Have you received notice from your county that your three years are up?  Perhaps you’ve heard about companies advertising 3-year county maintenance inspections for a fraction of the cost of pumping…  There are only a few very specific situations where this would apply.  The statewide law that requires 3-year maintenance on septic systems states that the septic tank must be “less than 1/3 full of combined sludge and scum volume” in order to allow for an inspection only without pumping.  For the vast majority of our customers, this criteria is not met and so a full pumping service is performed to check the full health of the system.

Generally, a house must be vacant for the majority of those three years in order to meet this criteria, or perhaps the system is sitting unused and is currently not hooked up to any plumbing.  Any regular usage to the system will fill the septic tank with sludge and scum waste over 1/3 of the tank capacity and would therefore require pumping.  We also have seen a great benefit to emptying the tanks completely: it allows us to get a good look at the tank and entire system, ensuring all components are in place, in good condition, and doing what they should be doing.  We also clean the filter if your system has one – something not all inspectors do!  Failing to do this can result in back-up issues.

We are able to perform these inspections for the 3-year county maintenance requirement and defer the pumping when it applies.  We understand the intrigue of wanting to get by with an inspection only – give us a call to discuss if this is something that would apply to your septic system!