To me this just sounds like a bad idea. But a park I just called on, the current owner has this in the leases. Some of the tanks are also shared with 2 homes.
Water isn’t submetered and rents can be raised around $20. My thought was to tell the tenants I’ll take over the septic maintenance, raise the rents and add meters to water.
Thoughts on all of this?
Yes, you don’t want to leave septic maintenance to the tenants – that’s just dumb; guess who is going to pay for new drain fields because the tanks were never pumped and the old fields got constipated.
And by all means if you have septic tanks get a core sampler and take regular core samples. Test it and keep records like it is a science lab.
Randy, what device do you use for sampling? How often do you sample and what criteria do you set before pumping the septic or maintenance needed? Sorry if some are “silly” questions, just learning
Here is a YouTube video that does an excellent job of explaining the process:
My tanks are 16 feet to the pipe opening to the bottom of the tanks, so the core sampler in the video does not work well. I am making an improved version that uses a one-way value on the end of 10 feet of clear PVC pipe (the actual liquid in the tanks are 9 feet deep.) I will have a 7’ screw on extension of just regular PVC pipe.
Here is the valve I am using. I made another core sampler using this model valve and it worked very well.
I bought the clear, schedule 40, PVC locally for about $55 and the fittings and regular PVC at Home Depot. The whole thing costs about $80 and, most importantly, I get to screw around in my workshop a little – and that for a core sampler that will work on my huge tanks.
Compare that to the cost of pumping too little or too often.
I use the same sampler and it is quick, easy & was happy to have come across that video a few years ago.