A new tank is a permitted job, not a swap. The size comes off the number of bedrooms, the location comes off setbacks from the well, the property line and the structure, and the whole thing has to be signed off before it is covered.
When to call
A lot of the 1980s-era tracts used materials that looked fine at the time and have not aged the way anyone hoped.
These are the symptoms that usually prompt the call. Any one of them is worth a conversation, and most of them get cheaper to deal with the earlier they are looked at.
Building on a parcel with no sewer connection
A tank that has cracked or collapsed past repair
An addition that pushes the system past its rated capacity
A cesspool or a steel tank that has reached the end
A failed inspection on a sale
Plumbing problems do not improve on their own. What they do is get slowly more expensive while the damage spreads into whatever is around them.
Once we know what we are looking at, you get the options in plain language and the quote before anything starts.
Work out what the property needs
Bedroom count sets the minimum tank size and the field sizing. Soil and slope decide what is actually workable on the parcel.
Pull the permit
San Bernardino and Riverside counties both want the system permitted and inspected. We handle that rather than leaving it with you.
Set the tank on prepared bedding
A tank set on uneven fill cracks. The excavation and the base matter as much as the tank does.
Tie in the building sewer and the field
Inlet, outlet, baffles and the line out to the distribution box, all at the right fall.
Inspection, then backfill
It gets looked at before it gets covered. Anything covered early tends to get uncovered again.
The number you approve is the work we do. If something changes once we are into it, we stop and talk to you first.
The part of a tank installation that causes trouble later is almost never the tank. It is access. A system installed with the lids buried under a foot of soil is a system nobody inspects, because every look at it starts with digging. Fitting risers to grade at installation costs very little at the time and changes the maintenance economics of the property for the next thirty years. We fit them as a matter of course and would argue with anyone who wanted to save the money.
Cable machines handle obstructions, jetters handle buildup, and cameras tell us which one the line in front of us actually needs.
We are based in Yucaipa and work outward across San Bernardino County, Riverside County and the eastern edge of Los Angeles County. If you are outside the usual radius, call and ask. We cover more ground than most shops our size.
Once we know what we are looking at, you get the options in plain language and the quote before anything starts.
Plumbing problems do not improve on their own. What they do is get slowly more expensive while the damage spreads into whatever is around them.
Look behind and under appliances once in a while. Washing machine hoses, dishwasher connections and ice-maker lines are common leak sources and they are all hidden from normal view.
Exercise your shutoff valves once a year. A quarter turn and back keeps them from seizing, and a main shutoff that will not turn during an emergency is a much more expensive problem than one that gets used occasionally.
For commercial property, a maintenance schedule on drains and interceptors costs a fraction of emergency response, and it is the difference between planned work and a closure.
Knowing your own system is worth real money. Where the main shutoff is, where the sewer cleanout is, how old the water heater is, and whether the property is on sewer or septic. Those four facts shorten every future service call you will ever have.
Urgent calls get triaged on the phone. Sometimes the most valuable thing we do is tell you what to do in the next two minutes.
Family-run since 1982, veteran-founded, and still working out of Yucaipa. Almost nothing about how this shop operates has changed, which is the point.
We are set up so that a job involving the house, the tank and the ground between them is handled by one company under one set of licenses.
We are licensed for plumbing, for sanitation and septic systems, and as a general engineering contractor, so one shop can take the whole job.
Big Mike's · Yucaipa, California
If yours is not here, call and ask. We would rather talk it through than have you guess.
It comes off bedroom count rather than square footage. Most single-family houses here land on 1,200 to 1,500 gallons, and the county sets the minimum.
Yes, in both counties we work. It is permitted, inspected before backfill, and recorded. Installing without one causes real problems at sale.
Concrete is the default here and it handles our soil and traffic loads well. Plastic has a place on tight access where a truck cannot reach.
The tank itself is usually a day or two. The permit and inspection schedule is what sets the real timeline, and we will be straight with you about it up front.
Often yes, if the field still percolates. We test that first, because a new tank feeding a dead field solves nothing.
We stand behind what we do. If something we repaired is not right, call us and we will come back and deal with it.
Yes, and it is usually worth doing. A second issue looked at during a visit you are already paying for costs far less than a separate call.
We run a 24-hour line and same-day service is normal. When you call we will give you a realistic window rather than an optimistic one that slips.
Yes. Residential, commercial and industrial, including offices, apartment complexes, hotels, restaurants and plant systems.
Properties on septic in this area range from carefully documented systems to ones nobody has looked at in thirty years. If records exist, county files usually have the original permit with tank size and location. If they do not, locating the components is straightforward work and worth doing before there is a problem rather than during one.
If you have used chemical drain products, tell us. It changes how we open the line and it matters for the technician's safety.
The service area reflects where our customers actually are. It has widened steadily since 1982 and it keeps widening for the same reason it always has.
Routine pump-outs and full tanks.
New and replacement drain fields.
Failed lids, baffles and inlet lines.
Trenching and digging for underground work.
Sewage, effluent and sump pumps.
Restoring a field that is surfacing or slow.
Tell us what it is doing and we will tell you what it takes to fix it. Plain language, no sales pitch, and the number before we start.
Yucaipa, California · Serving San Bernardino, Riverside and eastern Los Angeles counties · Open 24 hours