Septic inspections for home buyers and sellers around Fort Smith

Outside the sewer lines in Sebastian and Crawford County, a house's septic system is one of the most expensive things that can be wrong with it, and one of the hardest to see. A drain field that's failing can look fine in a dry October and be soggy by March. A septic inspection is how a buyer finds out before closing, and how a seller avoids a surprise in the middle of a deal.

Is an inspection required in Arkansas?

Not by the state's septic rules. The Arkansas Department of Health's Rules Pertaining to Onsite Wastewater Systems (effective September 5, 2024) cover permits, design, installation and monitoring, and we found no section that requires an inspection when a house is sold. In practice the push comes from the deal: buyers' agents often recommend one, and some lenders ask for it. Check with your agent and lender early so it doesn't hold up closing.

What a real inspection covers

A quick look at the yard isn't an inspection. A useful one usually includes:

1. Finding the tank and opening it. Lids get uncovered. If they're buried, digging is part of the job.
2. Checking the liquid level before pumping. A tank sitting above its outlet can mean the drain field isn't taking water. That reading is lost once the tank is pumped, so it should be noted first.
3. Pumping and looking inside. With the tank empty, the inspector can see cracks, root intrusion and the condition of the inlet and outlet baffles, and clean the effluent filter if there is one. See septic tank pumping for what the pumper does.
4. Checking the drain field. Walking the field for wet spots, smell or lush stripes, and often probing the soil over the lines. Some inspectors run water through the system to see how the field handles it.
5. Pumps, floats and alarms. On systems with a pump tank, testing that the pump runs, the floats switch and the alarm sounds.
6. A written report with what was found, the date, and photos.

Aerobic systems: ask for the monitoring records

Many homes around Fort Smith have aerobic treatment units because the clay failed the test for a standard field. Under Section 12 of the ADH rule, owners of alternative systems must keep a monitoring contract with an ADH-registered monitoring person for the life of the system, homeowners can't monitor their own, and the system must be assessed at least once every six months, with reports going to the homeowner, the local health unit and the department. So for an aerobic system, ask the seller for:

• the current monitoring contract and who holds it,
• the last several six-month assessment reports, and
• any repair or service invoices for the aerator, chlorinator, spray pump and heads.

A gap in the reports, or no contract at all, is worth knowing about before you buy, because the new owner takes on that contract.

Pull the permit file

Systems installed under ADH permits have a paper trail. When a system passes its final inspection, the county health unit issues the Permit for Operation (rule 4.10.3) and keeps the original. Ask the Sebastian or Crawford County health unit for the file on the property: it can show the tank size, the type of system, where the field was laid out, and the year it went in. ADH sizes tanks by bedrooms (at least 1,000 gallons for up to three, plus 250 for each bedroom beyond that), so compare the tank on file with the house. A four-bedroom house on a 1,000-gallon tank is a red flag, often a sign of an addition the system wasn't sized for. Very old systems may have no record at all, which is itself a reason to inspect carefully.

For sellers

• Have the tank pumped and inspected before listing, and keep the receipt and report for buyers.
• Gather the permit, the monitoring contract (for aerobic systems) and repair records.
• If something's wrong, a repair quote in hand is better than a buyer's guess. Common fixes like baffles, pumps and floats are covered under septic repair.

Not sure when the tank was last pumped? The septic pumping calculator gives a rough interval for the tank size and household. Need an inspection or pump-out before closing? Call and we'll connect you with a licensed local septic pro.