We inspect before we quote. That’s the whole process, and it’s rarer than it should be in this business.
Most septic companies work backward. They give you a number over the phone, then adjust it once someone’s actually looked at the tank. We do it in the order that makes sense: look first, explain what we found, then price the work that’s actually needed.
Two Ways People Find Us
Almost everyone who contacts us falls into one of two situations, and the process branches slightly depending on which one you’re in.
You’re Selling or Buying a Home
Iowa law requires a time of transfer inspection before a property on a private septic system changes hands (Iowa Code 455B.172). If this is you, you usually already have a closing date on the calendar, and the inspection is the thing standing between you and clear title. We build our scheduling around that date, not the other way around.
Something’s Already Failing
The other group isn’t selling anything. Slow drains, standing water in the yard, a smell that wasn’t there last month. This isn’t a scheduled inspection. It’s a diagnostic call, and it usually needs to happen faster.
What to Include When You Contact Us
The form asks for a few specifics. The more of them you fill in, the less back-and-forth it takes to get you on the schedule.
- The property address and county: Warren, Madison, Dallas, Jasper, or Marion
- Whether this is time of transfer driven, and if so, your closing date
- If it’s failure driven, what you’re actually seeing: backup location, standing water, odor, or a system that just stopped draining
- Whether you have the system’s original permit or as-built diagram on hand
Send us your ToT report – we’ll tell you what it actually requires
What Happens On Site
For a Time of Transfer Inspection
We locate the tank and drain field first, which isn’t always where the paperwork says it is. Then we pump and inspect the tank, check the baffles and effluent filter, and run a hydraulic load test on the field. Iowa’s ToT standard is specific about what gets checked and how it gets documented. We follow it exactly, because a shortcut inspection that gets challenged at closing costs everyone more time than doing it right the first time.
For a Repair or Failure Call
Same instinct, different starting point. We’re not there to sell a new system. We’re there to find out what actually failed. That might mean a camera down the line, a look at the distribution box, or a small inspection pit dug at the field itself. A tired system and a collapsed pipe look identical from the yard. They are not the same repair.
How We Report What We Find
You get a written report in plain language, not a pass or fail stamp with no explanation behind it. If the system passed, the report says why: what was checked, what condition the tank and field were actually in, and what to watch for over the next few years. If it failed, the report says specifically what failed and where, not just “does not meet code.”
A house outside Winterset failed its ToT inspection last year over a single collapsed distribution box, not the drain field itself. The report said so specifically, and that distinction turned a five-figure field replacement the seller had already budgeted for into a four-figure box repair. That only happens when the report explains the finding instead of just stamping it.
How the Quote Gets Built
We price from what we found on your property, not from a flat rate sheet. A repair quote reflects the actual failure: a distribution box, a collapsed lateral, a saturated field. A ToT inspection that comes back clean costs you the inspection and nothing else. One that fails gets a repair or replacement quote built off those same findings, not a fresh guess made from the driveway.
After the Work Is Done
Permit sign-off goes through the county, and we handle that filing directly instead of leaving it on you. On ToT-driven jobs, that documentation goes to whoever’s handling the closing, on their timeline, not after it’s already passed. On repair jobs, you get the same paperwork for your own records, plus a straight answer on what to expect if a similar issue shows up again.
We also follow up afterward. Not a sales call. A real check on whether the system is behaving the way the repair was supposed to make it behave.
The process doesn’t change based on how anxious you are about the outcome. Inspect, explain, then price. That order is the whole difference.