Nothing about a new system is decided in a catalogue. Test pits and a percolation rate decide the type, the size and most of the price, which is why the soil work happens before the quote rather than after it.
Sandy loam that drains freely takes a modest conventional bed. Heavy clay, a high water table or shallow bedrock forces a raised bed, imported fill or an aerobic treatment unit, and each of those changes the number substantially.
None of that is visible from the driveway, which is why a perc test comes before the quote. Anyone pricing a full system over the phone is pricing the worst case and hoping, or the best case and coming back to you later.
Once the rate is known, sizing follows from bedroom count and daily design flow, the drawings go in for permit, and the excavation is the last step rather than the first. Ranges by system type are on septic system cost.
Soil first
How it works
How a new system gets built
Test pits and perc rate
Pits opened, soil horizons logged, water table noted and a percolation rate measured. Everything else follows from this.
Design and permit
Sizing from bedrooms and design flow, drawings prepared, and the application filed and tracked on your behalf.
Excavate, set, lay
Tank set and levelled, lines laid to fall, bed built to the approved drawing, with risers brought to grade.
Inspection and restoration
Open-trench inspection passed, then backfill, final grading and seeding, with the approved paperwork handed over.
What the quote covers
Excavation is the visible part, not the whole job
A full system quote covers the soil work, the design, the permit fee and tracking, the tank and its risers, the distribution network, the bed itself, any imported fill, the excavation and backfill, and the final grade and seed. The parts people forget are fill and restoration, and on a difficult site fill alone can be a significant line.
Access matters too. A machine that cannot reach the bed area without crossing a driveway or removing a fence adds cost, and that is identified at survey rather than discovered on day one. Mature trees inside the bed footprint cannot stay, and we mark that out before anyone signs.
Once it is in, the system is only as good as its maintenance, and the first pumping interval is set from the design flow until real readings replace it. Risers fitted at build time mean every later visit is a lift rather than a dig.
Before the quoteSoil work
Filed and trackedPermit
Graded and seededRestoration
Installation services
Other installation work
From a single tank swap to a full build on a difficult site.
For owners building, or replacing something beyond repair.
The digging is two to four days. The part before it is longer: soil evaluation, design and permit approval commonly run three to eight weeks depending on the municipality and the season.
A range, not a price. The rate decides the type and size of bed, and those drive most of the number. A firm quote before test pits would be a guess dressed up as a figure.
Bedroom count and design flow set the required capacity; the percolation rate sets how much bed area that capacity needs. Poor soil means more area for the same house.
Often not. A sound concrete tank can outlive two beds. If it is sound, the job is a bed replacement and costs far less.
That is what treatment units are for. Cleaner effluent allows a smaller dispersal area. See aerobic treatment unit.
The bed area is excavated and rebuilt, so that part of the lawn is new. Final grading and seeding are in the quote. Mature trees in the footprint cannot be kept and we mark that before starting.
Sometimes, but frozen ground makes excavation slower and grading harder to finish properly. Where a job can sensibly wait for spring we say so rather than take it.
