maintenance, this costs about $300 a year and they need to be pumped ever 4-5 years ($650 or so...)

[24annie]

Where can you buy yeast cakes? Thanks

[juststart]

I guess you can find yeast in the bake goods aisle in HEB.