Well Water and On-site Septic System (Pennington: attorney, first time home buyer, buying)

[luanny21]

Hi, we are first time home buyers. There a house that we are buying in hopewell-Pennington area. The sewer is: on site septic system and the water is Well water. What potential problems could we have now or in the future? we have no experience with this type of systems.
Thanks.

[captne76]

Thats quite common in areas like that. I think if you have a closing attorney he will prob tell you to have both tested. Potentially sometimes septics need to be rebuilt but that is rare. You could probably talk to neighbors about local water conditions but as long as there was no industrial dumping years ago that is quite common out in the country and you get no water bill but you are responsible to yourself if the pump goes bad or something like that. You can have water tested, sometimes free, I think Homey Deepot hands out water testing kits free too.

[jaymoney]

Originally Posted by luanny21

Hi, we are first time home buyers. There a house that we are buying in hopewell-Pennington area. The sewer is: on site septic system and the water is Well water. What potential problems could we have now or in the future? we have no experience with this type of systems.
Thanks.

Well, let's say your inspector looks things over and everything is fine. With an independent system like that my biggest concern would be what other independent systems have been involved in the past and are there any other buried storage tanks on the property at all like from an oil furnace?

But let's say that all that turns out golden. Long term concerns? Power going out and not being able to get water out of the well for anything. Heavy, heavy rains inundating the drain field and causing backups. People dumping bacon grease down the drain for ten years prior causing issues.

But frankly, like anything else in your house, proper maintenance and being aware of what might cause problems are going to mean you're find for years and years.

You should also check these out: The Basics | Septic (Onsite / Decentralized) Systems | US EPA
Water Well Basics - Wellowner.org