Even all their money......

Frank Fusco

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Mountain Home, Arkansas
.....they still have problems.
Several years ago two luxury homes were built in the woods behind, and below me. Both are a couple hundred yards away so we still have privacy.
Both homes are in the near-one million dollar category, beautiful. But, I'm sure they have nearly that much again invested in ground preparation. They are near a creek and the land is rock, solid, very solid rock. They had a large track-hoe with a jack hammer working every day for months. That had to cost big-big bucks.
Plus the homes are low on the hill and near the creek. Meaning their sewage systems had to have lifts and pump uphill to the septic field. I know one of the homes has had repeated problems. First, the check valve was installed backwards----twice. :eek:
Now, about a week ago they had a restoration company working in one. A large trailer hauled away piles of carpet and furniture, all very expensive stuff, I'm sure. Today they are back with a large pumper truck and more equipment. I can only surmise that the system had to have failed and they got a house full of 'stuff'. I can't imagine how unpleasant it must be to have a situation like that.
Septics and wells are the only things in a home in our rural area that need county or state inspection. This one, IMHO, was flubbed by all involved.
I'll again surmise, that system is going to need more big bucks spent to make it a reliable working system.
BTW, fortunately, 'stuff' runs downhill and I am uphill from them.
 
Frank you should go an offer your services as a consultant. You DA Man Frank. :thumb:

Not much advice I could offer. But, I do know which way the arrow on the check valve is supposed to point. :rolleyes:
I'm sure they will have quite a problem getting a reliable septic system working. Their tank is about 12' above the roofline of the house and a couple hundred feet from it. I ain't no ungineer but that looks to be a daunting task to get the 'stuff' up there where it will stay and go into the tank and leach field without problems.
Academic question: What do you do with a million dollar house where you can't even flush the toilets?
 
Academic question: What do you do with a million dollar house where you can't even flush the toilets?

Pull the carpets and turn it into a workshop. Heck no. Leave the carpets and turn in into a workshop.

I don't see pumping it being that much of a problem. They just need to find the guy that knows what he is doing. A big grinder pump, to chew up the "stuff" and push it right up that slope.

I wonder if the problem was more of, lets spend our money where everyone else can see it. We will go cheap on the septic, because no one can see it.
 
If it has a leech field, you can't/shouldn't grind the solids because they then won't settle in the tank, they will float out in the leech field and plug it up solid (no pun intended) quickly.

With all that money, they forgot to buy common sense.

I got a slurry tank on wheels they could rent!
 
If it has a leech field, you can't/shouldn't grind the solids because they then won't settle in the tank, they will float out in the leech field and plug it up solid (no pun intended) quickly.

With all that money, they forgot to buy common sense.

I got a slurry tank on wheels they could rent!

"buy" is the operative word here. They are people of influence. My gut feeling is they got approvals us mere mortals would not have received.
 
just had a rotten day today.

but I think Id have to put alot of blame on the contractor for not really letting the person know no matter how much pull their money has, their money might not be able to defy gravity, and thats something that could later on be a problem.
What? the future homeowner says? The contractor should answer, well, even with an expensive system , there might not be a guarantee that one day youll be dining and you will be ankle deep in your own poop.
I think even a common, dumb, moronic yankee would understand that noone likes to eat wheres theres poop.

This is why there are reality shows like Holmes on homes. Seems its so common the horrific jobs contractors do are always in need of correction.
 
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Grinder pumps are a pretty common occurrence in our neck of the woods, but check valve failures are rare. The most frequent problem homeowners with grinder pumps experience is not being able to flush or use water when there is an extended power failure during a hurricane or ice storm. A lot of folks don't even know they have grinder pumps until the power goes off and they have to use a honey bucket for a potty. My subdivision is on a long sloping hill and we have our own County maintained pump station. Our sanitary lines are gravity flow to the pump station, which grinds and pumps through a sanitary force main to the nearest higher gravity line. The pump station has a back up generator, but if it fails all 53 houses are in the same boat as if we had individual grinder pumps. Hasn't happened since we've been here and I often wonder if the folks with houses on the lowest end of the line would get flooded out if it did.
 
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