Hi all. Need a bit of info. Looking to going to see a property that the details state is not on mains sewerage but has water supply and shared septic tank and soakaway! Anyone tell me what this means. It is an oldish property (semi-detached cottage in the middle of nowhere!). Anyone had any experience of this. Much appreciated. Thanks

Same thing we have (actually ours is more primitive, it's a cesspit rather than a septic tank). A septic tank is a big plastic vat, usually buried in an inconspicuous area of the garden, where all your toilet waste goes. It has some kind of biological control system going on which breaks down the waste. The 'inoffensive' waste water goes to the soakaway. It is a common system for properties 'in the middle of nowhere' as no one is going to dig sewers for a handful of properties.

You have to get the tank emptied every so often; how often depends on how big it is, how well used it is etc, anything from once a year to once every five years. A company comes with a tanker with a huge nozzle and sucks out the gunge, they charge by weight, ours is about £100 a go. If yours is shared with a neighbour, you share the cost (and hope they aren't a family of ten ).

Your water bills will be halved because you are not paying the water company to remove sewerage or waste water - assuming you have mains water of course - you just pay for what is taken in.

We've got one - its not a problem.

Most of my family have the same setup and it doesn't really cause too many problems. You may need a UV filter to kill any nasty bacteria in the water and if the septic tank is actually a brick built cess pit, then this can deteriorate over time, but all in all it's not really a big deal. The plastic/fibreglass septic tanks are designed to last for decades. The septic tank will need emptied (as has been said before), my Uncle has a maintenance contract with the local water board who empty the tank as required (usually once a year), costs around £120 pa.

Again thanks for the information. So would it put you off the property? Have got details of this one (which does sound lovely!) and one with oil fired CH (hence my other question on the board). Been checking up on this cottage re price paid, area and it was sold 5 years ago for 85K and is now on at 195K. Next door sold oct last year for 200k (to a plumber!!!) so seems reasonable to me. Just waiting to see if hubby fancies checking it out (especially as we have just lost the house we were really interested in...typical eh?)

Would it put me off the property? No obviously not, since I do live in a property which has one.

And if you want to live in the middle of nowhere, you are unlikely to find a propery with the 'luxury' of mains sewerage.

We live in a house with a septic tank (or cess pit - not sure what it's called but it's a brick built one). The house was empty when we moved in (older property c1910ish). The rest of the street is connected to mains drainage (1930's/1950's houses) but for some reason ours wasn't.

We asked the peeps next door when we saw them about the tank (they also have one) and they said that they'd been there 15 years & the guy had only had it emptied once !! Sods law we needed to have it emptied just after we moved in ... cost £300 but apparantly the price depends on how far away the cesspit is from the road (ours is 120 ft). Our water rates are less than half (only £10.20 instead of over £40) so even if we need the tank emptying every few years, it's still cheaper than mains sewerage.

One thing I would say is to make sure that the cover on the pit is sound. Ours was concrete but it was splitting down the middle so we had it replaced with a steel cover.

It certainly didn't put us off the house ... it's our dream home!

The house is obviously quite rural then with the oil and septic tanks?

We are out in the sticks and any perceived 'downside' of tanks etc is vastly outweighed by the pluses of peace and quite.

I'd recommend it.

It wouldn't put me off in the slightest. If you do decide to buy the house, do a lot of reading on what you can and cannot allow to go down your waste pipes. AIUI things such as bleach and some modern cleaning solutions can kill the bacteria that breaks down the waste in the tank which means it has to be emptied more frequently. Also, I believe that sanitary items such as pads or tampons can't be flushed.

quote:

Originally posted by Joolz S:
Also, I believe that sanitary items such as pads or tampons can't be flushed.

That applies to mains drains as well.

hi, we've had septic tanks at our last 2 houses, both brick-built. (plastic ones didn't come in till relatively recently). there are thousands still in use all over the UK.

they are no problem provided you respect their workings. nowadays you can buy dishwasher, washing-machine, toilet-cleaning stuff that is safe to use with a septic tank, but always check first.

DONT EVER put down Dettol, chlorine-based bleaches, water from washing decorating brushes, or any "female" items as mentioned above or you will block it for sure.

a few questions you need to ask, though: when was it last emptied and how much did that cost? does it need regular emptying and how often? has it ever given any blockage problems and how much did that cost to sort out?

and about the "shared" aspect: what are the arrangements for paying for any work needed, ie does one household arrange for emptying and pay, and then collect a share from the other household? if so, have there ever been any problems? can you get to meet the neighbours?

where is the tank situated? on your land or on neighbours'? what about access for maintenance/emptying? some arrangements for shared tanks involve right-of-access, some don't.

I believe modern systems have to have licences from local water authority, and evidence as to where water eventually soaks away to, whereas with older systems these are rarely in place. whether that's a problem will depend on your solicitor's judgement.

you could always get someone from a local sewage-disposal firm to look over the setup and tell you what they think about its general condition.

Water rates are much lower for people on septic tanks, you have to balance this against the cost of maintenance if the system is dodgy.

sorry if this sounds negative; we have had no probs ourselves.

quote:

Originally posted by liz3:

DONT EVER put down Dettol, chlorine-based bleaches, water from washing decorating brushes, or any "female" items as mentioned above or you will block it for sure.

oops, I knew all about the other stuff but not about water from decorating brushes. Why does that affect the system? and what are you supposed to do with the water from your decorating brushes, if not pour it down the drain

In addition you should not use biological washing powders/liquids.

Re 'female' items, our water company (Southern) sent round a leaflet telling EVERYONE, including on mains drains, not to flush them, leaving us with the delightful image of what we might find in rockpool if we did.

Oops - I didn't realise you shouldn't use certain products either !! I've been just using the normal stuff that I used in our previous house (although we do use non-bio now because of our little tyke !)

Does anyone have a link to a site which tells you what you can/can't use if you've got a septic tank ?

A bbc site on septic tanks (who would have thought it) has this:

Finally, users of septic tanks (indeed any sewage treatment facility) should also be aware that the biological process is impeded by inter alia the following:

Detergents and bleach will kill the bacteria which keep the tank operating properly. If possible use biodegradable 'septic safe' detergents.

Household grease, such as cooking oils, animal fats and dairy products. (consider installing a grease-trap)

Domestic oils, such as car lubricants and petrochemicals (don't connect your garage sump to your sewerage system and don't empty your gearbox down the lavatory).

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Thanks to this thread I realise I do have a septic tank rather than a cesspit; I thought all brick built versions were the latter and I couldn't understand why my vendor kept calling it a septic tank. Fortunately I was doing all the 'septic safe' stuff anyway.

Cheers velvet - will check my detergents when I get home !!

In case it helps, I mostly use the products I used with main drainage, except instead of using bleach for the loo I use the Toilet Duck fresh brush thingy as it is septic safe, and also v.g. unlike some other 'eco friendly' products which I found ineffective.

water from decorating brishes....I don't know what happens here but even emulsion paint washings will clog up a system; I've seen it happen twice.

what we do is tip the water away around the garden. chemical brush cleaners for glosses need to be disposed of as best you can; use them as little as possible and put into a mains drain somewhere. they usually have advice for disposal on the tin or bottle.

As a property manager up here in Scotland I deal with a huge number of septic tanks and if working well they are never a problem and it certainly wouldn't put me off buying a property.

One thing I would say is that I note that a lot of people are saying empty it each year. Technically if the system is working correctly there should be very little reason to empty it every year, perhaps only having it desludged ever couple, as in emptying it you are actually getting rid of the good bits that make the septic tank work

quote:

Originally posted by liz3:
water from decorating brishes....I don't know what happens here but even emulsion paint washings will clog up a system; I've seen it happen twice.

what we do is tip the water away around the garden. chemical brush cleaners for glosses need to be disposed of as best you can; use them as little as possible and put into a mains drain somewhere. they usually have advice for disposal on the tin or bottle.

I couldn't find any other info about this.

I am not sure what effect pouring painty water on the garden would have on my plants. My other alternative would be to walk up to the main road and pour it down the road drain which takes rainwater. I am not sure you're supposed to do that though!

velvet, I've been pouring emulsion-painty water on the garden - well-diluted water, I hasten to add - for years now with no ill effects.

but then I don't use vinyl-based emulsions because they give me asthma attacks.