Septic Tank vs. Sewer (houses, to buy, disposal)

[sweettea1]

Have been looking at a bunch of houses. Most are on sewer lines but a few have septic tanks. Am curious to know if there are major drawbacks to purchasing a home with a septic tank, both in terms of living in the home as well as resale. Thanks!

[oldhousegirl]

Hi, I was new to the whole septic thing as well. I have never had a problem, but one thing to be aware of is that IF there is a problem it is usually an expensive one. If you choose a septic house just make sure you have the county's report on it, I foget the exact name of it. And, use septic friendly toilet paper, not the fancy, soft, nice stuff.

[atlantagreg30127]

Also pour that stuff they sell in stores down the toilet once a month. It helps break uh.. "stuff" down better than not using it and helps to prevent backups. If it backs up.... wellllllll

[spacelord75]

I grew up in a house on septic, but was still really hesitant to buy our "new" house that is on one. So far so good. The only drawbacks are that you have to watch what you put down the sink (ie, paint, food, etc.) and you can't wash like 10 loads of laundry in one morning (too much water to the tank at once). They make special garbage disposals for sinks for homes on septic, though, so that would take care of the food part. Ultimately, I wish we were on a sewer, so I would not have to worry about where we dig in the yard (for future landscape projects) and potential backups, but the one really, really big plus is it is alot cheaper than sewer since that part of your county water bill is gone. I required the seller to have the tank cleaned and inspected by a credible septic tank company prior to purchase to ease my mind.

[rasmom]

We were hesitant also to buy a house with septic. We have had no problems. We buy Scott extra soft tissue and put Rid-x in the toilet once a month. I am not overly fond of garbage disposals. We removed ours. The less trash put down the drain, the better. You do need to know where the leaching field is on your property, in case you want a pool or sprinkler system installed. The savings is there with only the water bill. Hope this helps!

[JPD]

I wouldn't want a septic tank. The house I grew up in had one. It must've been dug up and repaired at least five times while I lived there. There were four kids and two adults living in the house. With that many kids, a lot of stuff is going to be going down the drains, making system repairs inevitable.

[sweettea1]

thanks!! this is very helpful.

[BobKovacs]

They can be a real PITA, especially if you're on a small lot and want to later add on or install a pool. If the leaching field goes bad (and they do....), you could be looking at around $5k to repair it, plus having your lawn destroyed in the process.

Unless you're truly in love with some feature of the haouse, and you can't get it elsewhere in a house on city sewer, I'd pass.

Bob

[bgnzsavnh]

The worst part is that when problems do occur there is no Bureaucrat to call to deal with the problem.

[spacelord75]

I would say, as long as you have the tank inspected (on the seller's dollar) and it comes back in good shape you will be fine. True you can have issues, but that is usually due to "user error" than anything related to the system itself. If you treat it properly and take care of it you will be fine. We had one for 20 years in my house growing up and the only time we had an issue was when the county ruptured the tank when they were adding our street to sewer! We were also very diligent about not flushing random things down the toilet and not pouring junk down the sink.