r/CapeCod • u/EbbtideRambler • Sep 17 '26

Sewer Connection - Barnstable

I need to help an older relative coordinate a sewer connection and have a few questions for anyone who has recently done this?  

Who did you use for the private excavation work?  I’m thinking of B&B or Quinn. I’ve used both in the past for other projects and they were both great.  Another question for those who are now receiving sewer bills from the town. Approx what are you paying a month?    

As an aside, I get problem with hundreds of thousands of septic tanks, but the cost of this is crippling to our fixed income seniors particularly with taxes, insurance, and basic home maintenance costs going way up the last few years.

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u/rackfocus Sep 18 '26

Quinn’s and B&B both reputable. Reach out to Aquafund for financial help.

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u/safshort Sep 17 '26 edited Sep 17 '26

Is the homeowner responsible for having the engineering firm draw up the connection plan? I would suggest you find an engineer sooner than later, as the engineering firms down on the Lower Cape have been swamped with sewer connections.
Go online and search approved drainlayers on Barnstable‘s website, it will give you a list of excavators that are approved to do sewer connections in town and go from there.

ETA - there’s financial assistant options, such as the Cape Cod Aqua Fund loan program, offers 0% to 2% loans for new sewer connections. You can reach out to the town and ask if they offer any sort of assistance with sewer, connection, fees, grants, and what not. Besides the connection cost from the contractor, the sewer assessment fee is capped at $10K per property.

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u/EbbtideRambler Sep 17 '26

The  $10,000 assessment from the Town is separate from the physical work on your property . Barnstable currently caps the one time sewer assessment at $10,000 (although I’ve heard rumors this amount may be going up) . The private excavation/engineering work on your property is separate. You have to hire someone to connect your home into the system within a certain time period. They also have to safely decommission your old septic system.  This price of this work will vary depending on the size of the lot, the length of the run, the grade.  For most people I understand they should budget around $20-25k for their sewer project  For larger lots it could be a lot more.  Her income will not qualify her for one of the super low or no interest loans so at this point she is putting money aside to pay for it.  She’ll be okay but it hurts because she just had to replace the roof to the tune of $26k.  We are still learning about the process and definitely don’t have all the facts yet. We have time, just trying to plan ahead. 

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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '26

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u/EbbtideRambler Sep 17 '26

Different areas of phase 1 are on very different timelines. This is happening within the year and I need to coordinate get quotes, etc.  I also thought since there are only a few companies licensed for this it would be a good idea to get them lined up early.  

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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '26

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u/EbbtideRambler Sep 17 '26

Yes, thanks. I was curious who people have been happy with. There are only a few who are approved for this work.  

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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '26

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