Good Neighbor Podcast: TN-WNC-SWVA

EP# 351: Inside Asheville Septic And Well: Inspections, Installs, And Mountain Springs

• Skip Mauney & David Bar-Shimon • Episode 351

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Hidden systems make or break a home. That’s why we brought on David Bar Shimon, co-owner of Asheville Septic and Well, to pull back the curtain on septic tanks, well inspections, sewer scopes, and the mountain springs that still supply water to some homes across Western North Carolina. If you’ve ever bought a house, sold a house, or wondered what’s really happening under your yard, this conversation delivers the practical answers you need.

We walk through how a modern septic inspection actually works, from locating and opening the tank to measuring solids, checking baffles, and evaluating the drain field’s health. David explains the most expensive myth in the industry—“never pump your septic tank”—and gives a clear schedule that prevents clogs and field failure. For homes on city sewer, we get into why a camera scope down the lateral line is essential, especially in older properties where root intrusion, offsets, and cracked clay pipes are common. On the water side, we cover well performance, flow and pressure checks, and water quality testing that keeps families safe. And because this is the mountains, we also talk springs and cisterns: how to find them, how to judge the setup, and why improvised systems can put water quality at risk.

David shares his path from early field training to securing installer licensing, which allows his team to go from problem to solution—repairs, replacements, and new builds—while navigating North Carolina’s permits and environmental health rules. The theme throughout is clarity: readable reports that help buyers budget before closing, help owners plan upgrades, and protect both property value and public waterways. If you care about home maintenance, real estate due diligence, or simply want to avoid a five-figure surprise underground, you’ll find this guide grounded, local, and immediately useful.

Enjoy the episode? Follow the show, share it with a neighbor who’s house-hunting, and leave a quick review to help more listeners find practical, local insights that protect their homes.

SPEAKER_00:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Marty.

SPEAKER_01:

And welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. We're super excited this morning to have somebody uh in our studio for the first time. And uh I'm very excited to learn all about them and what they do, and I'm sure you will be as well, because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Mr. David Bar Shimon, who is co-owner of Asheville Septic and Well. David, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey, good morning, Skip. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I said we're very excited to have you and uh welcome and also excited to learn all about your business. So if you don't mind, why don't you kick us off by telling us about Asheville Septic and Well?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, absolutely. So Asheville Septic and Well was incorporated in 2019. And we originally started the company specifically focusing on inspections, typically real estate inspections when someone's buying the house. Everybody knows what a home inspection is, of course. If you've ever bought a house, it's pretty critical. But it's not as common, at least in the past, for people to do septic inspections, um, because it's hiding underground, so people don't even know what their septic is sometimes. We find when we're doing septic inspections. But we also offer wells, we also offer well inspections. Um, and then we've added sewer scopes, which is for homes on sewer mains. We'll run a sewer uh snake camera down a wastewater line to inspect the sewer system and find if there's any issues, especially with older houses, things that are 80 or 100 plus years old. If the pipe hasn't been updated, there's oftentimes issues found. And then the last one, it's not as common, but we do love them, are uh spring and cistern inspections, they're still homes that get their water, as you know, in the mountains from spring water. And those are actually the most fun because it's basically hiking in the woods looking for where's the water is coming from? Is it set up and sealed properly? And every single spring is kind of done differently because there's not a lot of regulation around it, like there is receptic and wells. So we oftentimes see a lot of interesting bootleg or homemade type, you know, systems that are that are unusual. And sometimes they're very fancy and sometimes they're a little more primitive depending who was the installer.

SPEAKER_01:

Bootleg spring systems, uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we see some interesting things.

SPEAKER_01:

I bet you do. Now, when you find something that pardon me, somebody's jury rigged, you know, and and put together themselves, do you are are you like obligated to say we gotta fix this or or so I don't necessarily work with the state or the county to say, like, oh my god, look at this thing, red flag, red flag.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, we have on occasion seen septic systems that are dumping into the waterways, what we call straight piping or just poorly designed to the point where stuff's leaking down into the creek because the drain field or the system's too close to it. Um but my reports are very, very easy to read and will tell you exactly like these are the things that need to be solved or remedied immediately before you use the system, whether it's something you're drinking out of or whether it's a septic system, whatever the system we're working on, we make these very clear-cut and easy reports so that people know what they're buying. And maybe they can use that report to go to a contractor and get estimates before they buy the house so they know just like when you go to home inspection, like do I need a new roof? Do I need a new septic? Things like that are really critical for making decisions on your home purchase.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, fascinating, David. What um how did you get into this business? What's your journey?

SPEAKER_02:

I kind of I kind of fell into it a little bit accidentally. Um, I've gone through a few different careers in the past, and uh a friend of mine who was a home inspector in Asheville years ago, this would have been, yeah, back in around 2018, 2019, uh essentially said, Hey, I've been subcontracting out septic and well inspections as part of my home inspection package and my business here, but I'm really dissatisfied with the companies I've been using and the quality and the service, et cetera. I want to just do it in-house. And he said, Why don't you go get trained and we'll, you know, learn it. So basically we we learned by trial by fire the first year in 2019. Um, and just sometimes made mistakes, but over the course of the years we've gained a lot of experience. And I went out and started my own business after that. Um and uh that's sort of how came into it. And it's been been an interesting, interesting journey uh learning about how wastewater and water supply systems are set up here. Also, wanted to mention one last thing. Um, we about two years ago we got our septic septic installer licensure. So now we are installing septic systems. So if anyone has any need for a repair for their septic, say their drain field's failing, say their tank has collapsed, worst case scenario there. Or they just need a new septic system for a new house build. That is also something we are uh licensed and able to do as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. So you do pretty much everything. We're doing a lot.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and we're taking on we're taking on more every year. We're always trying to add services.

SPEAKER_01:

That's awesome. Awesome. Whatever you need. So um can you think of any myths or misconceptions in in your industry that people have?

SPEAKER_02:

The most common one, and we see this sometimes way out in the country, is we'll show up and the homeowners there, they're not usually our client, usually the buyers. Our client will go, hey, do you know where your septic is? And sometimes these people will live in there 20, 30 years and they'll go, yes or no, whatever the case is. And I go, have you have you had it opened or pumped? And like, no, we were told never to pump it when we moved in. We've heard that before.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02:

And in case someone listening isn't familiar with septic systems, a real quick overview is you got a big box and it's full of poop and wastewater, you basically everything you you dump down the toilet or the shower should be going in there. And then after it, it goes into what's a leech field or a drain field, usually and like sort of pipes underground that leach down into the soil and allow just the water to be to go back into the soil and remediate. And then the idea is the box, the septic tank, is full of solids and you need to pump that out every it's recommended every three to five years, depending on the amount of people in the house. And if you do not pump the septic, which is what a lot of people seem to think is okay or have been told by others, eventually the solids will fill up so much in the tank that it'll go into your drain field and clog it up, and then you don't have a working septic system, and it's really can be very difficult to remediate it depending on how bad it gets. Sometimes you need a whole new system put in. So if you're not familiar with septic systems, if you do have one, I highly recommend that you get on a schedule with the pumper and have it done at minimum at least every five years. And if you're at a larger family in a smaller home, let's say you're in a three or four bedroom home and you have like six or seven people living there for whatever reason, pump it more often.

SPEAKER_01:

More people, more poop.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, you said it.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. Wow. Yeah, I could I I could I could see that. I could see people not even knowing where their septic tank is. I I've been that been there before when I bought a house and didn't even ask, it's like where I was in the front yard. Had no idea.

SPEAKER_02:

You flushed the toilet and everything went down, so why worry about it? Is usually that thing that people are thinking, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yep, yep, that's exactly right. So you live in a really cool place, but you work a lot. But when you're not working, what do you like to do for fun?

SPEAKER_02:

Um I like hiking specifically in the summer. I love uh with my kids going creek stomping, I call it, just finding cool rivers to go down and swimming, find swimming holes. I think we're one of the most beautiful places in the country, if not the world. And summers are really majestic and gorgeous here. Um I just recently got into like bouldering and rock climbing. This is a really recent thing. I currently have some calluses in my hand that need to be healed up before I do anymore. Um, so yeah, um those are my two favorite things. I also play mandolin, not professionally with people, but just for fun. I play some music on my own, mostly Celtic music. Oh, and my other hobby I should mention is I love going contra dancing. There's a pretty good scene in Asheville for uh, if you're not familiar, it's a folk dance uh that has a pretty good scene for it here in Asheville. So that's some of my favorite stuff I do.

SPEAKER_01:

Very cool, very cool. Um lucky out love to be outside. You know, we live in a beautiful place, it's amazing. So uh if uh David, if you could think of one thing that you would like our listeners to remember about Asheville, septic and well, what would that be?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, um absolutely if you need septic work done of any nature or just need a consult on you know your property or if you're gonna expand your septic system. If you live in North Carolina specifically, um we have a lot of regulations around septic. So if you need any work done generally, you have to get permits and things. And we can also help guide you to the right people for that, whether that's a private soil scientist, whether it's the county, environmental health department, um, feel free to reach out. Um the the phone number, if you if you find my company, AshvilleSceptic.com, but also my phone number is um for the company goes to me, so you can generally reach me pretty quickly if you have any questions about you know septic well, sewer, spring systems, etc.

SPEAKER_01:

Very good. Good thing to remember. And if uh you know somebody's thinking about building a house in the area or they they're selling a house or they're you know need a new septic system installed, how can they learn more?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, uh asheville septic.com is my website. Um phone number is 828-515-4545. And also my email address is pretty simple, info at ashevelseptic.com. All all roads lead to me on those. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. Well, David, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to hang out with us and and tell us all about uh Asheville Septic and Dwell and the misconceptions, because I'm sure there's a lot more than even what we talked about, but uh appreciate it and uh hope you and uh uh you wish you and your your family, your uh business and partner all the best moving forward.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. Have a great one, Skip, and happy Halloween day.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, you same to you, and uh maybe we can have you back sometime. Sounds great. All right, man.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNP Tri Dash Cities dot com. That's GNP Tri Dash Cities dot com or call four two two two two two two two two two two three seven one nine five eight seven three.