septic tank

tomhain

We are looking into buying a great house but it has septic tank. That to me is huge disadvantage as I don't understand them at all.

I thought that all water and waste goes into septic tank and every few weeks it is pumped out and taken to waste disposal facility. However the house has even rain water going into it. Like rain water could go directly into ground I think. I was told that previous owner had pump on top of the septic tank and pumped out water into the field (house comes with 1 acre garden). I thought that is illegal. Somebody even said that many septic tanks have drainage that takes water into the ground and only needs to be emptied like once a year or so.

The house is new so there was work done on septic tank not long ago, but as I understand the pump inside broke and so the owner had pump outside with tube going in pumping the water.

Should I be concerned? How much does it cost to have proper system installed or is that proper?

I'm looking to buy house for a while now, and if the house has septic tank it always scares me.

UrbanFret

The tank needs to be emptied Once a year or if there is only a couple of people living in the house every 2 years is sufficient. No way should rain water be going into the tank as it will fill up quickly. The pump you speak of I suspect is to pump the treated water into the percolation area where it seeps into the ground.( These are necessary when gravity flow is insufficient to take the treated water to the percolation area) There really isn't any need to fear septic tanks, every one off rural house has one, or a waste treatment system as they are now known. The seller should have an up to date cert for the system anyway. The pump shouldn't cost more than a couple of hundred I would have thought.

Larry Bee

www.epa.ie has good, easy to read information on septic tanks. If it is a new house, there may have been a stipulation in the planning about the type of system that should be used, and also if a maintenance contract for it has to be put in place. Sometimes these can be expensive, but worth checking if this applies.

Bonzo Delaney

tomhain wrote: »

We are looking into buying a great house but it has septic tank. That to me is huge disadvantage as I don't understand them at all.

I thought that all water and waste goes into septic tank and every few weeks it is pumped out and taken to waste disposal facility. However the house has even rain water going into it. Like rain water could go directly into ground I think. I was told that previous owner had pump on top of the septic tank and pumped out water into the field (house comes with 1 acre garden). I thought that is illegal. Somebody even said that many septic tanks have drainage that takes water into the ground and only needs to be emptied like once a year or so.

The house is new so there was work done on septic tank not long ago, but as I understand the pump inside broke and so the owner had pump outside with tube going in pumping the water.

Should I be concerned? How much does it cost to have proper system installed or is that proper?

I'm looking to buy house for a while now, and if the house has septic tank it always scares me.[/quote.

Your surveying engineer would advise you on the problem there and rough cost the key with septic tanks would be the percolating area if this is done right no problems at all.
With reguards to emptying the tank if it's done properly you'd rarely have to empty it once every 10 to 15 years if ever.
My own is in 8 yrs now and not emptied yet family of five. Lay of the bleach and let the Eco system work it's wonders in the tank breaking down all the waste to water.