Well water and septic

L

LazyEngineer

500+ Posts
I found a sweet 4-acre lot in NW Austin that looks like a good price. The only problem is that there are no city utilities. So, what's the deal with well water and septic? Pros and Cons would be helpful. Also, how much is it going to cost to drill a well and install a septic system?
 
10,000-12,000 all together should be a good ballpark number. Might be more depending on how deep they have to drill for water. The septic system could also raise that total if you have bad soil and need an aerobic system or something else that costs a lot.
 
3-4 grand for a well....Pros: good sweet water.
Cons..drill that sucker deep, or you will silt up your pump in a drought year, or go dry.
Con: hyperflouridation. It'll pit and stain your kids' teeth.
Septic...all cons, baby. Depending on the perc test, and local regs you may have to do a pressure dose system...cha-ching.
Maybe 10 K. Every few years you pay Bubba to bring out a Honey Pumper and clean the holding tank.
Welcome to the boonies. It's worth it.
 
LE: There are a lot of parameters here.

Well - best advice is to go find a couple of neighbors and ask them about their wells. Depth and water quality are variable and site specific. We are in SW Travis county and our well is 880 feet deep. Over $10K just for the well, the water is hard and silty. We have a filter and softener. Not all well water is sweet. We also went down to the Trinity acquifer because the Glen Rose while shallower also has a tendency to go dry during droughts. A neighbor less than a mile from us can't get well water and had to ship water in. So it is essential to talk to people and well drillers in the area you are looking to purchase. If your neighbors don't remember who drilled their well, you can usually find it on the pressure tank. They can give you a good estimate on what you're in for.

Septic. It all depends on where you are as well. Where we are currently located we were able to put in a conventional system. Good perk. Our last house over the Edward Acquifer recharge zone with crappy perk caused us to build a low dose evaporative septic system. Very large ~1/3 acre and very expensive $22K in 1988 dollars. Try and stay away from any type of system (like low dose) that requires a pump. They go out every 3-5 years. We used a chamber system which reduces the seoptic field requirement by 40% which in turn saves bucks.

If you are in Travis county, they use to come out and walk the property with you and give you a sense of what kind and potential location for a well and septic system. There are setback requirements for septic systems and wells, so you'll also need to know where your neighbors wells and septic is located.

I know this is a lot of info. If you have specific questions, I'll check back or you can PM me.
 
How are you getting flouride out of your well water. Is it in the goundwater?

If so, I had never heard that. I've never really had to study up on wells at all.
 
My fiancee's family owns a home out in the country and have a septic system. The one thing I've learned from spending time out there is that septic systems are absolutely horrible. They're always backing up and have to be pumped out. It seems like a royal pain in the ***.
 
The rainwater collection seems pretty cool. I would guess it would only be a supplement for the well water. Anybody on here have a rainwater collection system? Do you use it for drinking water?
 
Celis, I would be willing to bet that something is wrong with their system. They shouldn't be having any problems.
 
Nick, we get a breakdown of contaminants in our community well.
The common ones are nitrates and such from animal poop or bad septic systems in the area, or carcinogens from the chlorination process.
One alert they sent out was re: very high levels of natural flouride from the limestone decomposition.

Link
 
I priced a well for a lot I was looking to buy off of 1431 and at 880 ft. (thats the depth of the well on the adjoining property) it was going to be nearly $17,000 when completed. Septic will depend on your square footage of the home you plan to build, since you are looking at 4 acres, the leech field for the lateral lines will not have to be complex. You should be able to get out for less than $10k.

Chief
 
My septic system is only about a year old so no major issues yet.

I highly recommend you plan your house location AROUND where your septic system must be. We put our house where we wanted it and the septic was an afterthought. When the county came to authorize our septic plan, they made us move it because of runoff. Soooooo, the only acceptable location was our front yard. We have 6,400 linear feet of lateral lines. As you can guess, thats a huge chunk of land in our front yard.

The second drawback is that when it rains as much as it has, there is no place for the sewage to absorb into the ground because of saturation. So you end up with a pretty crappy odor, no pun intended, when you get constant rain.

If you have a septic system that is properly planned around the size of your house, terrain and type of dirt on the property, you shouldnt have too many problems with it backing up, etc. I recommend a pump even though they may have to be replaced from time to time because it almost eliminates the possibility of backup into the house.
 
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