LearningOhio
New Member
Hi! I know you all are busy so if you have any time to reply, I’ll be very grateful. I bought this old farmhouse 30 years ago from the former owners who lived here themselves for 25 years and who bought it from a relative who lived here 30 years or more before that. The house was here in 1900 when records first were kept. The former owners live down the road still. No one knows where the septic system is and no one has cared in the “not broke, don’t fix it” kind of thing. I do care and have had three different companies come to try to clean it out just in case but they can’t find it. Three years ago, we had record rain and water got in the basement. A tree had volunteered itself nearby but who knows if that was it. They put vibrating cable down the hole in the sump and said it stopped on something hard so they stopped trying to go forward. The water went out but they said to find the septic system and/or blockage, they needed to have two sides of the yard excavated and have the concrete floor and basement walls cut out to look for the pipes/drains. They said it might go south or east based on the sewer J pipe and sump drainage holes. I asked about cameras and they said they won’t help. Last week, we had record rain, and water again came in the basement. It didn’t pump out all the way and yesterday the toilet wouldn’t flush correctly. They did the same today with the cable thing and said after 10 feet straight out from the sewer pipe, they can’t tell where it goes. The water’s nearly gone and the toilet is better but not right. They again say I need to have both sides of the yard and the concrete inside excavated to find what’s there. I don’t understand how it’s gone so long without care or any trouble so I wonder if there ever was a true septic system. Or has it just been flowing out under the ground in the fields maybe? I’ve had much done to the house over the years and the words, “I’ve never seen this before”, from contractors are familiar to me. Will they be able to create a new septic if there’s not one there, surely? And are new septic systems like $10,000-$20,000? For the last 60 years at least, four to five people lived here. Now it’s just two and I have no clue how this all might cost. Thank you for any thoughts. I’ll go have some Tums now!
