How common are septic tanks?

26 comments

1. Very common outside of cities and even some suburbs thereof.

   They are normal. They work fine. You have them serviced ever few years, but it probably costs the same as paying for sewer service every month.

2. It requires some extra maintenance and they have to be replaced after ~30 ~~20~~ years.

   They are used in areas that are more rural and do not have municipal waste water systems.

   I have one because we are separated by a natural barrier from our downtown so everyone west of town has a well and a septic tank.

3. They are only common in rural areas where hooking up to a more central sewage system is expensive, or the property isn’t used enough (like a seasonal hunting cabin)

   In my experience they are quite rare in urban settings and definitely require more consideration and maintenance

4. Depends on where you live. Near me, most properties closer to the cities and more urban areas are connected to the city lines. But as you head further out you find more and more neighborhoods that are have septic tanks and rely on well water. It doesn’t require a lot of extra work as long as you take care of the system and get it pumped regularly (2-5 years).

5. Very common in outer suburbs and rural areas, rare in cities.

   It is not really bad, but it is another thing to maintain/replace in your house. But there’s no other good option if you don’t have access to a public sewer.

   My township is “suburban” but has no water or sewer infrastructure, so we have a septic tank. Local ordinance requires that we have it pumped every three years. It’s not a big deal.

6. The default in rural or unincorporated areas, there are no sewers in the countryside. It’s no more work than any other system. Don’t send grease down the drain, don’t flush hygiene products or wet wipes. Get it pumped occasionally (usually every few years), that’s it.

7. Very common out in rural areas where they can’t connect their houses to the cities water and sewage lines. It is more work to maintain and you have to get them pumped every so often, but it’s not the worst hassle in the world.

8. Very common for those that live in rural areas, away from city plumbing infrastructure.

9. I have one! It’s pretty common to have one in my neighborhood. We have city water but not Cory sewer for whatever reason. It’s worked just fine so far for us.

10. Common in rural areas.

11. I live in San Diego County, in the mountains. I have one. I work in the city, you won’t find them there.

12. According to Australians there are about 330 million of them in this country.

13. If aussie slang is to be believed, there’s around 330 million here.

14. Very common, anywhere outside town probably has a septic system in my area of the country. They work fine. My grandparents had a country house for 20 and not once had to have theirs service, only had it serviced when they moved.

    When they need emptied it’s important though, otherwise it might overflow.

15. They’re pretty common outside major cities. It doesn’t really involve a lot of extra work. They aren’t a bad solution since the alternative is pooping in a hole.

16. Pretty much ubiquitous in rural communities and pretty common in very small towns. Even larger communities will probably still have parts of town without access to the sewer lines due to various reasons like cost or local geography. I used to be a sanitation worker and some of the homes we serviced I’m still amazed had septic tanks.

    One reason for this I heard was that the town had sprawled out into and annexed what was once a neighboring rural community over the decades and the homeowners in that community would have to pay for the lines to be run to their homes as their septic systems were grandfathered into the town’s building codes. This led to situations where you’d have one or two homes on a street with ancient coffin box septic systems while the rest were all public sewage.

    They’re fine. We have a septic system in our home and my parents just had their’s replaced a few months ago. Other than getting them pumped every 2 years, they require very little maintenance.

17. It’s buried and you get it emptied periodically. That’s about it. Periodic maintenance to keep it working right, the usual.

    I wouldn’t say a bad solution. More a ‘there aren’t enough people where you live for a municipal sewer connection to be viable’ solution.

18. Quite common outside of high density areas, occasionally people illegally install them in cities.
    I don’t want to deal with them personally.

19. Most rural areas have them. Standards to get a “normal” septic have gotten more stringent over the years. There’s all sorts of newfangled ones with peat filters, sand mounds, etc.

20. Our suburban town has septic.

21. More common outside cities and in other areas where homes may not be connected to municipal plumbing. Especially common for off-grid living situations where setups like composting toilets may be undesirable.

22. We had a septic tank when we lived in a rural location. We just had to call a company to get it pumped every two years. Other than that, we never really thought about it. It worked and was well maintained.

23. I have one in the rural/semi rural South. Though I have municipal co-op Power, Water, and Internet.

24. I live in the country. I have a well, septic tank & field. My house was built in the 1940’s.

    I think that they’re pretty common in Michigan, especially in the U.P.

25. I grew up in a house with one, live in a house without one, looking at buying a house with one. Not too much of a maintenance burden.

26. They’re very common out in the country. The sewage receives moderate treatment from anaerobic digestion, the fluid drains to the environment, and the solids are removed during servicing. They should really be compared to outhouses, rather than sanitary sewers. Yes, it’s not ideal that some barely treated sewerage enters the ground environment and that trucks need to go out service all these septic tanks, but it’s good that people have indoor crappers. You just aren’t going to run sewer pipes to every cottage or homestead.