Home sale cancelled due to incorrect water test technique.

Recently I was called out to chlorinate a well system. The home was for sale and there had been a positive test showing coliform and ecoli in the well water. The potential buyers (city dwellers not used to wells) decided to cancel the sale because of fear of contaminated water. I asked the home sellers if they had seen the test done and they told me how the home inspector had simply turned on the kitchen tap and filled a sample bottle which he then put the lid on and stuck it in his pocket. WRONG - don't do bacteria tests this way.



Here is what you need:

• A sterile sample bottle (preferably one you picked up from the lab that you will bring the test to)


• A pair of pliers and a small sheet of rubber


• At least a Bic type lighter (or in my case, I use a hand torch)


• A cooler

Find a metal faucet in the home, preferably one that gets used all the time (kitchen or bathroom). Run the water at that faucet for 5 minutes (20 minutes if the home has not been lived in for several months). Turn off the faucet and using the pliers and rubber sheet (to prevent damage to the surface finish) remove the aerator and gasket or o-ring from the spout. This is very important because this is the place where air and water meet and airborne splashes can bring bacteria to this point where it can fester. We only want to check for bacteria in the well, pipes, and filter system, not on outer surfaces.

Next, run the water another minute or so and turn off again. This next part is why it is so important to do this at a metal faucet. Sanitize the faucet spout by lighting the Bic lighter and heating the spout end (where the water comes out). If you did this to the aerator, it would melt it's insides, thus the reason for removing it and only sanitizing the metal part of the spout. I would make a circular motion under the spout for a minute or so, making sure to get the round edge well.

Get the sterile sample bottle. Turn the water on brisk, but slow enough so that it does not splash from the bottom of the sink and potentially into the sample or back onto the spout. Remove the lid and fill the bottle to the fill line. Place bottle in chilled cooler with ice or ice pack. Deliver to lab. Deviations from these instructions may cause a false positive test due to contamination of sample. How do I know? Before I chlorinated the well, I took a sample using the correct method. When the lab results came back, the test showed negative - in other words - no bacteria. It was obvious that the improper test method caused contamination of the sample. I suggest that when an inspection is done in a home you are selling you should watch the person testing your water to make sure the test is done properly. Print this post to make sure you have the information handy.

Home inspector screws up another water test!

Why is this such a difficult concept for home inspectors? Don't touch what you don't know about!!! A customer who is selling his home called worried when the building inspector's water test results showed problems with the water. These were the same problems that the customer had paid me several thousand dollars to fix. I could understand the customer's frustration with me, because when I spend money, I want to see results too.

I visited the home and tested the water, finding no problems. Checking the almost new water filtration equipment, I found no reason to suspect an intermittent problem. It was then that I called the home inspector and asked about his test procedure. He told me the first step was to by-pass the filters and proceeded to tell me the rest, but I cut him off and ended the conversation. I was confidently able to tell my customer that there was no problem with the filtration system, there was a problem with the home inspector.

Here is the deal. IF THE CURRENT HOME OWNER SPENT THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS ON A WATER FILTRATION SYSTEM, WHY WOULD YOU BY-PASS THAT SYSTEM AND THEN TEST THE WATER? TEST THE TREATED WATER TO MAKE SURE THE SYSTEM IS WORKING. Do building inspectors turn off the heat in the winter to see how cold the home gets? No, they check that the heating system is working. That is what they should do with water systems, test the treated water to make sure the treatment is working.

Selling a home? Watch the home inspector. See my next post to find out how a botched bacteria test made one home sale fall through.

Ted Mullen is a licensed water treatment expert in Connecticut. If you have questions about water issues, email him at tedmullen@hotmail.com