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Many houses in our town have well water. Some use propane for heat. Many have septic tanks. Many have electric stoves. Many have oil heat. We decided to avoid all of those and opted for a house with city water, city sewer, and natural gas for heat and cooking.
Our daughter has well and septic and converted from oil to gas heat. The one inconvenience with well water is in case of an electric power outage you have to hook up a generator to power the electric pump. You also need a filtration system and have to buy the filtering materials. With septic you need it cleaned out occasionally and it can overflow. Some people have propane tanks for heating but to us it felt like a potential bomb on the property.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lpc123
We are torn whether to exclude houses from consideration that are on well water only.
The biggest concern is water availability, and quality, remaining stable 10-20 years out. We assume no viable alternative source.
Are there sources of information for area well-water "stability"?
Is this even a consideration for home buyers?
In the southeast, we are finding quite a few properties, even new construction, with wells only.
We are torn whether to exclude houses from consideration that are on well water only.
Is this even a consideration for home buyers?
In the southeast, we are finding quite a few properties, even new construction, with wells only.
Yes the cities are expanding outward and pushing hat used to be the rural areas. A relative lives 100 feet outside the city and loses all the advantages as far as city services.
You also need to consider (and you may have) no city water thus a septic tank.
As far as the future I'd say yes the city will be able to slowly extend their services. Someone who lives 4 miles from city hall should not have to go with septic, well, no city trash and no yard debri pickup.
Well only; without a possible backup of municipal domestic, does create a serious dilemma.
Granted, a filter system may extend the viable life of the well- but I wouldn’t count on it in a 10-20yr lifespan. But than may have a lot of variables depending on depth and/or aquifer presences.
We are on a well, as are most homes outside city limits.
Availability and stability, and potability of well water depends on where you are.
If you buy a house that is on a well (and the same are often on septic systems also) we usually include inspection and testing contingencies for those systems in the contract.
Call and talk to well drillers in your area. Find out about typical well depths, mineral content, any contamination issues that are common, talk to them about testing and maintaining a system.
Of course, these things can vary widely even within a geographical area, but you can at least form a contact that you can use when you find a place you want to check out further.
Our whole area is well water. I know some towns in CA have had trouble due the drought, so I guess I would see how they are dealing with it, and if you are looking in that area, or one that has no issues with drought.
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Many areas which provide municipal water ... is well water.
Yes, but they are usually much deeper/bigger, and are heavily monitored by environmental agencies/health dept(s). As opposed to a private residential well.
Bottom line is that in most places houses outside of town are on well water, especially those developments that have been built in previously rural areas.
As a note: having a well doesn't automatically mean you're on septic. Many smaller towns have had to put in sewage treatment facilities by governmental mandate but kept individual wells.
Where I am has had central sewer since 1958 but didn't get water until 1994.
Some people prefer personal well water rather than city/municipal water because they can control additives.
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