Buying A Home

The Know Your H2O Team has been working in the subject area of water, drinking water, private well water, and water treatment for a combined life experience of well over 130 years. The team includes 2 professional geologists that have worked in many different countries and on many different types of water quality issues. In 1989, we started the homeowner outreach program as a way to educate potential new owners about their new rural water system, such as a well and spring, and by the mid-1990s we were conducting education outreach programs for city water users speaking about Giardia, corrosion, and the potential need for point of use water testing. On the subject of getting your water tested related to a real estate transfer, we have written a number of articles.

Sponsor: City Water and Well Water Systems by Aquasana (Amazon Affiliate) — Rhino Whole House Water Filter Applications with UV Filtration

Free Educational Booklet — “Our Drinking Water” (Request a Copy)

Is Water Pollution Affecting Your Home and Health (pdf) (Published on Porch)?

When Buying a New Property, Remember: It’s Location, Location, and Water (Published on Haven)

More Published articles on this topic

Buying a Home — Private Well or Even City Water

With respect to buying a home, the process breaks down as follows:

1. Get Educated – What is the source of the water? Is the water coming from a regulated community water supply system or from a Private Water Well or Spring or a surface water source and/or a public water system? Read the disclosure documents related to the sale of the home and take a drink of the water, look for signs of a problem, such as: staining, odors, evidence of pipe corrosion, look at the water standing in the back of the toilet tank, and look for the presence of point-of-use or whole-house water treatment systems. Most importantly, hire a high quality and reliable home inspector.

   1. If the water is coming from a community water system, get a copy of the most recent Consumer Confidence Report from the water supplier — do not assume that the water is fine and ok to drink. (Use the EPA Safe Water Widget)
   2. If the water is coming from a private water well or spring — these sources are sometimes not regulated or poorly regulated — you will need to visit the source and attempt to get information about the well construction, yield, etc. We strongly recommend that you conduct a Water Well and/or Spring Inspection that includes a physical inspection of the well, inspection of the related systems (pumps, water filters, water treatment systems, and piping), and most importantly GET the water quality tested. If you have never used a water well, we recommend requesting a free pdf copy of our educational booklet “Our Drinking Water.”
   3. We recommend ordering a Neighborhood Hazard Report for the property and area around the home.

2. Getting Tested and Inspected – Meet with a home inspector and determine the appropriate inspection for your area (Radon, mold, standard inspection, Lead, Asbestos, plumbing, well yield testing, etc.). Get the drinking water tested — if there is a water treatment system, get both the “Raw Water” and the “Treated Water” tested and get the necessary testing done specific to the water treatment system. We recommend using a professional and a certified laboratory, and sometimes specialized testing like the Arsenic Speciation Test or the Problem Check Kit.

   When the water sample is collected, it would be wise to field test for pH, conductivity, temperature, Total Dissolved Solids, ORP, and in the case of city water, Chlorine and Chlorine Residual. Also, depending on the age of the home, it is critical that you determine if the home contains lead piping.

   Many lenders only recommend or require testing for total coliform, E. coli, nitrate, nitrite, and maybe lead. To be honest, this is typically not adequate. To better manage the unknown risk of missing a contaminant, we recommend field screening testing during sampling, certified laboratory testing using a third-party professional, and conducting informational water testing (We Recommend the NTL Quick Series) for other contaminants of concern.

   The certified testing process uses third-party samples and the chain-of-custody process to ensure water quality testing data is free of bias, accurate, and true. Learn more about the chain-of-custody process here.

   Find a Certified Laboratory in Your State.

   More on this topic – Here (VA Program) and Here (FHA Program).

3. Take Action and Make the Effort – Based on the testing results, it may be necessary to take some action and you may need to seek advice from another professional.

In closing, I had one client that purchased a home from a plumber that used a private well and the buyer only got the water tested for coliform bacteria, nitrate, nitrite, and lead. The water testing showed the system had no problems. The home had a rather interesting water treatment system that included chlorine injection, water storage tanks, and a filter. After signing the documentation, the homeowner contacted me because the water tasted salty and had a strange odor. For the record, the well was not located near the ocean — in fact, the home was located in Pennsylvania.

The problem: The well was influenced by saline water, which can be a problem for the region where the home was built. Because the home inspector collected a water sample of the treated water and did not test the untreated water, and did not field test the water for pH, conductivity, ORP, and total dissolved solids, the problem was not identified. Also, if the homeowner had tasted the water, this problem would have been identified immediately. Other Water Treatment Systems.

The conclusion: The homeowner had to install a whole house reverse osmosis system with an additional storage tank to manage the level of lithium, sodium, and chloride in their drinking water. The additional cost was over $10,000.

So please: Get Educated and Informed, Get Tested and Inspected, and Then Take Action.

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