Is a septic and well water system a costly/annoying home feature in your opinion?

[MotherGoose]

Grew up on well and septic. Well (shallow, abouT 50 feet) went dry in a severe drought and my parents went to city water. Septic tank does gurgle with heavy rains and iirc was pumped once ortwice in 40 years. Have well and septic now. No issues at all. Do have water softener, and if we lose power, we lose water, but no big deal. And I truly hate the taste of city water now :).

[Mom22ns]

This is an interesting conversation for me. I have rarely lived anywhere that didn't have well and septic.

 

Well water can taste much better than city water because it isn't chemically treated, but that depends on what kind of geology is in your area. Everyone that comes to our house comments on the fabulous water. My kids really struggle at college because they are used to drinking nothing but water and don't like the chemically treated public water supplies. 

 

My parents had an old/too small septic system that had to be pumped regularly (maybe every couple of years). It was a bit of a nuisance at times, but not a big deal. We have lived in our current house for 18 years. We got our septic pumped for the first time about a year ago. The guy said it wasn't full/clogged and didn't need it at all. We might try it again in another 20 years lol.

 

I agree with the person who said to know the potential problems in your area and be sure to have inspections and get full information about these systems so you know what to expect. They can range from no maintenance to high maintenance and obviously cost runs the gambit too. Free water and septic is nice. Unexpected bills aren't. Know what you're getting into, but don't assume it will be a problem.

[Carrie12345]

I grew up with an awful septic system (and city water), but I've lived with a great septic system (and well water) for over a decade now.  There is no universal "best option", as everyone's stories show.

 

We did have to replace our well pump a few years back, and it was installed in the early 90's, so it was around 20 years old.  I don't think $2,000 was a bad price for that lifespan, but it was stressful finding someone to come out to replace it over a weekend!  ($2k included the weekend labor charges.)  

[mom@shiloh]

I don't think this was mentioned yet, but I skimmed the last page, so I could have missed it.  If you have a septic tank and a water softener, it is best to have the softener drain somewhere other than the septic tank.  The brine from the softener will fill up your leach bed with a black, tarry goo.  When we had problems with this, our excavator put in a dry well and redirected the softener to drain there.  

 

For the last 25 years, we have only owned houses with both a well and a septic system.  I wouldn't do it any other way.  

[creekland]

You really need to check with someone experienced in your area TBH.  My hubby deals with septic all the time as part of his job (designing systems, etc).  Even in a local area, there can be huge differences, but when someone calls him he can give them a terrific overview.

 

Personally, having been on both, I prefer having our own well and septic and would put that in the "pro" column for any place I were considering as long as both tested out to be fine.  The difference?  We don't have quarterly water/sewer bills!  It costs us next to nothing for our water/septic.  Our law requires we get the septic pumped once every three years.  That costs about $300.  We also pay to UV light our water.  I forgot the cost of the system (bought it when we moved in 20 years ago), but replacing the bulb (had to do that once) cost less than $100.  Our rental houses (which are on city water/sewer) end up costing our tenants close to $1000 per year - more if they use more water than normal.

Edited November 16, 2016 by creekland

[Guest]

Around here we end up paying 250 a quarter for municipal water and sewer, and we still have to treat the water. We also have to clean the supply pipe annually if we want to have enough flow to do two things at once; the manganese precipitates that much.

[Bluegoat]

I haven't read through yet.

 

The answer is, I think, it depends.  Personally, the thing I don't like about septic and well is that I worry about them, the possibility of a major expense worries me, and also I am not handy and am a little intimidated by learning about the equipment and troubleshooting.  (Which is really my issue, it isn't that complicated so don't let that scare anyone off.)

 

OTOH, my dh prefers well and septic, because he likes having control over those things, being fairly independent, and not being at the mercy of town or city utilities which may be poorly run.

 

What will make a difference cost wise is what sort of system you have, how well it has been maintained, and also what the cost of the utilities would be.  The basic infrastructure of well and septic are costly in that they are a big pay-out all at once.  We had to dig a new well one time, it cost about $10,000.  With a utility, that sort of thing is less common, though sometimes people have to replace things like the pipes that attach to city sewers and that is also expensive.

 

The monthly bill for water isn't necessarily cheap though.  If you count the fee we pay for getting rid of water, ours is fairly substantial and probably not dissimilar to costs for well or septic.

 

If I were to live rurally again, I wouldn't have septic, I'd have a composting toilet. ( It can be difficult to do them legally here but I would find a way.)  They are cheaper than septic and I find them less mechanically terrifying.

[6packofun]

I haven't read through yet.

 

The answer is, I think, it depends.  Personally, the thing I don't like about septic and well is that I worry about them, the possibility of a major expense worries me, and also I am not handy and am a little intimidated by learning about the equipment and troubleshooting.  (Which is really my issue, it isn't that complicated so don't let that scare anyone off.)

 

 

 

I think this pretty much nails my real issue.  LOL

[Jennifer132]

I don't have much to add, as we've only been on well and septic for a year, but I wanted to second the advice about a back up generator....we have some friends who live nearby who are on a well, and there was a wildfire on the adjacent property. It took out the electricity, and since they were on a well, and had no back up generator, they could not get any water to even douse the roof or anything. They lost their entire home. And five years later they are still recovering from it all. 😞

 

I was worried about the well water when we moved, so we got a filtration system and RO and it's been fine. As far as septic, there are enzymes you can buy to put down your toilets that will help break down the waste in your septic. Day to day, you really can't tell the difference.

[Guest]

My husband was cracking me up - he commented that most of the country didn't actually know their water source and he was right - most municipalities actually get well water but the city maintains the pumps, including here! We 60% of our water from a local glacial fed lake and 40% pumped from an aquipher. Septic too, is something most geographical locations have, but by population density about half the country is on sewer grids.

Edited November 16, 2016 by Arctic Mama

[Guest]

I guess I'm not understanding how he's cracking you up. I think about 60+ % of American communities depend on surface water. Are you saying there's no difference in getting municipal water from a well versus a private well? Do you not understand that these places treat the water with stuff, thus affecting the differences in taste that many have commented on? That on a city system that uses well water, they've got generators to keep things working, but individual well owners lose it unless they have their own back up? I'm fairly certain we're all aware of the country's reliance on sewer grids... Not really getting the hilarity.

I cut the bottom half of my reply - he overlaid that grid map with a voting map from this election. It was a hilariously close analog between the electoral map and municipal water grids. Like, you can predict how someone votes by whether they filter poo or not. Voting patterns are pretty predictable, but we were surprised the sewer grid correlated so closely :)

 

I'm from Southern California. We drink Colorado's urine and it tastes like it. But I wasn't laughing about that, sorry for the confusion!

Edited November 16, 2016 by Arctic Mama

[6packofun]

I went back to the property and took this picture.  This looks complicated to me.  lol  The box thing has a light on it!

 

[umsami]

Septic systems are the anti-Christ in my opinion.....I've lived in two homes with them.  My Mom's house has been the worst experience.... it is always having issues and she paid like $40k to get a new field dug and they added this weird alarm and everything.   (ETA: Yes! It's kind of like in the pic above.)

Edited November 16, 2016 by umsami

[6packofun]

Septic systems are the anti-Christ in my opinion.....I've lived in two homes with them.  My Mom's house has been the worst experience.... it is always having issues and she paid like $40k to get a new field dug and they added this weird alarm and everything.   (ETA: Yes! It's kind of like in the pic above.)

 

Well, this made me afraid.  LOL  But, armed with a lot of questions, we're going to see the property anyway.  I'd actually like to see if the realtor can explain ANY of it, hehe.  It would have to be a dream scenario, though, for it to work out.

 

Thanks for all the helpful information here!