Septic Inspection - Buying a home

[jaymoney]

If you're pumping out every year or two it's too small a tank for the house.

[ansky]

Originally Posted by jaymoney

If you're pumping out every year or two it's too small a tank for the house.

Based on what the previous person said, everything just "settles out" so why pump at all?

[Swamp_Yankee]

Originally Posted by ansky

Not sure what you mean by this. If everything just "settles out" (whatever that means) then there would be no need to have the tank pumped out every year or two.

Soilds settle to the bottom, but there is only so much room in the tank-see the diagram below:



Eventually that solids layer gets deeper and deeper. If it rises to the level of the outflow baffle, solids will begin to flow into the drainfield, which will clog the laterals and cause complete failure of the system.

Originally Posted by jaymoney

If you're pumping out every year or two it's too small a tank for the house.

Pumping every two years is akin to changing the oil in your car every 5,000 miles. If you pump every two years your system (like the engine in your car) will be ensured a long and healthy life. If you don't, your mileage may vary. It's cheap insurance-I plan to be carried out of my current home in a pine box, so doing the math if, God willing, I have another 50 years left:

50 years with pumpouts every two years = 25 pumpouts at a cost of $400 (overestimating to account for inflation) each = $10,000/50 = $200 per year annualized cost, which is far less than the cheapest public sewer bill. Our first home had public water and sewer and we were paying about $2000 per year. That doesn't even begin to account for the difference in quality of life.

[Ivan Putski]

Originally Posted by jaems

Thanks and sorry for the late reply. I didn't get any notifications for the additional replies.

I definitely would want to get a clear picture of the status of this 40 y/o septic in the house I'm interested in. If at end of life I am hoping I can get a ballpark of what it would cost to replace and figure things out from there. Like the house a lot but have heard replacing a septic can be as much as $50k. Seller claims they just had septic tested and repaired fwiw. Apparently the current buyer is still asking for a big credit and the deal may fall through.

Thanks again for all the info, everyone.

When we bought our house (built in 1959) in Wyckoff back in 2012, the sellers completed their own septic inspection which subsequently failed (this was done prior to them listing). They proactively paid for a new 4 bedroom septic which cost approx $40k. I think it'll be well worth the $500-$750 investment to get it independently inspected if the sellers aren't willing to do so.

We sold that house in 2015 and the buyers paid for a septic inspection even though it was only 3 years old...

This is a pretty good article regarding your situation:

https://www.northjersey.com/story/mo...tems/94793772/

[jaems]

Originally Posted by Ivan Putski

When we bought our house (built in 1959) in Wyckoff back in 2012, the sellers completed their own septic inspection which subsequently failed (this was done prior to them listing). They proactively paid for a new 4 bedroom septic which cost approx $40k. I think it'll be well worth the $500-$750 investment to get it independently inspected if the sellers aren't willing to do so.

We sold that house in 2015 and the buyers paid for a septic inspection even though it was only 3 years old...

This is a pretty good article regarding your situation:

https://www.northjersey.com/story/mo...tems/94793772/

Very helpful article, thanks