what should i do? wells and septic

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Jdblasko

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I am looking into buying a vacant (5yrs)home with 2 wells and a septic (sand mound). what should I look for and what should I do, if anything before turning wells on? any problems with well not running for over 5yrs? how about septic?
 

DonL

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I am looking into buying a vacant (5yrs)home with 2 wells and a septic (sand mound). what should I look for and what should I do, if anything before turning wells on? any problems with well not running for over 5yrs? how about septic?


More Info would be helpful. Are your well water pumps above ground ?

Most of the time you have a Qualified inspector, or even the person that drilled the well is more better, because he will know the quality, Normally. Unless you pay Cash, a inspection is required for most places of the USA.

If your tank looks like it is on a sand mound, then the tank may have floated, Because it lacked water in the tank to hold it down. In that case the In and Out pipes could be damaged.


Good Luck on your project. Welcome to Terry's forum.
 

Craigpump

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Two wells are a red flag unless one is dedicated to irrigation.

I would take a trip to the local health or building dept and get completion reports on those wells and have a very qualified well and pump tech do a thorough well inspection.
The inspection should include an evaluation on the pump and tank including
Ohm readings through the windings and shorts
Amp draw on start & run
Whether the system is properly grounded
Proper well cap
Size of wire used
Age of pump and tank
Static level
Pumping rate
Drawdown level
Recovery rate
Camera inspection on casing and pitless adapter
 

birkie

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One way to interpret this is that you're going to potentially buy the place first with cash as is, then evaluate whether the well and septic work afterwards - knowing they they may or may not work, and willing to write them off as necessary (but also willing to be pleasantly surprised).

If that's the case, I'd still try to get any records that exist on the wells and septic - but don't be surprised if you don't find any.

Once you get power to the place, you could try just turning on the breaker to the well, and see what happens. Think of it as a smoke test. Connect a hose to it, and shut off the rest of the house, if it's possible to do so (otherwise you'll be testing two things - the well, and the integrity of the house's plumbing - at the same time). If it doesn't work, then you are on your way to finding out what you need to fix or replace. If it does, then the next step is to evaluate the quantity (Well recovery gpm, pump gpm, reserve capacity of well), and quality (send sample to lab) of water produced by the well.

I've actually done this once, with a well that hadn't been used for about 5 years. It was a submersible pump, and started up just fine. The well produced good quantities of excellent water that tested well

I think the septic would be harder for you to evaluate, as a failure may not be immediately apparent. The biggest red flag to me is that it is a mound system, which indicates that the soil on the property is poorly drained (if that matters to you). On the plus side, whoever put it in spent some money, and at least attempted to solve the poor soil drainage problem the right way.
 
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