Rooterman Septic Cape Cod

Posts Tagged ‘Title 5 Septic Inspection Cape Cod’

If you are purchasing a home on Cape Cod you should protect yourself, and your family by having an independent Title 5 Septic Inspection.

 

We were asked by the potential buyer of this home to inspect the septic system for them. Like many of the septic systems on Cape Cod, the system is 15+ years old.

The System Design was made of the following Component:

1. 1000 gallon septic tank
2. Distribution Box
3. 1000 gallon leaching pit.

The first issue we had was there was no ” As Built Card” from the health department the town the property was located in.

We had to find the system components with our Sewer Camera and Locator. We located the distribution box to the right and the were several clues we had potential issues

1. You can see that the cover of the distribution box is stained with solids and effluent- this is an indicator that the leaching area was flooded and it caused the water to backup and flood the distribution box.
2. The concreate in the dbox is cracked from age and flooding,

 

Next we had to find the leaching area of the septic system. Again we used our sewer camera and locator and pushed the camera down the outlet side of the distribution box.

1. The camera could not be pushed more than 3 feet and we could see the pipe to the leaching area was crushed.
2. The contractor who insalled the system used schedule 20 pipe which was typical for the age of the system. This pipe has a very thin wall and tends to get crushed
3. We had to dig up the crushed pipe and cut it with a saw so that the rest of the system could be inspected.

 

When we found the leaching pit there were more issues that were visually evident.

1. The system had a 6 foot deep leaching pit.
2. You can see from the picture that there is staining on the walls of the leach pit which shows the high water mark.
3. The current home owner had not experienced any issues and was not aware that the system had failed because he lived alone for many years.

 

Had the potential buyer of this home, not had an independent inspection, they may have faced with putting in a new septic system themselves shortly after moving in

The current Title 5 Inspection Criteria Could have passed the System if the owner of the property had made repairs to the DBox and replaced the broken pipe.

 

Now you might ask yourself why would the system pass inspection if the leaching pit showed signs of flooding? 

 

1. If  repairs to the DBox and replaced the broken pipe the system could have received a Title 5 Certification..
2. The leaching area could have been passed- because the current Title 5 Inspection Criteria long as the staining in the leaching pit was 5″ below the pipe coming into the leaching pit it would have passed inspection
3. We calculated that the available flow the system could process was about 120 gallons per day- not enough for a family of four which is about 450 gallons per day.

Our buyers inspection for the of the septic system prevented them from having to do this!

Cost:

1. Septic Design and Perk Test $1600-$2000
2. Installation of new Dbox and Leaching Area for simple system- $ 8000- to $15,000