I nearly bought a house a few years ago with a well and septic. We decided on another house at the last minute, but it was my intention to make having the septic tank pumped part of my offer.

Normally, during the inspection period, the septic system IS pumped and IS inspected, in that order. Satisfy yourself that the system is working, properly, and that the tank is not cracked and full of tree roots.

As well, make sure the distance between the water well and the leach lines is satisfactory. You don't want your waste being leached into your drinking water.

Good to know. About the only thing I remember about the septic in the house that we lived in when I was 4 is that the tank required digging in the back yard to access. The place that we're looking at buying has a clearly visible concrete pad with 2 large round concrete "doors". So no digging involved. Something is already in place to give permanent access.
No idea. Part of the contract includes a disclosure/declaration sheet that discusses the well and septic. The current owners have only been there 5 years, and per the sheet, they don't know anything about the well or septic (other than septic having been pumped in 2018), depth, installer, etc....

I've been curious what part of Texas it's considered. Most maps seem to call it the Gulf Coast or Upper Gulf Coast, but some consider it "Central" or "South Central" Texas. We're on the northwest corner of Colorado county which is on the line of coastal vs central. Per some other maps, it would either be "Post Oak Savannah" or "Blackland Prairie."

good to know, thx


Good to know, thanks.
This place is ~70 miles from the nearest salt water (Lavaca/Matagorda Bays), and I think at about 320' elevation, so I wouldn't think salt water would be an issue.
Thanks. Maybe we should occasionally flush some of our home-made sauerkraut. ;)

Real old timers and some installers would just use some roadkill, a dead raccoon is about perfect.
;)

Lots of good info folks. thanks.

I'll ensure that we don't hire any drunk, feckless plumbers that have moved from Humboldt county, Cali.

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run the well for a long time, see if you can run it dry or if you have unlimited hour long water head reserve

Hey man! I'm younger than you! I still dump yeast down the drain when my beer is done fermenting. I figure someday I'll open the lids on my tank and a ray of sunshine will come beaming out. It'll be that shiny clean.

I think RidX is just a dry yeast and some other stuff tossed in.

My folks moved to a remote location in Milam County north west of Bryan/College Station back in the 1970s. They built their retirement home there. My brothers and I still maintain the property. There was a 100+ year old hand dug 60 foot deep well that we had cleaned out and added a venturi pump to pull water from the 10 foot deep pool. It almost ran dry when we had the big Texas drought a few years back and the water table went way down. Water quality is kind of sketchy with a very high iron content. Chlorination causes the iron to precipitate out but then you have to have a tank filter that needs to be back flushed periodically to empty all the iron mud. The chlorination injector pump is a constant maintenance head ache. We still use bottle water for drinking and cooking. Ice cubes made with it turn brown from the still dissolved iron.

This reminds me I should get the septic tank pumped out. Have never done that since my dad passed away 27 years ago. No one lives there full time so it doesn't get much of a work out. The place is getting used more lately now that my kids and nephews head there to get off the grid on weekends.

We installed a gray water dry well when we built the place. In spite of emptying the dish water tub into the flower bed after doing dishes, the gray water line gets fogged up periodically at the outflow into the well. Enough fats, oils and grease make it into the line from rinsing dishes and soap scum from the bath that I had to install a clean-out near it so it could be snaked out when that happens. All food scraps are pitched into the woods for the critters to munch on. They do a great job of cleaning up.

That's cool about the 100+ year old hand dug well. That's a job that I'd not be interested in doing.

"Gray water dry well?" You have various drains from the house run to a big hole in the ground? Interesting.

My wife's grandmother had a house on 100+ acres in Kurten which is North of Bryan/CS. We used to go there to get away for the weekend. When the wife's grandmother died, her remaining kids couldn't get along which made it impossible and/or uncomfortable to use the property (thankfully, Grandmother wasn't there to see it). It was eventually sold. We are hoping that this property, at least for a while will be used in a similar way. It's closer and easier to get to but still very much in the country and should offer a similar experience without being quite as isolated.

I had an aunt and uncle in FL with a well. I think they must have had a high iron content. I hated their water and wouldn't even drink sweet tea made with it. Apparently, my cousins' friends loved it. To me it tasted like low sodium blood. Blech!

We're going back Sat for the inspection. I'll check all of the sinks and toilets for rust stains which I think would be an indication if they weren't CLRed away.

I'll probably get composting set up for food waste, although, we probably won't have that much waste.

Honestly, my biggest concern is maintaining the grass. The current owners have 33 acres that they are splitting this off of. I think they make hay on about 15 acres. The garage by the house currently houses 2 mowers (or maybe a mower and small tractor) and a big tractor complete with mower and front end loader. I'm thinking about asking if they want to part with a mower or maybe temporarily store them in exchange for me being able to mow with whatever is most appropriate.

I think about 1 acres is "yard" while the rest is outside of the inner fence and inside the outer fence and more wild. I assume the outer portion gets cleared from time to time, maybe once a year or something. I'm going to ask about that.

I've wondered about taking a metal detector out, but I suspect for any one interesting item that I would find, I'd find 1000 (screws, nails, bottle caps, etc...).

This thread makes me realize how lucky I am when it comes to water. No treatment needed, and shallow enough to place an old gunsmoke style hand pump on the well head to use in power outages. When looking at the place the shallow well had me nervous. So I called a school classmate whose family homesteaded the area. He told me I'd never pump it dry, and was told to not go deeper or I'd hit bad water.

His advice has been spot on for...gosh, almost 40 years.

(edit) one of many times in my life that I learned local knowledge can be priceless.

We have both since we are remote.

There is so much good info in this thread - I need to do some septic maintenance!

For the well, there will be a tag on the well head that will direct you to the folks who installed it, you can work from there. The county also should have a record of the permit.

Our well is set up so that the pump can be replaced easily - not cheap, easily:) See if your can be as well.

Make sure the well head is free and clear of any debris or growth.

If the above was redundant, sorry!

My parents old house had great water. It tasted great, and when they had it tested, the guy said that it was super clean due to the sandy soil (FL panhandle). They had a small filter that they replaced periodically for the particulates.

I'll be out there Sat, for the inspection. I'll check. Thanks.

They stacked sections of concrete "pipe" more like 3 foot sections of 3 foot diameter culvert pipe, one at a time. Then someone got inside and dug out the ground under the bottom section. As dirt is removed beneath the bottom section the stack settles down into the hole. When the top section is even with the ground, a new section is put in place on top. All the dirt is pulled out in a large bucket or basket with a line and pulley on a tripod. When the water table is hit, not only dirt/gravel/sand is hauled out but all the water that comes in as well. After 10 feet of water table I guess they just gave up. Looking down the well, I am amazed at how straight down the well is. I probably would have wandered all over the place.

For the gray water we dug a hole about 6 foot square and 6 foot deep. Lined it with cinder blocks and poured a concrete slab cap over it with an access hole on top. The hole is covered with a large concrete patio paver. The whole thing is buried under about 6" of soil and sod. The gray water pipe just pours into it on one side and soaks away into the dirt below. Occasionally pour some Roebic brand drain cleaner/soap destroyer down a drain to it as well as some Rid-X.

I think it would be hard to wander far with the culvert sections sliding down. It doesn't sound too horrible, but still definitely not a job that I want to do.
cool, thx

I would also verify where the secondary drain field is located to make sure if it is not already in use or covered over with something. If the secondary drain field is in use it's ok but if it fails it could become a very expensive repair.

Rather than using RidX - we use Septic Treatment by Cabin Obsession purchased off that big web site. Less than $2 a month - a year's supply and comes in convenient packs that you just drop in a toilet when you flush.

This^^^^It also has to do with soil quality. Is it rocky/does it drain well? An old system may work just fine but never meet today's standards in which case you may be required to upgrade the entire system in order to meet code.... 10 to possibly 20k depending on where you live and what type of new system is required.

I've always wondered about that.

Ground water flows in a direction.
Is there any way to determine which way it's flowing?