Yes I get a lot of questions...but I find it rewarding when I can help people walk through the issues they face when building/buying/selling a home with a septic system. It's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it.
FAQ - We are about to buy property to build on, what should we look for
We are looking to buy some property in an area that will need a septic system. What should I be looking for? Robert M.
When you know where you want to buy, talk to neighbors that have built in the area in the last few years and ask them what kind of system they had to go with (don’t rely on what someone had a system installed 20 years ago...the codes have changed and there is a good chance what they have won’t fly today).
Talk to the local health dept and some of the local contractors to see what is commonly being used in the area. The reason you want to do this is to prepare yourself for what you are going to need...you don’t want to buy a property, plan your house out to the penny only to find that the septic system is going to put you over your budget.
Once you are sure of the property, hire a good septic designer to do the necessary tests and design the system, BEFORE you design the house!!! Go out with them and tell them where you would like to situate the house, but let them give their input...sometimes just moving the house a few feet in one direction will make the difference between a regular, gravity fed system and a more expensive pump system.
I had some friends that were going to build and I tried advising them on this but the wife didn’t like me a whole lot and wouldn’t listen. The irony is, if they would have listened and moved the house about 10 feet to the west, they could have gone with a gravity fed system for about $3,500. As it turned out, they spent more than $8,000 because they (she) put the house right where the drainfield should have gone. Go figure.