What Does Septic Work Cost in Campbell River?
Campbell River Septic charges $400 to $750 for a single-family tank pump-out and $18,000 to $30,000 for a new Type 1 system. These are the ranges we quote in Campbell River, from our own completed jobs. We walk your property before we put a number in writing.
Updated August 2026
The tables below are the price ranges we quote for septic work across this part of the north Island.
A new system is the biggest number we quote. See what septic system installation actually puts in the ground.
What does routine septic work cost?
A single-family tank pump-out runs $400 to $750.
Routine work is the cheap end. You get a pump-out and a clean filter, plus a scheduled maintenance visit, for a few hundred dollars each. We give you the price before we come out.
| Work | Range |
|---|---|
| Tank pump-out (single family) | $400 – $750 |
| Effluent filter clean or replace | $150 – $300 |
| Tank lid or riser install | $350 – $800 |
| Locating and uncovering a buried tank | $150 – $400 |
| Blockage or line clearing | $300 – $700 |
| Scheduled maintenance visit | $200 – $450 |
| After-hours emergency callout | $350 – $650 |
What does a repair cost?
A partial drain field repair runs $2,500 to $8,000. A full replacement runs $12,000 to $25,000.
Repairs cover a very wide range. Replacing a float switch is a small job. Replacing the whole field is the biggest repair there is. Call us when your drains first slow down and you are usually at the small end of that range.
| Work | Range |
|---|---|
| Distribution box replacement | $800 – $2,500 |
| Pump, float or alarm replacement | $600 – $1,800 |
| Drain field repair (partial) | $2,500 – $8,000 |
| Tank replacement only | $6,000 – $12,000 |
| Full drain field replacement | $12,000 – $25,000 |
What does a new system cost?
A new Type 1 system runs $18,000 to $30,000; a Type 2 runs $25,000 to $45,000 or more.
A Type 1 system is a septic tank and a dispersal field. A Type 2 system adds a treatment unit that brings the effluent under 45 mg/L suspended solids and under 45 mg/L five-day biochemical oxygen demand. A sand mound or pressure-dosed system sits in the same bracket as a Type 2.
| Work | Range |
|---|---|
| New Type 1 system (tank and gravity field) | $18,000 – $30,000 |
| New Type 2 system (treatment unit) | $25,000 – $45,000+ |
| Sand mound or pressure-dosed system | $25,000 – $45,000 |
| Site and soil assessment | $1,200 – $2,500 |
| System design | $1,500 – $3,500 |
| Pre-purchase or real-estate inspection | $400 – $800 |
The Island Health filing is included in the system design fee, not billed separately.
What changes the price on your lot?
Two neighbouring parcels often need two different systems, because the soil changes over short distances.
We pick the dispersal method from what the soil does with water, and that method sets most of the cost. Your daily design flow sets how big the system has to be. How close we can get a machine to the work changes the price too. On an older property, finding your tank at all adds $150 to $400.
We price all of that from a site walk, not from a phone call.
How do we turn this range into your number?
A choked effluent filter and a worn-out dispersal field both show up as a slow drain in your kitchen.
These ranges are wide because one symptom can sit at either end of them. A slow drain can be a choked effluent filter at the cheap end, or a dispersal field at the end of its life at the expensive end. Both present the same way in your kitchen.
So we come out, get the lids off and look at it, and then you get one number rather than a range. That quote visit costs you nothing.
Where the money actually goes on a new system
A Type 2 system adds a treatment unit ahead of the field, and the unit is most of the difference in price.
On a new build the tank is rarely the interesting number. What separates an $18,000 job from a $45,000 one is what has to happen between the tank and the ground.
A Type 1 system treats through a septic tank and disperses through a field, and where gravity does the distribution it is the simplest thing we install. A Type 2 system adds a treatment unit that has to bring the effluent under 45 mg/L suspended solids and under 45 mg/L five-day biochemical oxygen demand. A sand mound or a pressure-dosed layout sits in the same bracket, because both replace gravity with equipment that has to be powered, controlled and maintained.
What is the cheapest thing you can spend on your system?
An effluent filter is $150 to $300. A full drain field replacement is $12,000 to $25,000.
Those two numbers are connected, and the connection is the effluent filter. A tank lid or a riser at $350 to $800, and locating a buried tank at $150 to $400, sit in the same cheap bracket and buy you access to the system for years afterwards. The filter is what keeps solids in the tank and out of your field, and the field is the expensive half of the system.
Poor maintenance is one of the leading causes of premature failure. A $400 to $750 pump-out with a clean filter on a sensible cycle protects a field that costs $12,000 to $25,000 to replace. An Authorized Person writes your maintenance plan for the system you actually have, and that is what sets the cycle rather than a number off a table.
What does the paperwork cost?
Island Health charges $50.00 per property for a records request. That is its fee, not ours.
A site and soil assessment is $1,200 to $2,500 and a system design is $1,500 to $3,500, with the Island Health filing included in the design fee. If you need Island Health's own records for the property, that runs through its Request for Release of Information form at $50.00 per property.
Where a price range comes from
A distribution box replacement runs $800 to $2,500. Replacing the whole dispersal field runs $12,000 to $25,000.
What does a job like this look like?
The situation
A wet patch shows up at the low end of a yard and the owner wants to know whether this is the small number or the big one.
What makes it harder
From the surface a failing distribution box and a finished dispersal field look identical, and they are an order of magnitude apart on price.
What we do
We open the box and run water through it before quoting either. Where the fix is ten feet of crushed line rather than the whole field, you pay for ten feet.
See what a new system involves, or what a repair involves on a system already in the ground. We serve Campbell River and the parcels south of town.
We quote septic work right across north Vancouver Island, from Campbellton and Willow Point out to Quadra Island and the Oyster River, and everywhere in between inside the Strathcona Regional District.
For a price on your own property rather than a range, request a free quote.