The Money Pit

[JHurt]

Anyone remember the movie The Money Pit? I think the wife and I may be actually living it as a documentary!

Currently our sewer is backed up so bad that they are going to have to start digging it up. My wife and I have been together a few years, and live in the house her and her previous husband (who passed away) bought a few years ago. The original part of the house is around 100 years old and it has been added on to a few times over the years. Shortly after I moved in the summer of 2016 we had a water line bust under our front porch where it goes through the basement wall. No big deal just tear up all the east yard and run a new one. Year after that our basement fell in on the west side of the front yard. Decided to replace three sides of the original basement walls, so dig up the majority of the front yard, west yard, and back yard about twenty feet deep and out. Let it settle a year and finally had a guy come in last year and landscape and level everything out. This summer started having electrical issues and realized that it was where the service comes into the house. Came really close to burning the house down! Dig up the west yard again and replaced the electrical service into the house and the breaker box in the basement. No one knows if we even have a septic tank for sure. The wife just says that they were told it did when they bought the house. One of the landscapers job was to level our backyard, and added a walk out block patio with a fire ring and a couple of retaining walls about 20-25 ft out our basement. Currently, my bet is that the septic tank is under that block patio if we have one! We have made a pact to not talk about what is going to happen next.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Construction has become terribly expensive. Do you pay more and hope to get the job done right? Sadly, that's almost laughable nowadays. The best you can do is educate yourself and watch everything a contractor does.

 

[JHurt]

Construction has become terribly expensive. Do you pay more and hope to get the job done right? Sadly, that's almost laughable nowadays. The best you can do is educate yourself and watch everything a contractor does.

At this point I just want to quit digging up the yard!

 

[Molalla1]

At this point I just want to quit digging up the yard!

JHurt . . . you need to start being more proactive with your situation. My house is 110 years old, keep ahead of what mistakes the many previous owners have made.

 

[oldballs]

Ah Heck.................He's got a brand new workshop to move into.:laughing:

Happy New Year!!!

Mike

 

[drssg]

On a positive note, this sounds like an excellent justification for a backhoe attachment for your tractor!

 

[JHurt]

Ah Heck.................He's got a brand new workshop to move into.:laughing:

Happy New Year!!!

Mike

The shop is the only bathroom being used currently!

 

[JHurt]

On a positive note, this sounds like an excellent justification for a backhoe attachment for your tractor!

Wish I’d spent the extra 12K when I ordered the 7060 this summer!

 

[Jstpssng]

I would be finding out what if anything it has for a septic and take steps to ensure that doesn't become a problem. You should be able to get the direction from the house by looking at where the drain leaves the house, and the tank is often in 10 foot intervals away from that. At the very least you should find out what it has for a tank and access if that needs to be pumped.

 

[Dftodd]

Being that old, the tank was probably steel if it had one. My grandparents place was built in the late 1800's to very early 1900's. Back around 98 the septic tank collapsed in on itself Nothing really showed up above ground except for a dip in the ground and a perpetual wet spot in the dip.

It was an old steel tank. House had been in the family since around 1933, and it was installed before they purchased the house.

They had to have a new septic system installed. New tank went in the old location. A diverter valve was installed tying in the existing leach field as well as the new leach field.

This way if the new leech field ever gave you an issue, you could go out and, turn the valve and divert back to the old leech field.

They were told by the engineer that the existing leech field could be used again after it sat for 10 years. And actually recommended since they had the two leech fields. To just alternate fields every 10 years when they had the tank pumped out.