Hellobee Boards

We are! We had city water growing up but still had our own septic system...we never had any issues. DH & I have been in our house for over a year, with a septic system & a well & it's fine. We have an aerobic septic system which needs more care than the kind I grew up with but all I'm all we have no isses. It's expensive, but it's fine.

I'm not now, but I grew up in a house with septic and well water. Well water tastes really good, better than any bottled water I could buy. It can be "hard" which means that there are minerals in the water and it can be harder to lather soap, but we never had that problem. We were more conscious of what toilet paper we used, but septic tanks are self sustaining so not a ton of maintenance. I think you probably have to get it inspected once in awhile, but I only remember it being truly serviced when there was a problem, which was rare.

Oh also, well water runs is pumped with electricity so when the power goes out, you don't really have running water (which also means you can't flush toilets more than once since the tank won't fill back up). That's annoying.

I was growing up. Our septic backed up several times and I remember sitting outside in rainstorms with a sump pump trying to prevent the septic field from flooding our house.

My partner was also on septic growing up and has had similar problems.

As for our well water, we had it tested periodically. It was always within limits, but ours had a fairly metallic taste. You can never be sure what your particular well will hit with regard to water. At my partner's house the water tasted fine, but the neighbors had a sulfur taste that made it unusable. The whole neighborhood was like that-- completely hit and miss.

@ShootingStar: Ah, a generator would definitely fix that problem! We didn't have one and lived out in the middle of nowhere so when bad storms came through and we lost power, we always had to strategically decide whether to flush or not! We actually just stayed at a house that had well water, and they also installed a big filter tank with softener so you are probably right.

We're on septic and well. I totally encourage you to keep with your plans

Oh and I should add, my dh knows a lot about both if you have questions.

@photojane: $11,500 for both?!?! Jesus, I'll take 3! Seriously though, I know costs can vary by region but that seems ridiculously low. When we were looking to build we had multiple quotes and the lowest was around $40k for both. Make sure he is putting in a decent well for that price and the right size septic - that will be especially important if you have any plan or thought of adding onto the home you're building in the future. If you're thinking you might enlarge it by a bed/bath; think about getting a larger system now.

To answer your questions:

1- can I flush tampons? I don't know - never have tried, sorry!
2- do I have to buy special toilet paper? No; not if it's a decent system of the correct size. We use the same Charmin we've always used.
3- what's the average cost for servicing? I can't remember what they said, but I'm guessing several hundred dollars.
4- if the water isn't drinkable, what do we do about drinking water? brushing our teeth? Do I have to buy filtered water for that? If the water wasn't drinkable; I wouldn't be interested in building there. I imagine you could try a heavy-duty filter, or could buy bottled.

Oh, also: our septic guy said do not use all the special septic chemicals and crap; it's all just marketing. The systems are set up to regulate the bacteria and don't need you interfering by pouring chemicals down there. Just get it serviced every few years.