Septic tank

[Accidental Retiree]

I hate to bust yer bubble, but that (probably) does not make you immune to expensive sewer repairs unless the city owns/maintains the line all the way to your house. Here, as in most places, the homeowner owns the pipe that connects the house to the city sewage line. When it breaks, as happened to one of my neighbors, or tree roots invade it the bill is in the $2k+ range and these are 1/4 acre lots.

And of course the longer the line, the more it's going to cost.

You speak the truth about city sewer, Brother Walt.

Three years ago this April, DH and I had plans to head down to Monterey for our 30-something wedding anniversary. Our sewer lateral had other plans, though, and on the day of our anniversary, I stood out front and watched the new lateral being installed from under our house to the street. What a shindig.

My friend said, in surprise, "So now we know that the anniversary gift for 32 years of marriage is sewer pipe. Who knew?"

$6100 later, we had new pipes. Aw, well, every year's an adventure!

Edit to add: Not that I am squeamish about sewer stuff, since I have had a few years in various wastewater treatment agencies; however, the whole septic tank combined with well water on the same property always has made me nervous, not being an engineer and not understanding how the two waters get kept separate.

Or not, in the case of unmaintained septic systems?

 

[zinger1457]

Where I live if you have a two compartment septic tank then you're required to have a filter on the outlet port. The filter does stop solids from getting to the leach field but the filter also needs to be cleaned out regularly to make sure it's not clogged up and stopping liquids from getting out. I had my tank pumped last year for $280 after about 7 years and everything was still in good shape.

 

[Jack_Pine]

Where I live if you have a two compartment septic tank then you're required to have a filter on the outlet port. The filter does stop solids from getting to the leach field but the filter also needs to be cleaned out regularly to make sure it's not clogged up and stopping liquids from getting out. I had my tank pumped last year for $280 after about 7 years and everything was still in good shape.

That's what ours is like also. Both at home and at cabin.