Septic & excavation questions for Strasburg & eastern Colorado.

Regulation 43 (5 CCR 1002-43) is Colorado’s statewide rule for on-site wastewater treatment systems (OWTS), the legal name for septic systems. It sets the minimum standards for siting, soil evaluation, design, installation, repair and maintenance of systems up to 2,000 gallons per day.

The state sets the floor; county and district public health agencies adopt their own septic regulations on top of it and issue the actual permits. So your permit, inspections and any local extras come from your county’s health department, not from the state.

Your county health department: the Adams County Health Department for parcels in Adams County, and Arapahoe County Public Health for parcels in Arapahoe County. Tri-County Health Department used to cover both counties but no longer does.

Strasburg and Bennett both straddle the Adams–Arapahoe line, so check your parcel with the county assessor before you apply. Byers is entirely in Arapahoe County.

Elbert County properties are permitted by Elbert County’s own public health agency, under Regulation 43 and Elbert County’s septic regulations.

Rules, fees and inspection steps differ from Adams and Arapahoe counties, so call the Elbert County health department before planning a new system or a repair there.

Yes, in most cases. The Adams County Health Department runs a use-permit program for septic systems, and the sale of a property is one of the events that triggers it, along with changing a home’s use, remodeling to add a bedroom and connecting a modular or mobile home.

The system is inspected by a trained, certified inspector, and deficiencies found in the inspection must be repaired before the department issues the use permit. In Arapahoe or Elbert County, ask that county’s health department what applies at sale; the rules are not identical county to county.

Replacing a system, or repairing the tank or the drain field, generally needs a permit from the county health department before work starts.

Call the health department first and describe the problem. They’ll tell you what needs a permit, whether a new soil evaluation and design are required, and which inspections happen before anything is covered. Work done without a required permit can come back to haunt a sale later.

A septic system is designed from a site and soil evaluation of your lot, by a qualified designer. Depending on the system type and the county’s rules, that designer is often a Colorado-licensed professional engineer.

The design sets the tank size, the type and size of the soil treatment area (drain field), and where everything goes. The excavation contractor builds to that design and the county permit, never the other way around.

A soil profile test pit is an excavated hole where a trained technician looks at and feels the soil layers to decide what kind of septic system the ground can handle. Regulation 43 requires at least two of them for a new system.

The pits go down to any limiting layer or 4 feet below where the system’s infiltrative surface will be, whichever comes first, and at least one goes where conditions are expected to be the most limiting. The technician reads soil texture, structure and any signs of seasonal water to set the soil type and the long-term acceptance rate the design is sized on.

No. Under current Regulation 43, the required evaluation is the soil profile test pits; a percolation test is optional extra information.

If a perc test is done and its result disagrees with the test-pit evaluation, the designer has to use the more restrictive of the two when sizing the drain field.

A limiting layer is anything under the ground that stops wastewater from being treated properly as it soaks down: groundwater (including seasonal high water), bedrock, or a very tight or very coarse soil layer.

The system has to keep a required amount of treatment soil between the bottom of the drain field and that layer. Where it’s shallow, the design changes, for example a shallower or raised soil treatment area or a higher level of treatment.

Excavating for the tank, trenching the sewer line from the house, excavating the soil treatment area, then backfilling and grading, all to the depths, locations and setbacks in the permitted design.

The county inspects at set points, typically before work is covered, so the job is scheduled around those inspections. Jones EarthWorks does sewer-line trenching and excavation for septic projects; call (720) 277-9760 to talk through what yours needs.

No. Vehicles, equipment and structures compact the soil and can crush pipes, and a compacted drain field stops treating wastewater. Keep driveways, parking, pads, sheds and livestock pens off the tank and the soil treatment area.

When we plan a new driveway, pad or building on a septic property, we locate the system first and grade around it.

Test pits are dug with an excavator, and digging is our trade. Ask us about excavating test pits for your soil technician or designer.

For safety, nobody should climb into a pit deeper than about 5 feet unless it’s properly sloped, benched or shored. The technician can usually read the profile from a safe, sloped side of the pit.

Expansive clay soils swell when they get wet and shrink when they dry out. They are common along Colorado’s Front Range, including the plains east of Denver and Aurora, though soils change from lot to lot.

The swelling can push up slabs, sidewalks and driveways and crack foundations over time. Water is what sets it off, which is why drainage and grading matter so much here.

Keep water away from it. Grade the ground so it falls away from the house, extend downspouts well out, keep sprinklers and planting beds that need heavy watering away from the foundation, and never let water pond against the walls.

For new construction, the builder’s soils report and the engineer’s foundation design are the starting point. We build the pad and the final grade to support that design.

The common code rule is a fall of at least 6 inches within the first 10 feet away from the foundation.

Where a lot line, a neighbor or a driveway makes that impossible, swales and drains can carry the water around the house instead. Settled backfill along a foundation is a common reason an older home’s grade now slopes toward the house.

The Denver–Aurora area commonly uses 36 inches; Front Range jurisdictions generally fall between 30 and 36 inches.

The building department that covers your address sets the number for your footings, so confirm it there before you dig.

Below the frost line, so it never freezes, and to whatever depth your plumber, water provider or inspector requires, which is often deeper than footing depth.

Lines to yard hydrants, stock tanks and outbuildings on the plains face hard, dry freezes and wind that strips snow cover, so we dig to the required depth and backfill without rocks against the pipe.

A French drain is a gravel-filled trench, usually with a perforated pipe, that collects water from the ground and carries it to a place where it can leave the lot.

It’s the right fix for soggy spots, water moving through the ground toward a foundation, or a low area with nowhere to go. It is not a substitute for grading: if the ground slopes toward the house, fix the slope first.

It can be, as long as the dirt under the rock slopes away from the house. Rock beds and splash areas are good at stopping erosion under downspouts and along walls.

Rock laid on ground that slopes toward the house just hides the problem. We set the grade first, then the rock.

Shape and drainage. A gravel driveway lasts when it has a solid base, a crown so water runs off to the sides, ditches or swales to carry that water away, and culverts where it crosses a drainage.

Surface gravel only works on top of that. Without the shape, new gravel gets pushed aside, rutted and washed out.

Ruts usually mean a soft or thin base and water sitting in the driveway; washboard usually means loose surface gravel and a driveway that has lost its crown.

Dragging it smooth helps for a while. Lasting repair means cutting out the bad spots, rebuilding the base where it failed, restoring the crown and adding the right surface material.

Usually a compactable road base underneath, such as the aggregate base course sold in Colorado as Class 6, with a surface gravel on top.

The right mix depends on traffic, soil and what you want it to look like. We’ll talk through options before ordering material.

Strip the topsoil, build the pad with suitable fill placed and compacted in layers, set it higher than the surrounding ground so water drains away, and finish with gravel or the base your slab or builder calls for.

The plans or the engineer set the pad’s size and elevation. A pad built on loose fill or topsoil settles, and a pad that sits low collects water around the building for its whole life.

If your driveway crosses the ditch along the road, almost always. A culvert lets the ditch keep flowing instead of backing up behind the driveway or washing it out.

Driveway access onto a county road usually needs county approval, and the county may specify the culvert size and type. Check with Adams or Arapahoe County public works (or your town) before the culvert goes in.

Near, yes; over, no. Keep driveways, pads and parking off the tank and the drain field, and respect the setbacks in your county’s septic rules.

Before we grade a new driveway or pad on a septic property, we find out where the tank and drain field are.

Yes. Colorado law requires anyone digging, homeowners included, to contact Colorado 811 before excavating. Colorado 811’s current guidance is to call or submit a request online at least three business days before you dig.

The service is free. Utilities mark their lines with paint or flags, and the marks are generally good for about 30 days. When we dig, we call in the locate.

No. Utilities mark the lines they own. Lines you own, like power or water you ran to a barn, a shop or a well, sprinkler lines and many septic lines, are usually not marked.

Tell us about every private line you know of, and consider a private locating service on a property with a lot of them.

Not unless it is protected. Trench walls can collapse without warning, and a cubic yard of soil weighs about as much as a car. Federal safety rules require a protective system, such as sloping, shoring or a trench box, for trenches 5 feet deep or more unless they are in stable rock.

Keep kids, pets and onlookers back from open trenches, and keep spoil piles at least 2 feet back from the edge.

No. Never enter a septic tank or lean into an open one. Septic gases, including hydrogen sulfide and methane, and the lack of oxygen can kill within minutes, and they have killed people trying to rescue someone else.

Keep tank lids secured, and keep children and pets away from any open tank.

Stop using water right away, keep people and pets out of the area, and call for help. Sewage is a health hazard.

Don’t try to clean up a large backup without protection, and don’t dig at the tank or sewer line yourself. A septic pumper or plumber can tell you whether the tank is full or the line is blocked.

Leave the area or the building right away, don’t start or shut off engines or anything that could spark, and call 911 and the gas utility from a safe distance.

Don’t try to stop the leak or cover the line. Let the utility make it safe.

The main factors are access to the site, how much material is moved, the soil (clay, rock or groundwater), trench length and depth, material brought in or hauled off, utilities in the way, permit requirements and how much restoration the site needs afterward.

That’s why we look at the site before quoting. Two jobs that sound the same on the phone can be very different on the ground.

We can talk through the job and what affects it, but a real price comes after we’ve seen the site.

Send photos, the address and what you’re building, and we’ll set up a time to look. Call (720) 277-9760, use the request form on this site, or use our Jobber request form.

Colorado doesn’t issue a statewide general contractor or excavation license; cities and counties handle contractor licensing for their own permits. Check that the company is a registered business with the Colorado Secretary of State, ask for a certificate of insurance, and ask for photos of similar work.

Plumbing and electrical connections are licensed by the state’s plumbing and electrical boards, so those trades make the final hookups. For septic work, ask the county health department whether installers must be licensed or registered with them.

Both. In our own words: “we specialize in both residential and small commercial excavation and sitework projects.”

That includes homeowners, acreage owners, builders and light commercial sites around Strasburg, Bennett, Byers and eastern Aurora.

“We focus on fast turnaround times while maintaining quality and safety to complete your project efficiently.”

Timing depends on the size of the job, locates, permits and weather; we’ll give you a realistic schedule when we quote.

Call (720) 277-9760 (Monday–Friday, 7 AM–5 PM), use the request form on our contact page, or use our Jobber request form.

Existing customers can log in to the Jobber client hub to see quotes and invoices.

In our words: “We are committed to honest communication, quality workmanship, and serving our customers with integrity while keeping our faith at the foundation of how we do business.”

In practice that means straight answers, fair dealing and work we’re glad to put our name on.