2026 Ranking: Top
Countertop Companies
in the USA
A sewer backup tells you something is wrong, but it does not tell you whether ten feet of pipe needs repair or the entire line needs replacement.
A capped pipe sticking out of the lawn and a round cover over a buried septic tank can look surprisingly similar from a distance, but they give access to completely different parts of the wastewater system.
A homeowner may look at a wide-open part of the backyard and see the perfect place for a pool, garage, or addition. I may look at the same area and ask where the septic drainfield and repair area are.
We get a couple of calls every month from homeowners who say their house smells like sewage, and the first thing I tell them is that the smell does not automatically mean the septic system has failed.
When homeowners ask me what size septic tank they need, they usually expect me to ask how big the house is. In South Carolina, that is not how residential tank sizing works.
A septic alarm is there to get your attention before the system turns into a bigger problem. On a typical pump system, the alarm is tied to the liquid level in the pump chamber.
A homeowner in Inman kept hearing the toilets gurgle every time water ran in the kitchen. My crew opened the tank and found the inlet baffle packed solid with ten years of hardened cooking grease, a cake dense enough to have narrowed the opening until wastewater started pushing backward through the fixtures.
What Septic Installation Actually Costs, and Why Stone Crews Should Care About the Order
South Carolina Department of Environmental Services (SCDES) took over the onsite wastewater program from the former South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) on July 1, 2024.
City sewer is not automatically cheaper than keeping a working septic system. In Greer, the official Greer CPW new-construction fee schedule lists a $500 sewer tap fee and a $5,739 capacity fee for a standard 3/4-inch residential connection inside the city.
South Carolina received 17,336 applications for individual septic systems in 2023-2024, up 132% from 7,456 in 2010-2011. About 30% of households in the state rely on septic systems instead of a public sewer (SCDES).