# Septic systems



## Benbaildream

I eventually plan on moving to France & looking at places in dordogne. A couple of places that looked really nice had septic systems that were not up to new standards. My question is, what is the average cost of a system for a 3 bedroom. 2 bath in that area?


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## Crabtree

Hard to say as it depends on soil conditions pipe runs etc.You will need a 30000litre tank as a minimum and a drainage bed unless you go for a micro fosse which runs on electric
Personally as a guesstimate I would say about €8 to 10 k bearing in mind that all prices are going up
You could always ask the sellers to get an estimate especially if they are desperate to sell


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## Poloss

Hi BBDream, we bought a house last year with just a grease capture and drainage bed for the kitchen and bathroom so not up to standards. 
The toilet was a dry system which had to be emptied regularly - we cleaned and repaired it and allowed six weeks for it to give us full satisfaction - as it failed to do so ...

The cost of tradesman with a mechanical digger to cross the road, lay all piping and 3000 litre tank was around 2200€ for work and all material - tubing, sand, gravel and the tank.
Another 350€ approx (2x175€) for initial survey, approval of tradesman's plan and certification of achieved work by the SPANC local sanitary authority.


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## ccm47

I'm with Crabtree on this. A rough estimate of €8-10k, our estate agent arranged for somebody from SPANC to come out and survey before we put an offer in. It was the other work that put us off that particular property.

We are currently on mains drainage and have been for 5 years. Only last night my OH was saying how he much preferred septic tanks (we'd had them for over 30 years in houses in the UK and here).Why? Partly because the liquid drains back gently into your own soil, which helps in times of drought and partly because once you've paid for it you don't pay drainage charges, thereby reducing regular bills. We rarely needed to get our tanks emptied more than once in 2 years.
In our current village even new builds have to have septic tanks due to the mains being up to capacity. Price of a plot of 1000 m² c€30k, in a similar village but with mains and fibre pre-installed c€46k.


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## Befuddled

And I'm with Poloss. His figures tally well with mine when we needed a fosse system in our last place. It can be done this way if you don't have 8 to 10 thousand to throw at it.


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## Crabtree

As I said it all depends on what is required, what can be reused, such as existing pipes etc. the size of the drainage bed and the ease of digging .I had a complete new system 10 years ago on granite soil It cost €6K Better to over estimate but get the seller to get estimates


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## rynd2it

Crabtree said:


> As I said it all depends on what is required, what can be reused, such as existing pipes etc. the size of the drainage bed and the ease of digging .I had a complete new system 10 years ago on granite soil It cost €6K Better to over estimate but get the seller to get estimates


10 years ago I had a new system installed for a 5-bed house and it cost over €13,000 and that was the cheapest quote.


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## eairicbloodaxe

Ours was installed for a 5 bed house in 2018, and cost 8,300 EUR.

That was all-new everything, plus filling in the old pit.

Kind regards


Ian


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## Benbaildream

Thank you to everyone. A lot to think about.


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## SPGW

Just to add that the micro-systems such as Eloy water are a good option if the lie of the land is such that a flat surface for your drainage area would look unnatural. Doesn’t need electricity, and installation cost is roughly the same as the drainage-bed type (concur with the range 8-12K depending on terrain ).


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