- Leaks don't stand a chance.
Septic Pump-Out in Gainesville, FL
We are not the pump truck. We tell you whether you actually need one.
Rather text? Send a photo of the problem to 352-377-9447 and we’ll tell you what it sounds like.
Licensed Florida Plumbing Contractor CFC1430748
Locally owned. $69 to come out and look, waived on larger jobs. Part of our Septic Services in Gainesville, FL
Typical pumping interval for a Florida household tank
3 to
5
years
Required service on an aerobic (ATU) system in Florida
2
visits a year
To come out, look, and tell you what you actually need
$
69
A septic pump-out in Alachua County is the scheduled removal of built-up solids and liquid from a septic tank by a permitted hauler, usually every three to five years. First Choice Plumbing does not pump tanks. We diagnose whether a pump-out is what you actually need, locate and uncover the tank, coordinate a permitted hauler, and handle any plumbing repair the pump-out uncovers.
- FL Certified Contractor CFC1430748
- We Diagnose Before You Pump
- Permitted Hauler Coordinated
- $69 To Come Look
- Leaks don't stand a chance.
- Scope, honestly
Does First Choice Plumbing pump septic tanks?
No, and we would rather say that in the first thirty seconds than waste your afternoon. Pumping a tank and hauling what comes out of it is its own license and its own truck. We are a plumbing shop.
We handle:
- Figuring out whether a pump-out is even the right call.
- Finding and uncovering the tank and the lid.
- Clearing the line between the house and the tank.
- Pulling and cleaning a plugged effluent filter.
- Running a camera to see what is actually happening in the pipe.
- Scheduling the hauler and being on site when the lid comes off, and every repair the open tank turns up.
We hand off: the pumping itself, to a permitted hauler we work with regularly. We schedule it, we make sure the lid is open and accessible so nobody is billing you to dig, and the hauler’s charge is passed through to you at cost with the receipt in your hands.
We also do not do septic tank removal. If a tank has to come all the way out of the ground, that is heavy excavation, and we will point you to the right outfit instead of pretending it is our work.
- Straight talk about cost
How much does a septic pump-out cost in Gainesville?
We do not set that price, the hauler does, so here is the honest version. Around here a routine residential pump-out on a 1,000 gallon tank with an accessible lid generally lands somewhere in the three hundreds to mid four hundreds. Anybody who quotes you firm over the phone without asking about tank size and access is guessing.
Four things move that number.
Tank size. A 900 gallon tank and a 1,500 gallon tank are different loads and different disposal fees.
How much is in it. Twelve years of solids is a different day than a three year service pump.
Access. A lid at grade in an open side yard is easy. A lid under two feet of sod, behind a gate a truck cannot reach, or forty feet off the driveway is not.
Whether anybody knows where the tank is. Digging to find it is billable time on somebody’s clock.
Our part is the $69 to come out, look, and tell you what you are dealing with, and that comes off the total on larger jobs. If the visit turns into a real repair and financing makes sense, we run it through Wisetack starting around $500. Plumbing financing
- $69 to come out
- Our part is the $69 to come out, look, and tell you what you are dealing with, and that comes off the total on larger jobs.
- Hauler charge passed through at cost
- We do not set that price, the hauler does. The receipt goes in your hands.
- Meet the owner
Who is actually showing up at your house?
Will Harrod holds the license, CFC1430748, and he still runs the estimates himself. Kim answers the phone and does the dispatching, which is why you get a person instead of a call center. It is a locally owned shop on purpose.
Will’s rule on septic is the same as his rule on everything else. If the job belongs to another trade, or if you do not need the thing you called about, he says so standing in your yard instead of writing a ticket. Turning down a pump-out he cannot even perform is easy. Turning down work he could have sold you is the part that built the business.
- Will Harrod, owner. Holds the license, CFC1430748, and still runs the estimates himself.
- Kim answers the phone and does the dispatching.
- A locally owned shop on purpose. You get a person instead of a call center.
- Do you actually need one?
How do I know if my septic tank needs pumping?
Four different problems all look the same from inside your house. Slow drains, gurgling, a smell, water backing up in the lowest fixture. Here is how they sort out.
We tell you which of the four you have before anybody spends money. If it is number one, we set up the truck. If it is not, you just saved yourself a pump-out.
1. The tank really is full.
Everything in the house is slow at once, it has been more than three to five years since the last pump-out, and it gets worse after laundry day or a house full of company. This one is a pump-out, and putting it off is how a drain field dies.
2. The line between the house and the tank is clogged.
One side of the house drains fine and the other does not, or everything went bad suddenly with no warning. Pumping the tank does absolutely nothing for this. The fix is clearing the line, and a camera tells you in ten minutes which one you have.
3. The effluent filter is plugged.
If your tank has a filter on the outlet side, and most systems installed in the last twenty five years do, it eventually packs solid. Symptoms look exactly like a full tank. The fix is pulling the filter and rinsing it, which takes about fifteen minutes and no truck at all.
4. The drain field has quit.
Soggy or unusually green grass over the field, standing water, a tank that fills right back up within days of being pumped. This is the expensive one, and it is the one where a pump-out feels like a fix for about a week. Pumping a failed field just resets the clock.
- Habits that buy you years
What can you do to stretch the time between pump-outs?
Skip the additives.
The bottle of bacteria at the hardware store does not dissolve the solids at the bottom of your tank. Nothing in a jug replaces a pump-out.
Nothing goes down but what your body made and toilet paper.
Wipes are the number one thing we pull out of lines, and “flushable” on the package is marketing, not chemistry.
Spread out the water.
Four loads of laundry in one morning pushes solids toward the outlet. Spread them across the week.
Keep vehicles and heavy equipment off the tank and the field.
Compacted soil and cracked lids are both avoidable.
Write down the date.
Tape the receipt inside a cabinet door. In four years you will be glad you know.
None of this is a sales pitch. It is just what works.
- Start to finish
What does scheduling a pump-out with us look like?
Tell us what the house is doing.
Slow everywhere or slow in one spot? Any smell? Any wet ground out back? Do you know where the tank is and when it was last opened? If nobody knows where it is, we can find it. Septic locating
We come look for $69 and give you a straight answer.
We check the fixtures, open the lid if it is accessible, look at the level and the filter, and camera the line if the symptoms point that way. You get told which of the four problems you have, in plain words, before anything gets scheduled.
If it is a pump-out, we set it up and we are there.
We schedule the hauler, make sure the lid is uncovered so you are not paying somebody to dig on the clock, and stand there while the tank comes down so we can see the baffles, the filter and the inlet. You get the hauler’s receipt and a written note of what we saw.
$69 to come out and look, waived on larger jobs. No guessing, no truck rolled before we know what is wrong.
- Compare
The Difference Is in the Details
Ask us what it is before you pay to have it emptied. That call is free.
| What Matters | First Choice Plumbing | Typical Installer / Big-Name Brand |
|---|---|---|
| Who profits from the answer | We do not pump, so we gain nothing by telling you to pump | Paid by the pump, and the diagnosis is free |
| Diagnosis before the truck | Fixtures checked, lid opened, filter checked, camera in the line if it points that way | Hose in the tank, invoice on the door |
| Finding a buried lid | We locate and uncover it before the truck arrives | Located and dug on the clock, added to the ticket |
| The effluent filter | Pulled, cleaned and checked. Sometimes that is the whole repair | Rarely mentioned, and never as an alternative to pumping |
| When pumping does not fix it | We are a plumbing shop, so we can actually repair the line, the baffle or the field | Referred back out, and you start over with a new company |
| Paperwork you keep | Hauler receipt plus a written note of what we saw in the tank | A paid invoice with a date on it |
| Pricing | $69 to come look, hauler charge passed through at cost, repairs quoted flat | Quoted by phone, adjusted once the lid is off |
| Straight answers | We will tell you when you do not need a pump-out at all | Every call ends in a pump |
- How often
How often should a septic tank be pumped in Florida?
Three to five years for most houses. That is the general guidance in Florida and it holds up well around here. The number moves for three reasons, and none of them are complicated.
How many people live there. Two people on a 1,250 gallon tank can usually stretch toward five years. Five people on the 1,050 gallon minimum are closer to every two or three.
What goes down the drain. A garbage disposal, heavy laundry, or a house that runs like a bed and breakfast fills a tank faster than the calendar says it should.
What kind of system you have. If you have an aerobic system, one with a control panel, an alarm and an air pump, Florida is stricter about it. Those require an active maintenance agreement for the life of the unit and service visits at least twice a year. That is a rule, not a suggestion.
If you have owned the place for years and have no idea when it was last done, assume you are due. If you just bought the house, get it pumped and inspected once so you have a starting point and a date to count from. Septic inspection
- Part of a bigger job
When is a pump-out part of a bigger job?
Three times, and in all three we are the ones running the job around it.
Abandonment. When you tie into city sewer, Florida requires the old tank to be pumped by a permitted hauler before it can be opened, collapsed and filled. The receipt is part of the record. Septic abandonment
Replacement. An old tank has to come down before it can be taken out of service and a new one set. That pump-out is scheduled inside the install. Septic tank install and replacement
A real inspection. You cannot judge baffles, walls or an outlet tee through six feet of liquid. A meaningful look inside the tank happens right after it is pumped, which is why we schedule the two together. Septic inspection
Not sure which one you are in yet? Start with how the whole septic side of our shop works.
- What a pump-out will not fix
What happens if you keep pumping instead of fixing it?
Three things go wrong when a pump-out gets used as a repair.
The first is the money. If the tank fills back up in two months, you did not have a full tank, you have a drain field that is not accepting water or a line that is broken. Pumping it again is a few hundred dollars every time, and it buys you weeks.
The second is the field itself. Skipping pump-outs for a decade pushes solids out of the tank and into the drain field, where they plug the soil for good. A tank is a few hundred dollars to empty. A field is a permit, a machine, and a whole different number. Drain field install and replacement
The third is the one nobody thinks about until closing. Buyers, lenders and inspectors ask for a pumping record and a working system. If there is no history and no receipt, you are fixing it on somebody else’s timeline with a price you did not negotiate.
- FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Pumping and hauling is a separate license and a separate truck. We diagnose the problem, uncover and open the tank, schedule a permitted hauler we work with, and handle any plumbing repair the pump-out turns up.
Every three to five years for most households. Smaller households on a larger tank can stretch toward five, and five or more people on a minimum size tank are closer to every two or three. Aerobic systems are different and require service at least twice a year under an active maintenance agreement.
Slow drains everywhere in the house at once, gurgling, odor near the tank, or backups that get worse after heavy water use. If only part of the house is slow, or it went bad suddenly, that usually points to a clogged line rather than a full tank. We check before anybody schedules a truck.
Only if the tank being full is what caused it. If the line between the house and the tank is clogged, or the effluent filter is packed, or the drain field has quit, pumping buys you days at most. That is why we look first.
No. Routine pumping does not require a permit. The hauler has to be permitted to transport and dispose of what comes out, which is exactly why it goes to a licensed hauler instead of somebody with a trailer tank. Permits come into it when you abandon, repair or replace a system.
Usually thirty to sixty minutes once the lid is open and the truck is on site. The part that stretches a job is finding and uncovering a buried lid, which is why we handle that ahead of time.
It is usually worth it. Buyers, lenders and inspectors ask about the system, and a recent pump receipt plus a written note on the condition of the tank answers the question before it becomes a negotiation. Get it pumped and looked at together so you are not paying twice.
Not for the thing people buy them for. Additives do not remove the layer of solids at the bottom of the tank, and that layer is the reason a tank gets pumped. Save the money and put it toward the pump-out.
Licensed CFC1430748
Florida certified plumbing contractor. Will holds the license and runs the estimates himself.
We Diagnose Before You Pump
Fixtures checked, lid opened, filter checked, camera in the line if it points that way.
Permitted Hauler Coordinated
We schedule it, make sure the lid is open, and pass the hauler's charge through at cost with the receipt in your hands.
$69 To Come Look
To come out, look, and tell you what you actually need. Waived on larger jobs.
- Where we work
Where do you handle septic work?
We are based in Hawthorne and we run Gainesville and Greater Alachua County every day. For septic that means Gainesville, Hawthorne, Melrose, Micanopy, Waldo, Windsor, Archer, Newberry, Jonesville, Alachua, High Springs and Williston, plus the stretches in between where the county line is a dirt road and everybody is on a well and a tank.
If you are out east or south of town, you are exactly who this page is for. That is where the tanks are, that is where the lids get lost under twenty years of sod, and that is where a shop that already drives past your road every day is worth more than a company that treats your address as a trip charge. Contact us
Don’t see your town? We likely still come out — call 352-377-9447
- Let's talk
Find out what you actually need before you pay to empty it.
$69 to come out and look. If it is a pump-out, we schedule the hauler and stand there while the lid comes off. If it is not, we will tell you that too, and then we will fix the thing that is really wrong. Book online
Leaks don’t stand a chance.
- Leaks don't stand a chance.
Tell us what's going on and we'll take it from there
You get a real person, a $69 visit, a flat price before we start, and a company that patches what it cuts and answers the phone when you call back. If a smaller fix is the right call, we’ll tell you that too.
First Choice Plumbing is a locally owned, owner led plumbing company working Gainesville, Hawthorne and Greater Alachua County. Leak detection, repipes, water heaters, drains, trenchless lining, well water filtration and septic. We find it, we fix it, we guarantee it.
Florida Certified Plumbing Contractor CFC1430748
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First Choice Plumbing
6940 SE 221st St
Hawthorne, FL 32640 - Office Mon to Fri, 8 to 5. Emergency line 24/7.
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