Who should I call first? (building a home in rural land)
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If you're talking about 5ac in the Tehachapi area, please tell me what area it is in so I can try to help you out a little. There are some areas around town (the Tehachapi Valley, Tehachapi Mtns) that have reputations where the following are concerned: septic systems no-go, well drilling no-go, etc.
Just judging from the description in your post I'm guessing that the property is in Sand Canyon. If that is the case, here are some things I can tell you about the area:
- The water out there is scarce. The shared well and private wells go dry on a somewhat regular basis.
- $~1k/100ft to run electricity
- There is a very, VERY new volunteer-only fire.... I can't even call it a department. It's really a big mess. They just had a truck donated to them from Cal City (down the road). Fire danger is HIGH in that area... Nothing to mess with, especially since there's no water.
- Septic systems out there tend to have some trouble because there's a lot of clay in the soil.
- Roads are dirt (lots of clay, very slippery) out beyond where power is run to, and not well maintained.
- The POA (Property Owners Association) out there has gone to pot. No accountabilty for funds, expenditures, etc.
I love Sand Canyon, and I always wanted to live out there. It is one of my very favorite areas around Tehachapi. But, for the reasons above, I never have.
If I missed the mark, and this 5ac you're referring to is in one of the other little communities surrounding Tehachapi, where is it? I'll do my best to save you a lot of time and trouble by giving you the lowdown.
As far as local drillers go, the Hearns have been in the area for a long time and do good work. I grew up with all of the Hearn boys, and they're good folks. They drilled my folks' well, and two of my Granny's. Never any problem, and as I said, they're good people.
Septic systems, I recommend calling Steve Roemer. The family business is called Roemer Septic, or Roemer... something or other. There's only one Roemer family in town, so you won't miss them.
Before hiring ANY driller, go to the health department. Fill out a FOI paper. Look in the file. Do this in neighboring counties also. Ask then for a reference on a job that they had to go back on.
If you're talking about 5ac in the Tehachapi area, please tell me what area it is in so I can try to help you out a little. There are some areas around town (the Tehachapi Valley, Tehachapi Mtns) that have reputations where the following are concerned: septic systems no-go, well drilling no-go, etc.
Just judging from the description in your post I'm guessing that the property is in Sand Canyon. If that is the case, here are some things I can tell you about the area:
- The water out there is scarce. The shared well and private wells go dry on a somewhat regular basis.
- $~1k/100ft to run electricity
- There is a very, VERY new volunteer-only fire.... I can't even call it a department. It's really a big mess. They just had a truck donated to them from Cal City (down the road). Fire danger is HIGH in that area... Nothing to mess with, especially since there's no water.
- Septic systems out there tend to have some trouble because there's a lot of clay in the soil.
- Roads are dirt (lots of clay, very slippery) out beyond where power is run to, and not well maintained.
- The POA (Property Owners Association) out there has gone to pot. No accountability for funds, expenditures, etc.
I love Sand Canyon, and I always wanted to live out there. It is one of my very favorite areas around Tehachapi. But, for the reasons above, I never have.
If I missed the mark, and this 5ac you're referring to is in one of the other little communities surrounding Tehachapi, where is it? I'll do my best to save you a lot of time and trouble by giving you the lowdown.
Because of the old age of Kitty's original post, I would imagine that she has moved on by now. However, I would like to update my own post for accuracy, as some things have changed since then.
The Sand Canyon POA has rebuilt itself and is now well organized and being run by some good people
The Sand Canyon Volunteer Fire Department has also gone through a major overhaul and is now a solid organization with good leadership and response
The new POA has paved many of the troublesome roads, improving ingress and egress
Those things being said / updated, the remainder of my post still stands: poor water availability, bad wells, shared wells (not a good idea, as another poster pointed out), many lots have no power and cost is >$1k/100-ft to run power out there, septic systems can be problematic, but Steve Roemer can do a perc test to determine if a system is viable...
Again, for drilling wells I still highly recommend the Hearn boys, for septic highly I recommend Steve Roemer.
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