Fowler's Septic Tanks (850) 682-5233
An open drain field trench lined with washed gravel and a length of perforated pipe

Septic tanks, from the trench up

Septic tank pumping, installation and repair, based in Crestview, Florida. If the drains are slow or the yard is wet, call.

Call (850) 682-5233

5363 Fairchild Rd, Crestview, FL 32539

Out past the sewer line

A lot of homes up here sit on a tank and a drain field, not a city main. Nobody thinks about it until a toilet gurgles or the bathtub drains slow.

When that happens you want someone who digs, pumps and fixes septic systems, and who answers the phone.

A small white house with a low roof among trees and dry grass
A house set back from the road usually means a tank somewhere in the yard.
Tall pines over saw palmetto in a sunlit Florida woodland
Pine and palmetto country. Roots like these find a drain line faster than you would think.
A worker standing in an excavated hole beside a round concrete chamber
A straight sand road running through tall pine woods

Pumping before it reaches the house

Solids settle in the tank and build up over time. Pumped on a schedule, the tank keeps them out of the drain field.

Left too long, they go where they should not. That is when a pumping job turns into a repair job.

New tanks and new systems

Building out in the county, or replacing a tank that has given up? An installation is excavation, a tank set level, lines run and the field laid out.

Call early in the planning. The ground decides a lot about where things go.

An excavator digging into a deep cut of brown soil
An excavator bucket lowering earth beside a concrete chamber in a hole
A worker kneeling inside a concrete ring set into the ground
Concrete sections are heavy, so the hole and the machine have to be right before anything is lowered.
A pipe end sitting in a muddy, water-filled cut in the ground
An excavator working at the top of a dirt slope

Repair when something has failed

Cracked lids, broken baffles, crushed or root-filled lines. Most septic trouble shows up as a smell, a soggy patch or a drain that will not keep up.

Describe what you are seeing on the phone. It helps decide what to bring.

The drain field does the quiet work

Water leaves the tank and spreads through gravel trenches into the soil. You never see it, which is the point.

Two long parallel trenches dug in tan soil with gravel along the bottom
Trenches open, gravel down, before the pipe goes in.
Aerial view of a machine cutting a long trench through sandy ground
A long straight cut through sandy ground.
Concrete pipe sections lined up along a road edge
Pipe and fittings laid out before the dig starts.
A dozer blade pushing dark soil across a cleared lot
Backfill and grade, so rain runs off and not in.
A wheel loader carrying a bucket of orange sand
Sand and fill moved in by the bucket.

Signs the field is struggling

  • Standing water or spongy ground over the field when it has not rained.
  • Grass that grows in bright green stripes over the lines.
  • A sewage smell in the yard, strongest near the tank.
  • Drains and toilets slowing down across the whole house.

Keep it working longer

  • Keep trucks, trailers and parked cars off the drain field.
  • Plant trees well away from the tank and lines.
  • Wipes, grease and cooking oil do not break down in a tank.
  • Spread out laundry loads instead of running them all in one day.
A grassy sand track leading into longleaf pine woods
A small cabin with a metal roof at the edge of a grass field and trees

Before you call

A few things make the first conversation quicker.

  1. Where the tank is, if you know. A sketch from closing papers or an old receipt helps.
  2. When it was last pumped, even roughly.
  3. What you are seeing: slow drains, gurgling, smell, wet ground, or water backing up.
  4. The property address and the best way to get a truck to the back of the lot.

Machines, dirt and pine woods

Septic work is mostly digging. These photographs show the kind of ground and equipment involved; they are not of a specific job.

A yellow excavator on a sandy rise at sunrise
Early starts beat the afternoon heat.
An excavator loading an articulated dump truck beside pines
Spoil hauled off or kept for backfill.
A wheel loader parked on churned ground near a field
A dozer clearing ground along a tree line
Large concrete pipe sections stacked by a road at sunset
Tall thin pines against a clear blue sky
Sandy soil and tall pines, the usual setting for a rural system.
A two-track dirt lane through sunlit pine and oak woods

Call about your septic system

(850) 682-5233
Address
5363 Fairchild Rd
Crestview, FL 32539
Open in Google Maps
Fax
(850) 682-9679

Or leave a message

Call (850) 682-5233