Buying new home - water & soil question (Amherst, Stow: buying a house, university) - Massachusetts (MA) - City-Data Forum

CMDC · 04-18-2009, 08:03 AM

Hi... we are going to (hopefully) purchase a new home. We have a very young child and I'd like to get the water tested (for lead, mercury, etc) and also the soil (primarily for lead).

Has anyone done this? How long does it usually take? If it takes longer than the inspection period (10+ days) then I'd like to make sure we expand the time in our offer letter.

Also - does anyone have any recommendations for companies that do either Water or Soil testing?

We are buying in the Metro West area (around 495).

Thanks!

scarletfire · 04-18-2009, 01:51 PM

If the property has town water you can check with the water board in town to see what they test the water for. They're required to share this information publicly. They may or may not do as in-depth a test as you'd like.

Regardless of whether it's town water or a private well, your home inspector can normally do a water quality test for you (and should do a quantity test as well if it's a well) and it takes about a week or so to get results for water quality. I'd check with your home inspector to verify the response time if the lab they work with so you know what time frame you're looking at. The only time I've heard of soil tests is when there is a source of contamination such as a buried oil tank that was discovered that leached into the ground (in which case I'd pass on it) or nearby toxic contamination. What town is it in, may I ask?

NewHomeBuyer79 · 04-21-2009, 06:20 AM

I am buying a house in the same area - we have well water. Took about 2 days from collecting the sample to getting the results from the lab about water quality. The "flow test" took about 4 hours.

dognh · 04-21-2009, 07:53 AM

Most soil testing is done to in relation to installing septic systems - is land suitable for building.

If it's an existing home (and not an abandoned or ancient property) soil testing is usually not done or necessary.

CMDC · 04-22-2009, 06:19 AM

Thanks for all the replies!

We are looking primarily at these towns: Northboro/Soutboro/Westboro, Berlin, Bolton, Stow.

About half the houses we've considered have had wells, so I really want to have the water tested. Especially those with farms nearby...which are very charming but I would want to test for nitrate/nitrate and pesticide runoffs.

The soil testing would be mostly for lead (out of concern for my child) and for pesticides (I'd love to garden but would like to know what's in the soil first!)

CMDC · 04-22-2009, 06:20 AM

Also -- thanks for letting me know that home inspectors can do this. For some reason, I thought you had to send that out to a lab (independent of the home inspector) -- that makes life a lot easier!

dognh · 04-22-2009, 06:48 AM

home inspectors can take care of the water testing as well as radon. I'm not sure about soil testing, you should ask

westernmass101 · 05-14-2009, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CMDC

Hi... we are going to (hopefully) purchase a new home. We have a very young child and I'd like to get the water tested (for lead, mercury, etc) and also the soil (primarily for lead).

Has anyone done this? How long does it usually take? If it takes longer than the inspection period (10+ days) then I'd like to make sure we expand the time in our offer letter.

Also - does anyone have any recommendations for companies that do either Water or Soil testing?

We are buying in the Metro West area (around 495).

Thanks!

I would go to the town water board who regulate the water. Other than that take a sample bring it down to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. They will test the water for you. I know they used to not charge, but if they do it's only $5.