Checklist for Your Municipal Water and Sewer Connections

Homebuyer Checklists

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16. Checklist for Your Municipal Water and Sewer Connections

Customers often underestimate what is involved in municipal water and sewer connections. When the hookups are in a new subdivision, the task is usually easy and uninvolved. But if you are connecting to services that have been in place for many years, you could run into any of the following situations:

  • The location of the main municipal water and sewer connections provided by the town is incorrect, and the excavator digs in the wrong place
  • The main lines are adjacent to a more shallow utility, such as underground electric or gas, or to a surface improvement that prohibits the use of an open trench, requiring the trench to be shored up
  • The main municipal water and sewer connections are in poor working condition and additional work is required to use them
  • The length of the trench and the connecting pipe is substantial
  • The depth of the main municipal water and sewer connections is greater than 7 feet, which could require the trench walls to be reinforced with steel plates to protect against the danger that they will collapse while the crew is installing the pipes
  • Ledge and high groundwater are discovered during the digging
  • The municipal water and sewer connections cannot be made on the property, and instead require cutting into the road, which will have to be patched, and which could require hiring a police officer to direct traffic
  • The sewer line is higher than the height of the waste line from your home, which will force you to pay for a pump
  • The water line has low pressure at your property, compelling you to get a storage tank and pump

Each of these municipal water and sewer connections complications can add substantially to your costs and bust your budget. To keep them from being “surprises” you would be wise to research these possibilities before you begin construction.

For more information about municipal water and sewer connections, see Finding and Preparing a Building Lot for a Modular Home and The General Contractor’s Responsibilities for Building a Modular Home in my book The Modular Home.