Buying Home Cape Cod?

Are You Buying a Home On Cape Cod With A Septic

You wouldn’t let the seller of the home do the home inspection for you , would you?

That’s what you are doing when you accept the home owners Cape Cod Title 5 Certificate.

Buyer Beware!

Get your own independent assessment of the condition of the system and protect yourself from frustration and heartache!

Cape Cod Title V Septic Inspections Short Falls

Does not include the inspection of the condition of the pipes leaving the building to the septic tank and leaching area

There are thousands of homes on Cape Cod that have pipe made of rolled tar paper called Orangeberg.
This pipe collapse from the inside from the weight of the earth on it and either become oval or even worse gets large bulges or tumors that cause backups. It can be very expensive to replace drain lines.

Cesspools – Many towns will allow these systems to pass a Title 5 Inspections - they will fail with sustained usage.

Systems with Leaching Pits or Dry Wells- these are similar to cesspools except the solids are separated from the water in the septic tanks

Chances these systems are at least 15 years old and are at the end of their useful life.
Leach Pits will pass Title V Inspection as long as the water level in the leach pit is 5” below the pipe entering the pit. Leach Pits with high water levels will fail with sustained water usage.

System Age – The average useful life for a Cape Cod septic system is 15 years and let’s assume that the system appears to be in good condition

What’s a Potential Home Buyer to Do to Protect Themselves from Inheriting Potential Septic Nightmares?

Get your own Cape Cod Title 5 Septic Inspection- be there and visually verify everything is inspected.

Stay Away from homes with cesspools- you will have to replace it.
Leach Pits- be aware these systems are 15+ years old and you will have to replace it in the near future.
Look around the neighborhood- if you see a large number of homes with retaining walls that the house the septic leaching area.
Chances are if your system fails you will have to install the same system- pump up- and the costs are very expensive.

Houses that have been empty for years or occupied by one person for a many years-You may think this is great the system has to be in great shape! It may mean that the system has passed only because the waste water flow rates into the systems are well below the designed flow rates.
Verify the water usage from the water department for the past 10 years- a system that has greater water usage than the designed flow rates on the drawings is suspect
Pumping Records- Verify with the health department the pumping history. If the system has very infrequent pumping a comprehensive inspection of the systems leaching are is warranted.
You Find the clothes washing machine drain line that drains into the yard- Buyer Beware- chance are the system is not working properly and cannot handle the waste water flow.
Verify that the waste line goes to the leaching area as shown on the drawing- if not chances are changes have been made to the septic system that have not been approved by the health department and this is an indicator that that there may be problems with the system processing waste water.

Buyer Beware!