Septic or sewer?! HELP ASAP!?

Question

My husband and I are trying to buy a house and are supposed to close in 2 days, but we first have to find out weather the house has a septic tank or is on sewer lines, and we have no clue...
We called in a professional because we thought is was a septic tank, he dug for it all day and never found it.
We have already called the town hall and the health department, and they were no help. completely clueless. The real estate people wont release the names of the guys who built the house either.
outside the house, there is this round manhole looking thing, it is a pump that grinds up waste before it goes to either the tank or the sewer lines. There is a box on the side of the house that says "hydra", and in the side yard there are two small pipes sticking up out of a small hill in the ground.

Answer 1

surely that's a septic system.

never heard of "grinding up" waste to send it down a sewer.

Answer 2

I am afraid that buyers due diligence would come in here. Since obviously there have been city sewer bills, the owner most likely thought they were connected to the city systems. In purchasing, the seller only has to disclose what they know, and if they bought it, paid city sewer bills, they thought they were hooked to the sewer. Now, if these owners had been in the house since 1970 and city sewer was run in 1992, they opted not to hook up, that is different. In purchasing, it is your responsibility to check these things out. The information is deemed reliable, but not presented as accurate, and it is up to the buyer to satisfy themselves that they are comfortable with the homes condition. A call to the city might have resolved the hook up issue. Certainly an inexpensive inspection by a plumber would have addressed this.

Answer 3

You and your real estate agent are supposed to know this already. The original owners are supposed to fill out a page of disclosures. They would at least tell you what utility companies are available at the house.



Since this guy could not find the septic system, and your real estate agent is not knowledgeable, I would NOT buy this house nor would I keep this real estate agent.

Answer 4

a plumber can pull a toilet and run a camera down the drain. the camera has a built in locating device that will tell you where head of camera is. If you are on tank, a plumber can tell by the fitting just inside of tank. Since you mentioned that there is a manhole with a pump in it, you may be on sewer and since the house sewer is lower that where it ties into sewer main, you have to have pump to pump up sewage so it can be gravity fed. Any (good) plumber can easily figure this out. If sewer is available, it normally has manholes every 300 ft., and manholes are (most of the time, but not always) in the middle of the street

Answer 5

Your real estate people must be pretty clueless if they couldn't advise you on this. I'd be inclined not to buy anything through them. Are they city realtors who know nothing about the country, where the house is? Do they not know that there are cameras that can be sent down sewer lines to check them out? Guys who clean drains use them, plumbers use them, and the guy who checked out my septic field before I bought this house used one to inspect the system. I don't know what kind of "professional" that was.



The thing that "grinds sewage" sounds like it might be a treatment plant(I had one at my last house), in which case you probably have a septic field, but hey, I'm not there to see it so my opinion on that isn't worth much. I've never heard of anyone needing to treat sewage before it goes into a sewer but I guess it's possible.



Are there any neighbours? They might know something. And, if a sewer line is put in after houses are built, usually anyone along that line who has septic has to switch and hook up to the sewer line when it's put in. So if the people next door are on sewer, you probably are too.



If the health department knows nothing and you find a septic field, that would bother me. It means that the field is so old it was put in before permits were required, or it was put in without a permit. Relatives of mine are just coping with a similar situation. Their septic field was installed many many years ago, by the original owner, under the driveway and parking area, which is a big no-no. Now that it needs repair, that old field cannot be repaired because it's way outside any current codes. It's going to cost them around $25,000 to get a new field and a treatment plant to comply with code. The whole parking area, the side yard of the house and part of the front lawn are all going to be dug up and a tree had to come down to accommodate all this. I bet it'll cost even more in the end.



I sure hope you have the right conditions in your sale contract, ones that allow you to bail if the info about the sewage disposal is not available, because I'd be very uneasy if I was looking at this house.

Answer 6

In some areas the real estate agent and owner MUST release that information when requested.



If the Town or Health Dept does not have any record of that property being on a municipal sewer system, it is likely on a private sewer system (Septic tank or holding tank)



Go to the Town Office and the Health Department - do not do this by phone. take the address and lot number with you.



Find out where the Land Registry Office is located. They will have the owners on record. There is usually a fee to get this information but it is available to anyone as public record. it may even have the builders name if the builder is not the owner. Again, take the address and lot number with you and do not do it by phone.



Why the so called professional had to dig up the yard to locate the system is beyond me.



You look in the basement and look on the outside walls for a sewer waste pipe going through the basement wall or look on the basement floor for a cleanout near one of the outside walls.



When you find one or the other or both, that is where you start looking outside that section of the house.



Usually a floor cleanout in the basement is for a municipal sewer connection but can be for a forced private waste system. if the basement is a walkout and the cleanout is on the same wall as the walkout, your septic tank or holding tank should be outside that wall



Take a 4 foot steel rod and a sledge hammer and carefully drive it in the ground about 2 to 3 feet starting about 2 feet from the house and work out from the house if it hits something solid; stop. Drive it in the ground all around that area to get an idea of the size of whatever you hit. if it is quite large, it is likely the septic tank or a holding tank.

Answer 7

I HAVE heard of grinding waste to send to the sewage system. So don't let that be your guide. Town hall and the health department is not where you would go for this. You would need to go research the address at the county/city building permit or assessor's department. They would know who built, what permits were obtained, and other pertinent info such as property lines, easements... things like that.



Personally, I would NOT buy this place. They are hiding something. Walk away.