Blue Ridge Homes

This came up in conversation recently with one of our perspective clients and I thought I would recap here.

When looking at building a custom home in Western North Carolina there is a very good chance that the lot you decide to build on will not be serviced by a public utilities and you will be forced to use on-site septic system and well water.  Some people view this a very positive situation because you are not at the mercy of the public utility for pricing and continuity of service.  Not mention, in my opinion anyways, the water that comes from our well is ten times better than that from the Asheville water system.

So, the question that came up was when should you get the permits to construct your well and septic system?  The answer is before you buy the lot.  In most counties as part of their application process you can do what would be considered a site evaluation as opposed to the authorization to construct.  The site evaluation would tell you whether or not the site would be suitable for on-site waste management and differs from the authorization to construct in two principal ways.  First off it is cheaper,  Secondly, it does not design the system that needs to be installed, but would at least give you some peace of mind moving forward that you had suitable soils on the lot to handle waste management concerns.  There is no process for determining available of well water, except to drill.  Though you need not be worried.  In the years that Blue Ridge Homes has been digging wells we have yet to drill a dry hole.  I know as you get closer to the ridge lines you are going to have to go a lot further to hit water, but for the most part well water has not been an issue in Buncombe or Madison County.  Now I have seen well contingencies becoming used more and more in the Offer to Purchase and Contract on lots, but you should discuss this with your real estate agent.

So, the next important question was, Why do we have to know this before the bid for the home construction is completed?  If you are entering into a cost plus agreement with your builder, they will not insist on this, because at the end of the day you are the one who will be footing the bill for everything.  However, you as the home owner and us as your general contractor need to set budgets and know moving forward what the costs should be.  As a custom home builder issuing a fixed cost contract, we will not finalize a price until we know because it effects several large cost items:

1. The cost of your site preparation and driveway installation could vary depending on the placement of your primary and repair drainage fields.  The placement of your well will also have an effect on pricing.
2. The type of system to be installed and the number and the length of the drainage lines will have an impact on pricing too.
3. As for well installation – all builders will build in a price, but this will be an allowance, because while we might know locally what the average depth of wells has been, we do not know for certain and the cost for every vertical foot is approx. $12.

So, have your lot looked at before you buy! If this is not possible you will at least have to do it before you build.

Couple of Samples of Applications:

Buncombe Septic & Well Application

Madison Co Septic Application

Madison Co Well Permit