Advice about septic tanks during home search

[Vision67]

I've lived in an area that has homes with large lots and septic and wells.

Or, you could pick a house within the city with city utilities.

From my experience, every house with a well or septic tank eventually has problems with both. And those problems can easily cost big bucks, e.g. $40K to fix. And when they fail, you have a crisis that must be quickly resolved. No thanks!

So when I decided to look for a new place, my #1 "Must" was that it has city utilities.

[Parnassia]

Originally Posted by Vision67

I've lived in an area that has homes with large lots and septic and wells.

Or, you could pick a house within the city with city utilities.

From my experience, every house with a well or septic tank eventually has problems with both. And those problems can easily cost big bucks, e.g. $40K to fix. And when they fail, you have a crisis that must be quickly resolved. No thanks!

So when I decided to look for a new place, my #1 "Must" was that it has city utilities.

City utilities aren't infallible either. Nothing lasts forever. You may have no clue your sewer is headed for trouble until you find a notice tacked on your door that your property is going to be excavated to replace a failing line. You won't have a choice in how or when. I can think of a couple of friends that happened to.

[Leo58]

Originally Posted by FindingHomeATL

Is an inspection enough of a precaution? Or should I still consider a septic system to be like a roof -- an item with a limited lifespan?
.

I say yes, and yes. Yes, have it inspected and if the inspector says it’s in good shape you can feel some level of confidence in buying. But also, if the system is 30 years old I would go in with the assumption that you will more than likely have to replace it at some point.

Maybe a negotiation chip to get the seller to come down a bit?

[Sand&Salt]

Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook

It actually needs to be completely full of water to work. I'm not confused about how septic tanks work.


I haven't ever visited any home or business where it's customary or requested to not flush toilet paper.

It's typical down here. Most smaller places you cannot flush the TP. A big selling point for expats in our American-built complex was "you CAN flush the TP"! LOL. Our condo complex has a septic for 15 units and has to be pumped about twice a year. We are very careful and never flush grease or hygiene products.

DH had a septic in rural UT for over 30 years and never had it pumped. He was single, fanatical about what went down there. He didn't flush his TP to make the septic last!

Finally his gay friend said "You'll NEVER get a girlfriend if you don't flush your TP".

So he took his friend's advice, then I came along.

We had a one-acre lot growing up in an exclusive area of Orange County, CA and they all had septic, despite being multi-million dollar homes. My dad would have to get porta-potties when we had weddings on our lawn or we'd be inundated all over the lawn! Once he figured that out, no more overflow.