Warning signs
- Wet, spongy or unusually green patches over the field
- Slow drains throughout the house, gurgling, toilets needing a second flush
- Sewage odor outdoors, especially after rain or heavy water use
- Backups that clear on their own after a dry spell (the field is at capacity)
Repairable causes
- Clogged or tilted distribution box sending everything to one line
- Crushed, root-invaded or separated lateral lines
- Solids carried over from a tank that was never pumped (pump the tank, jet the lines)
- Hydraulic overload — a leaking toilet or sump discharge dumping water on the field
Not repairable: a biomat that has sealed the trench-soil interface across the whole field, or a field that was undersized for the soil from day one. That's a replacement conversation, and we'll tell you so.
Water-table saturation is the most common cause of drain field trouble in this county, so the first question is always whether a field has genuinely failed or is simply under water for the season. A field that only misbehaves from June to October is telling you it was sized for the dry half of the year. There is a second question here that does not exist elsewhere: if the property is inside the lagoon program area, a failure serious enough to need full replacement cannot be replaced like for like — it has to meet the 65 percent nitrogen-reduction standard now, which turns a $5,000–$15,000; mound or elevated fields at the top of that range job into a $15,000–$25,000 to retrofit an existing system (county estimate) one. Check your status before you spend on a repair. Am I in the area?
What a diagnosis visit includes: tank inspection and sludge level, distribution box check, probe of the trenches for saturation, and a written finding with a repair price or a replacement estimate. In Florida, repairs that alter the system require a permit; routine maintenance does not.
All work is performed by local licensed, permitted Florida-registered septic tank contractors.