Why You Shouldn’t Use "reddit" To Build a DIY Septic System (Or Any Other Similar Project)
Every single day, 7 days a week (including every holiday) I receive anywhere from 200-500 emails, and some days even way more.
I’ve been doing this a long, long time now and I’ve noticed within the last 5 or so years that more and more emails start with something like “I saw this post on reddit…” or “I was reading on reddit…” or “This guy on reddit said…”
Now I’ve been around a long time and I'd certainly heard of reddit, but I'd never “used” reddit myself.
So recently I decided to go on reddit for the first time and take a look at some of the septic system posts people had mentioned over the recent years.
So naturally, the first thing I do is search for “DIY Septic System reddit”.
And surprise, surprise, one of the top search results was centered around yours truly.
And boy oh boy, let me tell you, dealing with septic system installs and replacements for so many years, I’ve seen my fair share of crap, but never have I seen so much crap on a single webpage.
So in this article, I’m going to thoroughly debunk all of the silly reddit BS I saw on my very first (and definitely last) visit, and you’re going to see it all unfold right in front of your eyes, so here it goes…
It all started with an email…
Before I can get into all of the reddit nonsense, to properly explain everything I first have to go back to the early evening of December 28, 2022 and the email I received from someone named “Kay”:
Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am a very honest person, and that honesty goes both ways—both good and bad. To put it bluntly, if you’re rude to me, you can expect me to be rude to you.
That’s the way I am and I think it’s a very fair way to be, ESPECIALLY when I’m talking to faceless strangers on the internet through email.
Having said that, let’s break this email down line-by-line…
Hi.
I’m writing to inquire about more information about your book before purchasing, as I’ve found many sites similar to yours to be a scam.
I don’t mean to come off as insulting, but in this current world one has to be cautious.
Right off the bat I have problems with this emailer:
1. She immediately mentions “other sites similar” to mine that are scams, insinuating that I am also, quite likely, a “scam”—
And 2. she immediately says “I don’t mean to come off as insulting” which, from my experience, means that is exactly what she is about to do—be insulting.
First off, all your reviews look like amazon reviews, but I cannot find your book on Amazon. I do no have paypal nor am I willing to give my information to a company who doxxes those with conservative views.
She then insinuates that I am involved with an unscrupulous company (PayPal, which happens to be one of the oldest and strongest payment processors on the Internet that is used by tens of millions of businesses and billions of people) that, according to her, “doxxes” people.
BTW, my book used to be on Amazon but it isn’t any longer. Reviews on my website come from previous Amazon reviews and new reviews collected by my publisher.
Neither my publisher nor I use Amazon because they rip off the actual product creators (they take 70% OR MORE, you get the crumbs).
I explained all of this to “Kay” in my reply email to her before she made the reddit post, which I'll get into below.
Secondly, the entirety of your website is the same information repeated about 30 times with slight vocabulary changes to make it look like more information.
She then insults my entire website by falsely claiming that the same information is repeated over and over "30 times" "to make it look like more information”.
You also claim to have information to build a septic tank for cheap, and you list three different ball parks for “other” systems. I don’t know if your website and information is old, but due to today’s economy, there is no way your tank will only cost $20-$30. Especially if the book costs that much.
She then makes a statement indicating that there’s no way I know what I’m talking about, and that she knows much better because evidently she is a clairvoyant economist that already knows every single detail of my DIY Septic System and what the needed materials cost, even though she has never even seen the complete system plans, much less thoroughly reviewed them and doesn’t even know what materials are even needed!
If you had more hints about what products will need to be purchased or information on products you’d received, or even pictures of a chapter in your book, I would believe that your site is legit.
Finally, she then makes it quite clear that she definitely thinks I’m surely a “scam” and that I, my website, and my books are definitely not “legit”.
To be clear, 99.999999999% of the people who contact me are awesome. Not only do I not mind helping people with various issues/questions/etc. they have (including subjects way outside of anything involving septic systems), I LOVE helping people all the way around.
But, as I’m sure you already know, there will always be Kays out there ready to insult and annoy you as soon as they have the chance, intentionally or not.
In fact, I deal with at least one Kay a week. But considering I answer thousands of emails every week I’d say that’s not too bad. But anyone who’s a Kay is still bad, make no mistake.
So, what does any of this have to do with reddit???
This was one of the very first results (and maybe the very first one) when I searched for “DIY Septic System reddit”:
Well, well, well, what do we have here—a post from our very own ignorant, condescending “Kay”. Let’s break down all of the rubbish on this page, starting with the first section that was written by Kay herself:
"I came across a site advertising the best and cheapest diy septic system information, but you have to buy the book the dude is selling. I can't find it anywhere except the site..."
That’s RIGHT, you will never find my information anywhere but my website, and I’m not shy about making that fact clear, that’s why it’s written multiple times on various pages of my site:
You will NOT find my DIY Septic System plans on any YouTube video, forum, or other website, and especially “reddit”.
"...and the promise that the supplies will only cost $20-$30 seems way too good to be true."
That is absolutely 100% false information because I never once say anywhere on my website that “the supplies will only cost $20-$30”.
In fact, nowhere on my website will you find how much my DIY Septic System costs because it’s impossible for me to provide that information or even a “ballpark figure” for two reasons:
1. My system can be built larger or smaller as needed, and obviously the bigger the system the more money it will cost.
2. Material costs can vary greatly depending on where a person is located. For example, in some areas I’ve been able to purchase gravel for around $30 per ton, while in other areas the exact same type of gravel goes for $70+ per ton.
It’s impossible for me to know what size system every visitor to my site is going to need (they have to determine that based on the detailed info in my system plans) and it’s impossible for me to know how much materials cost in every location on every continent on earth.
People from all over the world build and use my DIY system and, again, material costs can vary greatly from country/region to country/region.
I DO say that the TANK(s) needed to build the small/medium-sized system CAN be that low in price ($10-$20+) which is absolutely 100% TRUE. Again, it all depends on the size of the system you are building and the cost can be higher.
However, a cheaper, smaller tank can work great and many people use those types of tanks in smaller systems. I use one right now myself at my cabin.
So, let’s see what happens on “reddit” when false information is posted right from the get-go…
"Lemus89" writes:
"that is the reddest red flag ever
if it was a legit source. there would be talk about it, not just a video linked on only their site, by their people, about their stuff. and requiring a book purchase, its gonna be something like 'dig a hole, put a pipe, cover it' or similar
“There would be talk about it”??? You mean, like the hundreds of reviews of my system and books you can read for yourself???
Or the reviews and videos you can find on various websites and YouTube???
"and requiring a book purchase..."
Wait, so “Lemus89” thinks I should spend countless hours of my life answering hundreds of emails about septic systems every single day from strangers on the internet I don’t even know for FREE???
This one is always amusing to me, when people mention having to buy a book for my information.
They really think I should spend hours and hours every day—
- Looking at countless photos of land and houses owned by internet strangers I don't even know
- Evaluating thousands of failed septic systems
- Answering hundreds of emails
- Reviewing countless YouTube videos, forum posts, and other septic system websites
- Writing articles like this for my own website
- And dealing with countless faceless strangers, some of whom email me 10 + times asking question after question before vanishing without ever giving me so much as a 'thank you' in return
And ALL for absolutely FREE!
Anytime anyone scoffs at having to spend a measly $27 for my books (the package includes 4 separate guides) I always ask them this:
Would YOU go to your job every day, 7 days a week for free? OF COURSE NOT! So why in the world would I do exactly that???
Are these people really out of their minds???
"...its gonna be something like 'dig a hole, put a pipe, cover it' or similar..."
Again, this is 100% false information. The DIY Septic plans are the most thorough and detailed plans you will find on building a DIY Septic System. Period.
And now we get to "atypicalAtom" who claims (meaning writes even more false nonsense):
"The scam is that the information is worthless. It will have things like get this item that costs 2.5k for free."
Nope, nothing like that is anywhere in my system plans. My plans include hundreds of pages of detailed information
—Starting with local planning
—Then going into site prep and safety precautions
—Then into the actual system design based on your needs
—Then continuing step by fully illustrated step until the system is completely built and properly installed.
"Ignore this safety code becuase I (the author) don't think anything bad can happen through my limited research and understanding."
Nope, again this is 100% FALSE. Nowhere do I say anything about “ignoring safety codes”.
In fact, unlike every other YouTube video, forum post, or website I’ve ever seen about DIY septic system design—INCLUDING THIS VERY "REDDIT POST"—I go over safety thoroughly in the DIY Septic System plans.
As for “limited research and understanding” I guess 40+ years designing and building septic systems (including countless of my own DIY systems all over the United States) equals “limited research and understanding”…
"EDIT: also, since i read some of your other responses...I get that you and your parents don't care about permitting, but there can be real consequences. If you do this wrong or poorly, you can contaminate your drinking water (the well that you get your water from) and cause serious medical issues for yourself and your family."
That’s funny, because I thoroughly discuss permitting AND proper site prep and location so you will NOT endanger your land, yourself, or anyone else in my system plans…
So, once again as you can see, another faceless, clueless “reddit user” is 100% wrong.
But the saddest part about all of this is...
Idiots like “Kay” as well as countless other clueless internet users will go and read all of this rubbish and immediately disregard all of my experience and expertise.
I can all but guarantee every single one of them will build a subpar system that will eventually fail—but not only that, they will also damage the land, ground water, etc. in the process.
They will either go find some worthless YouTube "tutorial" video (see my article on that mistake here) or how-to website (see a great example of that mistake here),
or—even worse—
they will eventually feel that they can’t trust ANY person or source and they will decide to build a system on their own based on bits and pieces of rubbish information that they found along the way while they were jumping from random YouTube videos, forum posts, and worthless website pages like this “reddit” post.
Not only that, they will actually endorse (by upvoting/liking) the ignorant morons like “atypical atom” who are literally providing ZERO information regarding the topic at hand (building a DIY Septic System) while completely distrusting and disregarding the REAL expert on the subject, which happens to be myself in this case...
And that’s all I can take of this utter nonsense...
With just one "reddit" page, and not even a very long page at that, I have debunked multiple pieces of BS “information”.
And, AGAIN, that’s just ONE “reddit” page!!! I can only imagine all of the BS that site's littered with!
Will I ever use reddit when I’m looking for any kind of fact-based information or even someone’s “opinion” for such information?
Absolutely not, and in this article I’ve clearly shown you why YOU shouldn’t either.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of “Kays” and “atypical atoms” in the world, and unfortunately that probably will never change.
On the flip side, if you are looking to build a durable, dependable, inexpensive septic system for your home, tiny home, cabin, RV, or any of the other many places that my system has been installed over the years, you’ve found the only website you will ever need.
The fact of the matter is you CAN build your own DIY Septic System but you have two choices:
You can go read rubbish on reddit and try to piece together a “system” based on nonsense like I have thoroughly debunked in the articles right here on this website, or you can use my fully-illustrated plans that detail step-by-step how to build a PROPER DIY Septic System.
The choice is yours, but just remember that if you go with door number 1 don’t even bother contacting me when whatever rubbish system you build fails and you find raw sewage seeping up under your feet in your yard...
In other words, don't be a Kay.
And stay far, far away from "reddit"...
Here are just a few reviews of my (not found on reddit) properly designed DIY Septic System:
Two Thumbs Up From a Civil Engineer
By Chris Simmons on April 10,
Verified Purchase
I am an engineer who has been designing and overseeing the installation of residential septic systems for 25 years. I bought the DIY Septic System book because it looked like a bunch of BS, and trust me, being in this field as long as I have I’ve seen a lot of BS. Also, I figured if the book was no good I could request a refund of my money.
To my surprise, it was refreshing to see a book this detailed. You can tell that the author is definitely an expert and that he really put a lot of time and effort into writing and compiling this book. I thought the book was going to be 30 to 40 pages of crap, but I was wrong. It actually is a complete set of plans with every step outlined and explained. I especially like the fact that he spent multiple pages on site preparation, so that the work can be done safely.
Now, whenever you’re dealing with septic systems, especially a DIY system, you have to be extremely careful. I have seen some disasters while in this line of work. I have seen an improperly installed DIY system literally fill a yard up with raw sewage.
However, I think this book is an excellent guide that will ensure that this type of system is installed correctly. As a professional in this line of work, if people are going to install these types of septic systems, it’s best that they do it correctly instead of causing a major problem, and for that I think this book is an excellent resource.
By Ricky S. on November 2,
Verified Purchase
I have zero experience working with plumbing, especially toilets and such. I didn’t know the first thing about waste disposol or septic systems before reading this. The author did a good job explaining how septic systems work and how to install his DIY system.
Going strong for over a year...
By tom d on December 12,
Verified Purchase
I actually built a system using another guide I found on the internet and the system didn’t last 6 months. Put this one in and it’s been going strong for over a year now with no problems. I’m running a toilet, a shower and one sink into this system every day and it has worked really well. The build and install was also much easier than I expected. I don’t think there will be any problems because I havent had any yet. I’m very satisfied with this system.
