Well Water vs. Municipal Water?

DH and I are looking for a home in New Paltz and we are finding that the ones we like better with more land are outside the village and in the town. Being outside the village means that you have well water and a septic system instead of municipal water and sewage.

Does anyone have any experience with this? does it make a difference? I live in Queens so water just magically comes from the faucet and waste just goes away LOL! I don't know if there is any special maintenance required by us or anything like that with well water and septic.

Any insight would be great!

Thanks!

Re: Well Water vs. Municipal Water?

i grew up with well and septic, and have it now also.
theres really not too much special maintenance. the septic system needs to be pumped every couple years, and if you want theres something you can put down it once a month thats supposed to help as well.
with the well, you'll have a water softener, which helps kind of filter the water and take "stuff" out. probably twice a year, you'll need to add the special " salt" to it to help it keep filtering, etc. and, if you want, you can get extra filtration systems, too... but the softener is usualy enough.
so, its really not too big of a deal if you like the house, i wouldn't let it keep you from buying it

Re: Well Water vs. Municipal Water?

Thanks so much! I was worried about the well and contaminating our drinking water or something like that. Does it mean that the water we have available to us is from stored rain? I looked it up on the epa site but didn't find information on that. I will ask our realtor too.

Thanks!

Re: Well Water vs. Municipal Water?

i think the water softener does a really good job at taking out any contamination in the water. most likely before you buy the house, the sellers will need to do a well test to check the levels of everything ( we are selling our house and just had to do this. although we live in NJ, so the laws might be different in NJ). lol i'm not really sure where the water comes from- as far as i know, its just a really deep hole in the ground that is drilled until they find underground water, and then they pump out. no idea though good luck!

Re: Well Water vs. Municipal Water?

We are in the process of getting a house in CT also with well water and septic. We had the water inspected to make sure it was drinkable. Overall the water was fine, it's currently being treated a softner, but they found high level of radon in the water. So now we need to put an airaton system in to reduce the radon level, which is a little pricey, but we got a small reduction in price for it. We also had the flow for the well to see how many gallons per minutes were coming out. These are test done in CT, I don't know about the area your looking in. Your realtor should be able to help you.

Re: Well Water vs. Municipal Water?

I grew up with well water & septic. The septic didn't bother me as much as the well...ugh...now this was/is my personal experience with it...

Water pressure was horrible...there was next to nothing. God forbid someone flushed a toilet while you were in the shower...you had nothing.

Water quality - eh...growing up I knew nothing different so it tasted fine. "Back flushing" the system was a monthly job in our house. I still have no clue what it is, but we had a LOT of clay in our water if it was used frequently. The water would turn a grayish color and ugh...not great tasting either.

Oh...ahhh...yes....the fun of power outages.....there is NO toilet flushing, no running water. I remember bad snow storms where the power would be out for a week or more. We'd get snow in a bucket & gather around the kerosene heater - then, once melted, we'd toss it in the bowl to flush the toilet.

Sooo...needless to say, when I moved out and discovered the wonderful world of municipal water & sewer...I felt like royalty!

It's funny, because my Dad is visiting from upstate, he actually not more than 5 mins ago took a shower and raved about the water.



ETA: Oh...and run the water a bit...I had friends who had the stinky sulfer water...OMG...showers, drinking..oh Lord!

Message edited 7/25/2007 7:56:54 PM.

Re: Well Water vs. Municipal Water?

We have well water and septic and have no problems. We have great pressure and a great filter system so no yucky eggy sulfer smell in the water or shower. We do have to do a special salt in the system and actually have to do it once a month. I also have to put bleach in the system at least once a week but lately I have been doing every other week and see no difference of doing it once a week or once every other week.

We also have a reverse osmosis system in the kitchen which is hooked up to the ice maker and we use that for drinking water. I keep a few gallons of bottled water on hand b/c you never know.

The power outage is a bad thing. If we loose power we loose the flushing of the toilet and running any water.

We also do the rid-x once a month.

Overall no complaints on well water and septic.

Re: Well Water vs. Municipal Water?

I grew up with a septic system....

for the septic system, you need to know how often, and how recently, it was pumped out and how well it was maintained. I'm guessing it may be a part of a home inspection? If not, you may want to pay a septic crew to check it out prior to finalizing the deal, if that's allowed.... the last thing you want is for your tank to collapse and create a huge stinky crater in your front yard

The well water is a different issue. I never lived in a home with well water, but there are definitely issues. The most obvious being that you have no water supply if the power goes out...

the more subtle and concerning issues include water contamination and quality. The deeper the well, the better the water, in general. Shallow wells frequently can get contaminated with fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals.... Definitely get the water professionally tested, and get the pump & well inspected....

Personally, I prefer municipal water, becuase you know its tested regularly.