To buy a house served by a cesspit?

[Sacredspace]

Does anyone have any experience of a cesspit? Found a lovely home in a rural location. Also fuelled by oil. What do I need to know?

By cesspit do you mean a septic tank?!

If so, they are very common in rural parts, as are oil-fuelled heating systems.

We flush a little sachet of some enzyme stuff down the loo monthly to keep the septic tank healthy. They occasionally need emptying (mainly if you don't look after them properly) but you just call a company and they come and do it.

We pay for oil monthly and order a delivery when the tank is getting low.

It's all very easy.

They are not a problem as long as you don't flush anything other than loo paper; no wipes etc. We put an enzyme down once a week and only use bleach that is certified suitable for septic tanks. In rural France some people throw a dead chicken in to generate the correct level of bacteria!

A cesspit and a septic tank are different things. A cess pit is like a storage tank that needs to be emptied and that can be very expensive. A septic tank is like a mini sewage works and should work ok if not overloaded.
If it's a cess pit you may want to check on the cost and regularity of emptying and this will depend on family size etc. Also access to your house may be relevant ie is it a small narrow lane?
Good luck

A septic tank shouldn't be a problem if it's in a good state. I would think about having a survey done by a suitably qualified person to make sure there are no expensive repairs needed though.
We flush a powder down the loo every week and empty it every couple of years. Very straightforward.

Check which it is. A cesspit is very different to a septic tank.
Google cesspit v septic tank and the explanation is there.
Cesspits need to be emptied regularly depending on your usage - have a lot of baths and you’ll be emptying it more frequently etc etc. Septic tanks should effectively allow good bacteria do their things and eventually excess water self drains into a soak away. Still need emptying but nowhere near as often if you treat it nicely. (No bleach as it kills the good bacteria and enzymes).
Yes you may need to repair of replace either. Yes they smell when being emptied! Ask if you are prone to flooding - you do not want sewage everywhere.
Oil tanks - need to be out of sight and padlocked. Otherwise the oil thieves strike. See if you can read the gauge - keep an eye on it as it is easier and cheaper to fill them during the summer ready for the winter. Keep an eye on the gauge during winter as it’s easy to forget the hearings running and the fuel is getting low - it’s amazing the number of people who run out at Christmas.

There are new regs that have been brought in re septic tanks, will have a google and see if i can link to them. Will be worth checking that this one complied with them.

*complies

Oil is fine. Just don't run out!

We were told we had a septic tank when we bought a house. It needed emptying about every 4 - 6 weeks, so was not a septic tank. However, when someone inspected it, there was a chance it had a filter in so then it became a septic tank again. Then we were told that the seller had used a pump to syphon water off and into the ditch, so it became a cesspit again.

We never found out what it was but the next buyer replaced it, which we would have done if someone had been honest enough to tell us if we needed to.

Be sure of what you have. Be aware that if it needs emptying you will not be able to let anything else into it without the threat of unpleasantness and that when it is emptied you will need to close the windows because it will pong. So will your neighbours tanks.

We ran water out of the bath/washing machine etc. to water the garden and save a week or so on emptying, it was expensive.

With the oil heating, do not let the boiler run out of oil, it will stink and can be a pain to restart. Watch your tank level and keep an eye on it if it is accessible to others because they get drained by thieves.

Country living is not as simple as it might be.

What is the powder that you add? I've lived with a septic tank for 10 years and never been told about powder

We have it serviced about once a year and sludge emptied about twice a year.

I've got the feeling I've been doing it all wrong!

I've had a septic tank and an oil heated house and frankly I would avoid having them again.

Oil heat is very costly, inefficient and depending on where your tank is, can make your home smell like a petrol station when they fill it up. I had a situation where an aged oil tank sprang a leak and flooded the basement. Please pay and get an opinion on the state of the tank before you purchase, you don't want an oil leak, it's a total nightmare.

A cess pit is a different thing from a septic. I think they are mainly with older homes, again there is a lot of potential for issues and they were built at a time when homes in general used a lot less water so may not hold up so well under modern usage, ( washing machines, daily showers, multiple loos).

All my experiences above are with a home in Massachusetts so if you are in the UK then heating the house won't be quite as expensive.

All my experiences above are with a home in Massachusetts so if you are in the UK then heating the house won't be quite as expensive.

Ours wasn't cheap, UK semi rural, lots of fresh air and space, large 5 bed house, huge plot.

We live rurally and have a septic tank and oil. The oil isn’t too much of an issue, we get it filled up twice a year and we have a digital display that shows what percentage oil we have left so we know when to think about refilling. It isn’t hugely different in cost to gas central heating.

The septic tank, again like the other said, it gets pumped out every few years and other than that you wouldn’t know from using the toilets etc that it wasn’t “normal” plumbing. It did gross me out a bit when we were first thinking about moving to the countryside, but you really don’t notice any difference.

@leafeater

What is the powder that you add? I've lived with a septic tank for 10 years and never been told about powder

We have it serviced about once a year and sludge emptied about twice a year.

I've got the feeling I've been doing it all wrong!

We've bought stuff from Muck Munchers. I think it is friendly bacteria that help digest everything in the tank.

Both our current and previous houses had (fairly old) septic tanks, we haven't had any problems. We have ours emptied every 9-12 months, which costs about £140.

From January 2020, when you sell/buy a property checks need to be made that the septic tank complies with current regulations, otherwise it will need to be upgraded.

We have a mains gas supply so can't answer the question about oil.

@leafeater

What is the powder that you add? I've lived with a septic tank for 10 years and never been told about powder

We have it serviced about once a year and sludge emptied about twice a year.

I've got the feeling I've been doing it all wrong!

Exactly what I’ve been doing for the past 7 years. It’s what we’ve been told to do by the company who installed the system, and we were told no need to add anything

I had a rural house for 15 years with a cess pit. Had to be emptied and I always thought it was quite expensive. When I moved into a town I found the sewage and drainage charges from the water company were not much less. I think you notice it more when you pay a lump sum rather than a direct debit. Just don't put cotton buds down as they float on the surface and can clog up the drains. We didn't use wipes so they may be a no-no too. Otherwise we had no problems .

We had a cess pit at our last house and it was no problem. We had it emptied about every 6 months, we could check when it needed emptying by lifting a manhole cover. I think it was about 80 quid each time. No fuss, they usually came when we were out at work. Ask the current owners how often they empty and the cost. Also check where it is in relation to patios etc as there can be a smell. Ours was in front of the garage so no problems. If concerned about the condition you can also have a camera survey.
Neighbour's got connected to the sewage, which cost about 3k, but would be more if set far back from the road.

We have one not sure which it is. I thought it was a cess pit but we only have it emptied every 18months or so, costs about £150 so less than we save on our water bill.
Oil can be expensive we use oil and woodburner. Oil costs us about £600 a year.

Please all who have oil heating check your house insurance, not just for loss of oil but also the clean up. The cost of cleaning up heating oil from gardens, kitchen floors through to foundations isn't always covered properly and is eye wateringly expensive to do.

Definitely get it fully surveyed and ensure you read up on and have it checked against the 2020 General Binding Rules else before long you could be well on your way to needing to install a whole new drainage system.

Its also worth noting that if you're not connected to mains sewerage, your waywr rates will be a lot lot lower because all you are paying for is water to your home. I think ours is £127 a year or thereabouts.

Buy heating oil in the summer when it's cheaper.

Our cess pit had a run off for the water. We probably had it emptied once a year.

Is it a cesspit or septic tank? There is a difference - A cesspit is just a container that you have to have emptied (about once a month I think) when full. A septic tank, like we had here, works by filling up then bacteria chomping away at the contents and the solids breaking down. Once full it discharges the less offensive grey water into a pre dug area, field or the like. You still need to get a sludge gulper to empty it but more like once a year at most. We changed ours for a BioKube which is like a mini sewage treatment plant. The very clean water can be used to water the garden and the excess above that is discharged into a stream in our garden (ok'd and tested by the EA as it is very clean). So it's possible for you to change it if it's your dream house, but my advice would be if it's not broke don't fix it!
We're also on oil for our heating and water. It's fine, you just need to have a tank in a less obtrusive part of route garden and remember to top it up. Most rural areas have groups of people who get together and get their tanks topped up when oil is lowest in cost, and save further on the tanker call-out.

Nb only use septic tank safe stuff, we use Ecover everything and no antibacterial products down the drain (very little bleach if any).