In a pretty big pickle

[Nation03]

I'll try to keep this as short as possible. My Wife and I bought a house with a shop on the property. It's been the plan for a long time and we were looking for over a year before we found something that hit all the right specs. One of the deal breakers on every piece of property was that it had to be on Public Sewer. This house was listed as public sewer, had 2 real estate agents confirm that it was, had an inspection and went the extra mile to do a tank sweep. All things seemed to check out. Long story short, we have a plumber putting in the utility sink in one of the garages for our dark room and he discovers that we are in fact, on a septic. So, the panic is setting in. I didn't want to reclaim screens on a septic and I don't really know what to do from here. We're around a month out from moving the equipment in. We can apparently get the house hooked up to the sewer but that's going to run 10-15k easily and it will take a decent amount of time before the town gets back to us most likely.

I had already planned to have a nice filtration unit before we pumped down the drain, but now I'm thinking it won't be enough. I don't want to completely mess up the septic tank or leech field with residual chemicals. We're on City water so at least we don't have to worry about Well water. Has anyone reclaimed on septic before? We're not the hugest volume shop but I probably reclaim around 150 screens per month. Not sure if flushing RidX a few more times a month would help? I know Franmar stuff is all biodegradable, but I'm still worried on any additional emulsion or solids getting through. I have no issue with getting the tank pumped more often if it would help keep the leech field from being damaged. Any help or wisdom here would be great.

Also, I already reached out to our lawyer, real estate agents, etc. If we can sue we will sue, but I'm assuming this is on us and we won't be able to remedy the situation. I don't need legal advice, just trying to figure out if we can make this work for at least a year so we can save up a little cash to get the sewer hook up eventually. I can realistically pay for it now, but I don't want to burn potentially 15k on the project when we have other matters to tend to.

[mk162]

Luckily some people on here have really good systems.  Check with Brannon at Spot Color Supply.  He might be able to walk you through his system.  He had a customer that the city was raking over the coals.  They got insanely clean water out of their dip tank.

Good luck. 

[Nation03]

Will do. I sent an email over to Maff as well. His filtration setup looks wild. My Darkroom is around 300 square feet so I don't want anything too elaborate. But something good enough to keep everything safe. I've ready flushing baking soda every few weeks is ideal for pH balance.

[3Deep]

If it where me I would put in a holding tank of some kind for my screen print reclaim only, that way you can keep that reclaim chem out of your septic tank, then you could most likely have a septic company come out once a year or how much you need and empty it.  I'm sure that would cost you way less than the 10 to 15K you mention, you could filter the water out maybe and leave the goop in the tank...just a thought...sure someone may have a better idea

[Nation03]

If it where me I would put in a holding tank of some kind for my screen print reclaim only, that way you can keep that reclaim chem out of your septic tank, then you could most likely have a septic company come out once a year or how much you need and empty it.  I'm sure that would cost you way less than the 10 to 15K you mention, you could filter the water out maybe and leave the goop in the tank...just a thought...sure someone may have a better idea

Yeah good call. I just asked the local septic pump company if they would be able to pump other types of waste water on a monthly basis potentially. If we switch to Franmar products we should be fine with the chemicals since all of them are 100% biodegradable. I also completely clean the screens of ink before they go in the dip tank anyway. Mostly concerned of any left over ink or emulsion particles that make their way into the septic.

[Dottonedan]

I know a guy on septic in the mountains of New Hampshire. (he’s a member here also but not that frequent). I’ll prompt him to chime in.
I remember discussing it with him and I think he said with what they do, they have no issues.

[Squeegie]

Hey all. Dan is correct.  I am a member, but don't show my face very often.
This septic issue is something we battled for almost a year when we built our shop almost 20 years ago.
We are in a very rural area of the central lakes region of NH. There isn't an option for town sewage.
The NH Dept of Environmental Services considers what we create through the reclaim process non domestic waste water.
In order to get the zoning board, planning board, and selectmen to approve our site, we had to install a holding tank in addition to a septic tank.
We have our bathrooms on the septic tank/leach field and our washout booth is on the holding tank. The tank holds just over 2000 gallons.
We were also required to have a test well put in and have it tested every 6 months for the first 2 years and then every year for the next 10.

We have a local septic company pump it out and haul it away when the tank is full. They had the waste tested when they first started pumping for us and found that it was over 95% water.  We have the tank pumped on average of 3 times a year.  It used to cost about $300 per pump out.  I just had it pumped two weeks ago and the current bill is $625. The location they used to deliver it to closed about 6 or 8 years ago, necessitating they haul it nearly double the distance.

Anyhow, get a holding tank put in for just your washout booth(s) and everything else goes on the septic.

Best of luck,
Bill

[Nation03]

Awesome, thank you! We're somewhat skirting the law since the shop is on our property and technically isn't commercial. That being said I reached out to a local septic tank pumping company and asked if the would pump a large tote with our washout waste water and from what they told me it should be doable but they need to assess the situation once we have it set up. I assume testing needs to be done, etc. I'm filling the paperwork regardless to have the sewer line hooked up. Might take a few months but I figured worst case we have to run a few more steps when filtering the water until we get the sewer line hooked up. It's a big chunk of change but in the long run it's going to be the best option.

[inkman996]

I'll try to keep this as short as possible. My Wife and I bought a house with a shop on the property. It's been the plan for a long time and we were looking for over a year before we found something that hit all the right specs. One of the deal breakers on every piece of property was that it had to be on Public Sewer. This house was listed as public sewer, had 2 real estate agents confirm that it was, had an inspection and went the extra mile to do a tank sweep. All things seemed to check out. Long story short, we have a plumber putting in the utility sink in one of the garages for our dark room and he discovers that we are in fact, on a septic. So, the panic is setting in. I didn't want to reclaim screens on a septic and I don't really know what to do from here. We're around a month out from moving the equipment in. We can apparently get the house hooked up to the sewer but that's going to run 10-15k easily and it will take a decent amount of time before the town gets back to us most likely.

I had already planned to have a nice filtration unit before we pumped down the drain, but now I'm thinking it won't be enough. I don't want to completely mess up the septic tank or leech field with residual chemicals. We're on City water so at least we don't have to worry about Well water. Has anyone reclaimed on septic before? We're not the hugest volume shop but I probably reclaim around 150 screens per month. Not sure if flushing RidX a few more times a month would help? I know Franmar stuff is all biodegradable, but I'm still worried on any additional emulsion or solids getting through. I have no issue with getting the tank pumped more often if it would help keep the leech field from being damaged. Any help or wisdom here would be great.

Also, I already reached out to our lawyer, real estate agents, etc. If we can sue we will sue, but I'm assuming this is on us and we won't be able to remedy the situation. I don't need legal advice, just trying to figure out if we can make this work for at least a year so we can save up a little cash to get the sewer hook up eventually. I can realistically pay for it now, but I don't want to burn potentially 15k on the project when we have other matters to tend to.

What do you mean by a tank sweep?

[Nation03]

I'll try to keep this as short as possible. My Wife and I bought a house with a shop on the property. It's been the plan for a long time and we were looking for over a year before we found something that hit all the right specs. One of the deal breakers on every piece of property was that it had to be on Public Sewer. This house was listed as public sewer, had 2 real estate agents confirm that it was, had an inspection and went the extra mile to do a tank sweep. All things seemed to check out. Long story short, we have a plumber putting in the utility sink in one of the garages for our dark room and he discovers that we are in fact, on a septic. So, the panic is setting in. I didn't want to reclaim screens on a septic and I don't really know what to do from here. We're around a month out from moving the equipment in. We can apparently get the house hooked up to the sewer but that's going to run 10-15k easily and it will take a decent amount of time before the town gets back to us most likely.

I had already planned to have a nice filtration unit before we pumped down the drain, but now I'm thinking it won't be enough. I don't want to completely mess up the septic tank or leech field with residual chemicals. We're on City water so at least we don't have to worry about Well water. Has anyone reclaimed on septic before? We're not the hugest volume shop but I probably reclaim around 150 screens per month. Not sure if flushing RidX a few more times a month would help? I know Franmar stuff is all biodegradable, but I'm still worried on any additional emulsion or solids getting through. I have no issue with getting the tank pumped more often if it would help keep the leech field from being damaged. Any help or wisdom here would be great.

Also, I already reached out to our lawyer, real estate agents, etc. If we can sue we will sue, but I'm assuming this is on us and we won't be able to remedy the situation. I don't need legal advice, just trying to figure out if we can make this work for at least a year so we can save up a little cash to get the sewer hook up eventually. I can realistically pay for it now, but I don't want to burn potentially 15k on the project when we have other matters to tend to.

What do you mean by a tank sweep?

Since the house was built in 1970 we were advised to hire a specialist that checks the entire property for any buried oil or septic tanks that may have been decommissioned. They call it a tank sweep but it may go by other names. That came back clean. The regular home inspector walked right past what we now know is the septic cover. He thought it was just a circular piece of concrete for a plant or something. Pretty negligent on his part as well. The listing agent of the house reached out today and was adamant the house was public sewer. She quickly was silenced once I showed her the photos of the cap being off the tank and the fact that our plumber called public works to confirm the house has no sewer hook up. We're definitely going to make an effort to sue someone since we would've easily walked from the sale had we known upfront the house was on septic. But, it was listed on all websites as public sewer and I asked 2-3 times before we put the offer in to please make sure it's definitely public sewer, which they assured us it was. I don't care to make a ton of money on a lawsuit. I told them I simply want the cost for the sewer connection covered and we'll be square. We'll see how that goes.

[cbjamel]

I'll try to keep this as short as possible. My Wife and I bought a house with a shop on the property. It's been the plan for a long time and we were looking for over a year before we found something that hit all the right specs. One of the deal breakers on every piece of property was that it had to be on Public Sewer. This house was listed as public sewer, had 2 real estate agents confirm that it was, had an inspection and went the extra mile to do a tank sweep. All things seemed to check out. Long story short, we have a plumber putting in the utility sink in one of the garages for our dark room and he discovers that we are in fact, on a septic. So, the panic is setting in. I didn't want to reclaim screens on a septic and I don't really know what to do from here. We're around a month out from moving the equipment in. We can apparently get the house hooked up to the sewer but that's going to run 10-15k easily and it will take a decent amount of time before the town gets back to us most likely.

I had already planned to have a nice filtration unit before we pumped down the drain, but now I'm thinking it won't be enough. I don't want to completely mess up the septic tank or leech field with residual chemicals. We're on City water so at least we don't have to worry about Well water. Has anyone reclaimed on septic before? We're not the hugest volume shop but I probably reclaim around 150 screens per month. Not sure if flushing RidX a few more times a month would help? I know Franmar stuff is all biodegradable, but I'm still worried on any additional emulsion or solids getting through. I have no issue with getting the tank pumped more often if it would help keep the leech field from being damaged. Any help or wisdom here would be great.

Also, I already reached out to our lawyer, real estate agents, etc. If we can sue we will sue, but I'm assuming this is on us and we won't be able to remedy the situation. I don't need legal advice, just trying to figure out if we can make this work for at least a year so we can save up a little cash to get the sewer hook up eventually. I can realistically pay for it now, but I don't want to burn potentially 15k on the project when we have other matters to tend to.

What do you mean by a tank sweep?

Since the house was built in 1970 we were advised to hire a specialist that checks the entire property for any buried oil or septic tanks that may have been decommissioned. They call it a tank sweep but it may go by other names. That came back clean. The regular home inspector walked right past what we now know is the septic cover. He thought it was just a circular piece of concrete for a plant or something. Pretty negligent on his part as well. The listing agent of the house reached out today and was adamant the house was public sewer. She quickly was silenced once I showed her the photos of the cap being off the tank and the fact that our plumber called public works to confirm the house has no sewer hook up. We're definitely going to make an effort to sue someone since we would've easily walked from the sale had we known upfront the house was on septic. But, it was listed on all websites as public sewer and I asked 2-3 times before we put the offer in to please make sure it's definitely public sewer, which they assured us it was. I don't care to make a ton of money on a lawsuit. I told them I simply want the cost for the sewer connection covered and we'll be square. We'll see how that goes.

That's what the insurance is for errors in selling etc.. Good luck! Hope it works for you. sometimes the tap to sewer is 1 price but the actual dog the trench to house etc isnt. get bids for the work.
Shane

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[inkman996]

I'll try to keep this as short as possible. My Wife and I bought a house with a shop on the property. It's been the plan for a long time and we were looking for over a year before we found something that hit all the right specs. One of the deal breakers on every piece of property was that it had to be on Public Sewer. This house was listed as public sewer, had 2 real estate agents confirm that it was, had an inspection and went the extra mile to do a tank sweep. All things seemed to check out. Long story short, we have a plumber putting in the utility sink in one of the garages for our dark room and he discovers that we are in fact, on a septic. So, the panic is setting in. I didn't want to reclaim screens on a septic and I don't really know what to do from here. We're around a month out from moving the equipment in. We can apparently get the house hooked up to the sewer but that's going to run 10-15k easily and it will take a decent amount of time before the town gets back to us most likely.

I had already planned to have a nice filtration unit before we pumped down the drain, but now I'm thinking it won't be enough. I don't want to completely mess up the septic tank or leech field with residual chemicals. We're on City water so at least we don't have to worry about Well water. Has anyone reclaimed on septic before? We're not the hugest volume shop but I probably reclaim around 150 screens per month. Not sure if flushing RidX a few more times a month would help? I know Franmar stuff is all biodegradable, but I'm still worried on any additional emulsion or solids getting through. I have no issue with getting the tank pumped more often if it would help keep the leech field from being damaged. Any help or wisdom here would be great.

Also, I already reached out to our lawyer, real estate agents, etc. If we can sue we will sue, but I'm assuming this is on us and we won't be able to remedy the situation. I don't need legal advice, just trying to figure out if we can make this work for at least a year so we can save up a little cash to get the sewer hook up eventually. I can realistically pay for it now, but I don't want to burn potentially 15k on the project when we have other matters to tend to.

What do you mean by a tank sweep?

Since the house was built in 1970 we were advised to hire a specialist that checks the entire property for any buried oil or septic tanks that may have been decommissioned. They call it a tank sweep but it may go by other names. That came back clean. The regular home inspector walked right past what we now know is the septic cover. He thought it was just a circular piece of concrete for a plant or something. Pretty negligent on his part as well. The listing agent of the house reached out today and was adamant the house was public sewer. She quickly was silenced once I showed her the photos of the cap being off the tank and the fact that our plumber called public works to confirm the house has no sewer hook up. We're definitely going to make an effort to sue someone since we would've easily walked from the sale had we known upfront the house was on septic. But, it was listed on all websites as public sewer and I asked 2-3 times before we put the offer in to please make sure it's definitely public sewer, which they assured us it was. I don't care to make a ton of money on a lawsuit. I told them I simply want the cost for the sewer connection covered and we'll be square. We'll see how that goes.

Ah got you. I thought it meant you had the Septic tank scoped.

Good luck with everything. I do know if it was me I would rent my own equipment and do the trenching and roughing in, hire plumbers to do the final connections.

[blue moon]

I'll try to keep this as short as possible. My Wife and I bought a house with a shop on the property. It's been the plan for a long time and we were looking for over a year before we found something that hit all the right specs. One of the deal breakers on every piece of property was that it had to be on Public Sewer. This house was listed as public sewer, had 2 real estate agents confirm that it was, had an inspection and went the extra mile to do a tank sweep. All things seemed to check out. Long story short, we have a plumber putting in the utility sink in one of the garages for our dark room and he discovers that we are in fact, on a septic. So, the panic is setting in. I didn't want to reclaim screens on a septic and I don't really know what to do from here. We're around a month out from moving the equipment in. We can apparently get the house hooked up to the sewer but that's going to run 10-15k easily and it will take a decent amount of time before the town gets back to us most likely.

I had already planned to have a nice filtration unit before we pumped down the drain, but now I'm thinking it won't be enough. I don't want to completely mess up the septic tank or leech field with residual chemicals. We're on City water so at least we don't have to worry about Well water. Has anyone reclaimed on septic before? We're not the hugest volume shop but I probably reclaim around 150 screens per month. Not sure if flushing RidX a few more times a month would help? I know Franmar stuff is all biodegradable, but I'm still worried on any additional emulsion or solids getting through. I have no issue with getting the tank pumped more often if it would help keep the leech field from being damaged. Any help or wisdom here would be great.

Also, I already reached out to our lawyer, real estate agents, etc. If we can sue we will sue, but I'm assuming this is on us and we won't be able to remedy the situation. I don't need legal advice, just trying to figure out if we can make this work for at least a year so we can save up a little cash to get the sewer hook up eventually. I can realistically pay for it now, but I don't want to burn potentially 15k on the project when we have other matters to tend to.

What do you mean by a tank sweep?

Since the house was built in 1970 we were advised to hire a specialist that checks the entire property for any buried oil or septic tanks that may have been decommissioned. They call it a tank sweep but it may go by other names. That came back clean. The regular home inspector walked right past what we now know is the septic cover. He thought it was just a circular piece of concrete for a plant or something. Pretty negligent on his part as well. The listing agent of the house reached out today and was adamant the house was public sewer. She quickly was silenced once I showed her the photos of the cap being off the tank and the fact that our plumber called public works to confirm the house has no sewer hook up. We're definitely going to make an effort to sue someone since we would've easily walked from the sale had we known upfront the house was on septic. But, it was listed on all websites as public sewer and I asked 2-3 times before we put the offer in to please make sure it's definitely public sewer, which they assured us it was. I don't care to make a ton of money on a lawsuit. I told them I simply want the cost for the sewer connection covered and we'll be square. We'll see how that goes.

if you are not comfortable doing it yourself, go to the rental place and ask who rents the most and if you can have their phone number. Then see if they would be interested in doing it.

pierre

[mk162]

You can trench it yourself...just call 411 before you dig.

[Crazy Mike]

Between the Owner, Realtor and the Inspector they should pay for all of it and be happy if that's all you ask for.