Septic fields, am I being ripped off?

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My 2 cents...Ask them for a detailed written estimate of where the 20k+ is going...sounds way too high. Get 2 more written estimates and compare...sounds like the fox had several chickens and was heading out the door...good job shutting them down. B"hope you'll get it done for less than half ...maybe even a quarter of 20k.
 
here's what I can tell you. I've recently dealt with roto-rooter and redi-rooter companies and my suggestion is RUN! My septic system backed up due to what I found out was a collapsed mainline right at the entrance to the septic tank itself. Before this I had no clue about septic systems other than they have a tank that hold the poo... Both redid and roto told me I needed a whole new drain field because it was all clogged and/or collapsed. The evidence, per them, was the level of water in the tank. I had a pump truck come out and lucky me he was a stand up good ole boy. He said the tank was perfectly fine, and actually in good shape considering the age and use I put to it the last few years.
As said before, this is an area of the home that you do not want to go the el cheapo route. spend the money on a good and proper system. Have them show you how they know the lines have collapsed. Which BTW, if the lines have collapsed and its not backed up, it isn't that the soil is so good, but that the soil has probably washed out. From what I have been told. 20k is way out there...find another place that will do it.
 
We kicked them off the job. They tried to get me to pay for the machine work, so I said we could trade for the yard they tore up since we never even had a contract. They let their issue go.
We had another guy come in and give us a quote of $15K, and he was recommended to us. We're going to get a few more quotes and see where we end up.
 
Glad ya turfed them Mike. $15k still seems high, most of the work should be able to be done by smaller equipment(skidsteer, mini exc.) and hopefully not destroy the yard much more.
 
4spdragtop said:
Glad ya turfed them Mike. $15k still seems high, most of the work should be able to be done by smaller equipment(skidsteer, mini exc.) and hopefully not destroy the yard much more.
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I know.. He had initially said, "Don't quote me on this because I haven't planned your system out yet, but I would say roughly $8K to $12K max, I have only once in 30 years done a system that cost over $20K, and that was on the ocean's edge, on a cliff that was entirely rock, and I had to encase it in concrete."
Then he calls and says, "OK, I've come up with a price of $15K" .. what?
 
70DartMike said:
I know.. He had initially said, "Don't quote me on this because I haven't planned your system out yet, but I would say roughly $8K to $12K max, I have only once in 30 years done a system that cost over $20K, and that was on the ocean's edge, on a cliff that was entirely rock, and I had to encase it in concrete."
Then he calls and says, "OK, I've come up with a price of $15K" .. what?
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On the next bidding contractor, tell them you have 10K bid and you thought that was way to high.
 
Something i wish i would have done was made sure the price included the turf work., and completed with a reasonable quality standard of work. I was left with some big *** ruts in my yard that i had to rototill the hell out of to get the soil broke back up and semi level. Still feels like woops in my back yard when I mow.
 
Spoke to a neighbor the other day, his drainfield developed a blockage of some sort. He had one put in using the infiltrators , he did not remember the dimensions of the field but he has a 3 bedroom house. Total bill was under 5k.....
 
Update on this.

We had a few companies come give us quotes, and we decided on a local company, who quoted $11,000 for a Type 2 system, but which uses a product called Envirotubes. Basically each pipe is $300, but the amount of space they use is reduced to 1/4 the size of a regular septic field. That works great for us, because the only area far enough away from the 3 surrounding wells and a creek in the back in right behind the shop, in a small clearing between some huge 100+ year old trees. I'd rather not take the trees down, and the only way to do so is to use this system.
So far they've shown up on time every day, worked 9 hour days, and have treated us very good. No deposit needed, he does things the old fashioned way of, "I do the work, you pay when it's done." He even dragged my 1969 Dart parts car into the back for me with his little hoe and parked it where I wanted it.
The only problem they've run into is where the new tank is going. It's right behind the house, and we discovered why we're on a slab and don't have a crawl space. There is EXTREMELY solid rock about 4 feet down. Some "rock expert" the contractor knows said this type of extreme compressed rock is only found where a glacier was once sitting, about 15 kms wide.
The contractor and his worker used a hammer drill and jackhammer for 6 days straight, 9 hours a day. This stuff would not break! It basically turned to powder and rounded off the jackhammer bits. They couldn't use the jackhammer on the end of the excavator because it was so close to the house, they could crack the foundation. They even considered bringing in a company who uses dynamite, but they would have to blanket the windows and hope they wouldn't blow out.
So, yesterday they finally got it deep enough to bring in the tank. They had to crane this massive concrete tank over my house which was stressful enough. At least it's finally in.

 
I bet it was scarey as hell with a 1000 gal concrete tank over the house..And what is even scarier is that the cables holding the tank are not in the cable grooves built into the tank..The thing could of slipped off and distroyed your house...Glad it all worked out for you in the end...It sounds like it was a decent prive for all the different varibles that you had...Rock, wells, stream, etc...Bill
 
Sounds like this guy is loosing his *** on this job. Maybe first guy knew something that this guy didn't. Your lucky this guy didn't have a clause in the contract just to cover his ***.
 
pro-tech said:
I bet it was scarey as hell with a 1000 gal concrete tank over the house..And what is even scarier is that the cables holding the tank are not in the cable grooves built into the tank..The thing could of slipped off and distroyed your house...Glad it all worked out for you in the end...It sounds like it was a decent prive for all the different varibles that you had...Rock, wells, stream, etc...Bill
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It was scary as hell, and I know, those cables not being in the grooves scared the **** out of me. I told the guy but he just said, "nah, it'll be fine, it's only a short trip." Ya, thanks.
 
67cudafb said:
Sounds like this guy is loosing his *** on this job. Maybe first guy knew something that this guy didn't. Your lucky this guy didn't have a clause in the contract just to cover his ***.
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The first company is known around town to rip people off, we heard all that after they gave us a quote. They only dug down a foot too, the rock didn't start until about 3 feet down.
 
!!MAN!! That is one big difference in price!!

Some light entertainment, LOL

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A23k6jSDhWo"]Crane drop swimming pool FAIL - YouTube[/ame]
 
WOW!!!! that had to ruin everybodies day...The driver had to of had to clean his shorts...He sound like he is going to have a heart attack....I dont really understand why it happened he had all his out riggers in place. That pool cant weigh that much could it????
 
I just replaced a septic and weeping bed at my daughters just outside Waterloo On. They took out the old system and installed a new tank and bed and complete to the grass seed with all inspections- $8000 but no rock LOL!!
 
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