My new house will have a well and a septic tank. This is the first time I will have this kind of set up (vs city provided water/sewer). What are some important things one should know/do in order to maximize comfort/stability/reliability?
My new house will have a well and a septic tank. This is the first time I will have this kind of set up (vs city provided water/sewer). What are some important things one should know/do in order to maximize comfort/stability/reliability?
Put a light in the well house and turn it on if it is below freezing.Originally Posted by Andy T
If possible run your grey water somewhere other than the septic. (My Dad did this and it was nearly 40 years before the septic needed to be pumped)
Have your septic pumped every 5-10 years depending on usage.
Don't drive heavy equipment over the field tiles.
Don't flush anything other than poo or TP down the toilet/sink. (Specifically grease or feminine hygiene products)
Be careful what you send into the septic, if it kills yeast/bacteria, it will kill the bacteria that are breaking down your waste.
Make sure you have your water tested. Keep an eye on it and have it tested again at some later date to make sure you aren't getting leaching contamination from something.
I have lived on well water/septic tank for most of my life. It isn't too bad if you take care of it. Plus the water tastes much better. (Nothing tastes quite as good to me as the well water I grew up on )
+1 on what Crow Hunter said. I would add that installing a transfer switch in the electrical panel in your well-house, to allow you to use a generator, is good idea if you want to have water during power outages.
I pull the septic filter annually from the T-Baffle, (shoulder length veterinary gloves highly recommended), and hose it off in the drain field.
When it gets to 15* overnight, I let the faucet, (furthest in the house from the well pump, and up a floor), drip to keep the pump operating and pipes from freezing. Learned my lesson once when things froze overnight and it took a good while to get things thawed. Make sure you have good insulation inside the well casing, change it if it's worn down.
There's nothing civil about this war.
What Crowhunter, blues and Oregon45 said, been on that most of the last 30 years.
You might stall the septic pump out longer than that 5-7 years, but the day you put it off too long you will certainly regret it.
We use the Septic tank maintenance stuff (various brands of flushable stuff that feed your bacteria) but I have no proof it helps. It does not hurt.
Don't use clorox in your laundry, and as stated be thoughtful about any bacteria killing stuff you put down the drain including various mouthwash type products.
Submersible water pumps are not subject to loosing their prime like jet pumps are, so if you ever have to change out the pump going submersible, if you are not already, is an upgrade in my experience. If you have a jetpump make sure you learn to to reprime the system if it is ever needed.
I installed a "heat lamp" 250W bulb with a freeze level 35 degree triggered thermostat in my well house many years ago, well insulated too, and never had a freezing problem since.
I agree with most of the above (6 years on well/septic). However, if you live in a house full of women who have never been on a well or septic, good luck enforcing some of that stuff. We use bleach in the laundry, stuff whole produce sections down the garbage disposal, I can only imagine what makes it's way down the toilet...
I'm honestly to the point that if (when?) the drain field has to be re-built we just won't go on vacation(s) that year to cover the cost.
Something else I'll say about well water...
We opted for a whole-house reverse osmosis system because my wife couldn't fathom not being able to just drink out of whatever faucet she or the kids wanted to. In our house, that also means that all of our hose bibs on the exterior are pulling from the RO because we don't have a separate irrigation pump (we actually do have an irrigation well from a previous owner but some other precious owner tore down the pump house and it wouldn't matter anyway because the original owner plumbed the hose bibs all to the main water supply and changing that now would be a pain in the ass). The RO system cost us about $10k including needing to re-drill the well, and we *should* have spent another $2k on electrical upgrades to make it work correctly (RO works off two pumps, most systems only use one). And, the RO strips all of the minerals out of the water, so if you believe that you need those for health reasons, RO water is horribly bad.
On a lighter note, get all of it inspected as part of your buying process and include those inspections in your offer letter. On a similar note, if you have a pool get that inspected and include it in the offer letter too. I hear horror stories in our neighborhood all the time of people that didn't get their well/septic/pool inspected and are now stuck because of the "as-is" contract. You may not cancel the contract based on the results of any of those inspections but (a) at least you'll have some idea of what you're buying and (b) you can use that information to negotiate down the price (or, you could 6 years ago, with housing prices now, who knows).
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Thank you all. The house is a new construction in FL. That should, hopefully, alleviate some of the initial state and freezing issues. Is it not advisable to drink water from faucets? I usually only drink bottled water. Faucet water is only used in cooking/coffee/tea (after boiling).
you'll need to get the water tested to see if it's potable or not, and what you'd need to do to make it potable.
If it's new construction, what sort of water filtration system is the builder providing?
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In my experience, FL water is universally stinky (sulfur). Maybe where you are it's not so. If the well already exists, it's easy to smell and taste. You can decide for yourself whether treatment is required for drinking. High sulfur will also turn light colored clothes a yellowish gray if not treated.
When I was on a well, it was through 450 feet of granite, the water was a light blue in the tub and I really liked the mineral taste of it.
Another concern would be the age of the well, flow/refill rate and condition of the equipment. If it's an older well, did they install sufficient length casement to meet current code for blocking infiltration of groundwater? For example.
Nothing to add to previous advice on septic except to add RidX monthly to compensate for whatever household cleaners you will inevitably use. It works.
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Get a generator big enough to power your water pump. And then make sure the connections are wired appropriately.
Losing power stinks. Losing water when you lose power absolutely sucks.
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