Cesspool pump out scam?

[jkmiddle]

We recently moved to an older house with a septic system. Previous owner reported they never had it pumped out in 14 yrs. Had a cesspool guy come to assess: found a 4” pipe a few feet down with 2 bricks used as a cover and a foul smell emanating from the pipe. The cesspool guy determined it was full to the brim. He said we needed to excavate and replace with a 30” cover for almost $4000. We had him pump instead. We were told it was all solid waste and the 4” pipe was too small to get the hose in there. I want another opinion. Can anyone please offer suggestions?

[trader_4]

i would get another couple of companies out to give opinions and quotes. How old is this system? Cesspools stopped being put in for new systems a very long time ago, 50+ years agothey switched to septic systems. The fact that it only has a 4" opening covered with bricks suggests this was some DIY half-assed thing. Around here for a seller to get a CO for a home sale, requires that they have the tank pumped.

Why did you have a company come out? Problems? Old ones eventually get plugged up so that water won't leach out anymore, in which case pumping may only be a temporary solution. If the problem is just the access hole, $4000 is an awful lot to widen a hole. Another factor could be who does it. For a company to do it, they are typically going to do it the right way, get any permits, do it to what code calls for, etc. If you rented a jack hammer or concrete saw and enlarged it yourself, got a steel plate cover from a metal yard, you could do it for $250.