Serving Campbell River and north Vancouver Island
Septic Installation, Repairs, Pump-Outs and Inspections
Campbell River Septic covers five kinds of septic work across Campbell River, Willow Point, Campbellton, Quadra Island and Oyster River: installation, repairs, pump-outs, inspections, and site and soil assessment. We are ROWP-registered, so we can design and install Type 1 and Type 2 systems for you.
The five things we do
- Septic System InstallationNew Type 1 and Type 2 systems, designed and installed with the Island Health filing handled.
- Septic RepairsDrain fields, distribution boxes, pumps, floats and alarms, repaired by an Authorized Person.
- Septic Tank Pump-Outs and MaintenanceScheduled pump-outs, effluent filter service and a maintenance plan written by an Authorized Person.
- Septic InspectionsPerformance reports for a sale and compliance reports for a building permit application.
- Site and Soil Assessment and System DesignSoil logs, a system design sized to your daily flow, and the Island Health filing that goes with it.
How the five fit together
An assessment comes first, then a design, then the install, then the maintenance.
The five things we do are really one job split across the life of a system, and most owners meet us somewhere in the middle of it rather than at the start. A site and soil assessment tells us what your ground will take. A design turns that into a system sized to your daily design flow. An installation puts it in. Maintenance keeps it working, and when a septic repair is needed we put it right.
An inspection sits slightly apart from that arc. It is the one we do for somebody who does not own the system yet, or who needs a report to hand to a building department. So the report goes to the buyer or the building department in writing, and it says what the system is and what condition it is in.
Who is allowed to do each of them
Every repair and every maintenance task needs an Authorized Person, or somebody working under one's supervision.
The regulation puts every part of this work in trained hands, because a badly built system is a health problem rather than an inconvenience. To construct, alter or repair a sewerage system you have to retain an Authorized Person, which means either a professional or a Registered Onsite Wastewater Practitioner.
We hold that second registration, through the Applied Science Technologists and Technicians Association of BC. It runs in up to five categories — planner, installer, maintenance provider, private inspector for commercial work and private inspector for residential — and plenty of practitioners hold more than one of them. You are entitled to ask which categories the person on your property is registered in, and we will tell you ours.
How big a system can we design?
We design and install under 9,100 litres per day, which covers houses. The Sewerage System Regulation covers systems under 22,700, so a professional's ceiling is 22,699 litres per day — not ours.
We design and install Type 1 and Type 2 systems with a daily design flow under 9,100 litres per day. That covers houses, and it covers most of what gets built on a rural parcel around here.
Above that number the work belongs to a professional, typically an engineer or a geoscientist. If your project sits there, we will say so on the first visit, before you have paid for a design. A professional designs and files that work, and it is worth knowing which side of 9,100 litres per day you are on early.
What a job like this looks like
A repair runs under your existing filing. A new suite changes your daily design flow, so it needs a design and a new filing.
What does a job like this look like?
The situation
A property owner asks us for two things on one visit: a slow drain in the house, and a plan for a suite over the garage.
What makes it harder
One of those is a repair we can start the same week. The other changes the daily design flow, so it is a design job with a filing behind it.
What we do
We split the visit in two. We clear the line and replace ten feet of crushed distribution pipe under the existing filing, then quote the suite separately as an assessment and a design.
Questions about the work itself
Do you do all five of these yourselves?
Yes. One local crew does the assessment, the design, the installation, the maintenance and the repairs. The same people who log your soil are the ones who put the system in.
Can I book two jobs on one visit?
Usually. A pump-out and an effluent filter go together naturally. A repair and a new design do not, because the second one starts with paperwork rather than a shovel.
Which of these needs paperwork before you start?
Anything that replaces the septic tank, replaces the distribution field, or moves you from gravity distribution to pressure distribution. Smaller repairs do not.
How do I know which one of these I need?
Tell us the symptom rather than the solution. Slow drains, a wet patch, a house sale or a building plan each point at a different one of the five, and we will tell you which one you are looking at on the phone.
Ready for a quote on septic in Campbell River?
We quote for free, and we reply within 24 hours.