A new septic system is one of the larger single expenses a Monroe County property owner will face. It is also one of the few where the price is decided by something completely outside anyone’s control, which is what the ground under your feet will accept.
This page explains how the process actually works here, so you know what you are agreeing to before anyone quotes you a number.
The soil test comes first, always
Nothing about your system can be designed until the site has been tested. Not the size, not the type, not the location, not the price.
Testing means two things. A soil probe, where pits are dug so the profile can be read for depth to bedrock, depth to seasonal water table, and soil structure. And a percolation test, where holes are pre-soaked and then timed to measure how quickly water moves through the soil.
Both are witnessed by your township’s sewage enforcement officer. That is a certified role, not a formality, and their reading of the site is what governs what can be permitted.
If someone offers you a firm installation price before this has happened, they are quoting a system they have not designed for a site they have not evaluated.
What your results mean
Good perc, deep soil. A conventional in-ground system. Tank, distribution box, and a gravel absorption bed below grade. This is the cheapest outcome and the least common one on Pocono lots.
Slow perc, shallow limiting zone, or high water table. An elevated sand mound. The absorption area is built above the natural grade out of imported sand, because the native soil cannot do the job on its own. More on sand mounds.
Very restricted site, small lot, or close to water. An advanced treatment unit, which cleans the effluent thoroughly enough that a much smaller absorption area can be approved. More on advanced treatment.
The test result chooses between these. You do not, and neither does your installer.
Permits and your township
Pennsylvania handles sewage permitting at the municipal level under Act 537. Monroe County is made up of sixteen townships and four boroughs, and each administers its own program with its own sewage enforcement officer.
Once a complete application is in, the sewage enforcement officer has to approve or deny it within seven days. That sounds fast, and the decision itself usually is. What varies enormously is how long it takes to get to a complete application, because soil testing has to be scheduled around the officer’s availability and some municipalities have one part-time officer covering a lot of ground. If you are building to a schedule, ask about your specific township early rather than assuming a county-wide norm.
The permit application includes the soil test results, the system design, and a site plan showing the required isolation distances. Setbacks from a private well are the ones that most often constrain a design, along with distances to property lines, streams, and structures.
How the installation runs
- Site visit. We walk the property, look at any existing system, and work out where testing should happen and where a system could physically go.
- Soil testing. Probe pits and perc test, with the sewage enforcement officer present.
- Design and permit application. The system is designed to what the soil will support, then submitted.
- Permit issued. Timeline varies by township. This is usually the longest wait in the whole project.
- Excavation and installation. Tank set and levelled, lines run, absorption area built or unit placed.
- Inspection before backfill. The sewage enforcement officer inspects the open system. Nothing gets covered until it passes.
- Backfill, grade, and restore. Cover, final grading, topsoil and seed on the disturbed area.
- Paperwork handover. As-built drawing, permit records, and a plain explanation of what your system needs from you.
What actually drives the price
In rough order of impact:
- System type, which the soil decides. A mound costs substantially more than an in-ground bed, and an advanced treatment unit more again.
- Imported material. Mound sand is trucked in and placed to spec, and the volume required scales with the design.
- Access. If a machine cannot reach the work area easily, or trees and rock have to come out first, that shows up in the number.
- Tank size and material, driven by bedroom count.
- Whether an old system has to be decommissioned, which usually means pumping and either crushing and filling or removing the old tank.
- Site restoration expectations. A lawn put back to a high standard costs more than rough grade and seed.
We give you a written quote after the site visit with the assumptions stated, so you can see which of these apply to you and which do not.
New construction
If you are buying raw land or building, test before you commit to a house design. The number of bedrooms drives the required system size, and the system has to fit within setbacks alongside the well, the driveway, and the house itself.
On tight or steep lots the septic design sometimes dictates where the house can go, rather than the other way around. Finding that out after the foundation is poured is an expensive way to learn it.
Get a site evaluation
Free for installation and replacement work. Tell us the address and what you know about the property.