Septic and excavation resources for Central Virginia homeowners

Wet or spongy ground over the field. A smell that comes and goes. Drains that gurgle or back up when the washing machine runs. Grass that's noticeably greener over the field than the rest of the yard.

One of those on its own might be something else. Two or three together usually isn't.

It depends on the size of the tank and how many people are in the house — most households land somewhere in the three-to-five-year range.

Pumping on schedule is the cheapest thing you can do for a septic system, because solids that escape the tank end up in the drain field, and the drain field is the expensive part.

A new septic system or a drain field replacement in Virginia requires a permit and a soil evaluation through the Virginia Department of Health. The soil work establishes whether the site will take the system and where the field can go.

We handle that process as part of the job rather than sending you off to arrange it yourself.

A septic system is the most expensive thing on a rural property that a walkthrough tells you nothing about. A system about to fail looks exactly like one that isn't.

Have it looked at before closing, while a problem is still something you can negotiate over.

Standing water is almost always two problems together: water arriving somewhere it shouldn't, and no route for it to leave. Fixing one without the other doesn't hold.

The fix usually combines regrading with an actual discharge point — a drain to daylight, a French drain, or a culvert sized for the water coming off the ground above you.

Check the gutters and downspouts first, and look at where the ground meets the foundation. A surprising share of wet basements are roof water being delivered straight to the footer.

If that's not it, the water is coming through or under the foundation, and that's an excavation and drainage question rather than a sealant question.