WWTBAM Bored

Our town is connecting every home to a sewer system. They've finally reached our neighborhood. They gave us a form to fill out to tell them where the connection from the street should be placed in front of our property. I haven't a freakin' clue, and multiple calls requesting assistance to their phone numbers listed on the form have been ignored.

Any ideas which side of the house I should connect on? We have both a regular septic tank and a dry well, both in the rear of the house. This is no longer up to current code, so we couldn't sell our house without either making the sewer connection or replacing the septic system. The water and gas connections are both on one side of the house, water through the front of the house, gas pipes leading around to the back.

My inclination is to connect from the other side of the house, which is both closer to the septic tank (vs. the dry well) and on the uphill side of the street. I suspect we will need a grinder pump to get the old dry well drainage (kitchen, dishwasher and laundry) into the sewer system.

I'll be contacting several drainlayers to get quotes on making the full connection and advice on placement of the street connection. But with such diverse interests as we have here, I thought one or more of "you people" might be able to offer some advice. Thanks.

I can't help you with that as the last time I had to worry about that I was six years old. Take the experts' advice.

Sounds like it's time to fire up your eBay seller's account again.

Don't do it near a tree. I have had several friends whose houses have flooded because a tree root did something to their sewage line.

Make sure you add the endorsement "Back up of sewers and drains" on your homeowners insurance. It's usually excluded otherwise. Check with your agent to be sure.

and you are in Mass, are you not? Lucky you. Friend of mine in Lexington was told to connect to the sewer system. OK by them. Turns out no contractor on this green earth wanted such a small job. Town put lien on their house until connection. I believe they eventually got hooked up, but sheesh.

Try to do this in a large enough group to interest the contractors, ye of whatever town you're in.

gsabc wrote:Our town is connecting every home to a sewer system. They've finally reached our neighborhood. They gave us a form to fill out to tell them where the connection from the street should be placed in front of our property. I haven't a freakin' clue, and multiple calls requesting assistance to their phone numbers listed on the form have been ignored.

Any ideas which side of the house I should connect on? We have both a regular septic tank and a dry well, both in the rear of the house. This is no longer up to current code, so we couldn't sell our house without either making the sewer connection or replacing the septic system. The water and gas connections are both on one side of the house, water through the front of the house, gas pipes leading around to the back.

My inclination is to connect from the other side of the house, which is both closer to the septic tank (vs. the dry well) and on the uphill side of the street. I suspect we will need a grinder pump to get the old dry well drainage (kitchen, dishwasher and laundry) into the sewer system.

I'll be contacting several drainlayers to get quotes on making the full connection and advice on placement of the street connection. But with such diverse interests as we have here, I thought one or more of "you people" might be able to offer some advice. Thanks.

I think you are on the right track of getting advice from the contractors that will be doing the work. Tying things into your existing system is going to be a big factor but that could be overwhelmed by terrain issues around the house.

I used to work for a home builder/general contractor and we did plumbing/drain work but always on rural sites into septic tanks. I don't know much about tying into municipal systems.

ghostjmf wrote:and you are in Mass, are you not? Lucky you. Friend of mine in Lexington was told to connect to the sewer system. OK by them. Turns out no contracter on this green earth wanted such a small job. Town put lien on their house until connection. I believe they eventually got hooked up, but sheesh.

Try to do this in a large enough group to interest the contractors, ye of whatever town you're in.

The town has been laying pipe since 2002, in an project to allow every house to be able to hook up to the sewer. They are distributing a list of 60 drainlayers which they have certified, i.e., they're competent to do the work. Believe me, there's more than enough work for them to do. And we're not a small job, even on our own.

My house was built in 1950 with the separate dry well (for greywater waste) and septic tank. That's no longer allowable in MA. In order to sell the house before the town decided to install sewer lines, I'd have had to replace the dual system with a single septic tank system. With the sewer coming, I could theoretically sell the house right now, because we're within a year of being able to hook up with it.