Dallas is the closest town to our door.
The old county seat, a courthouse square that has been there since the 1840s, and a ring of rural property around it where every house has a tank in the yard.
The oldest square in the county, and the systems to match
Dallas was the Gaston County seat before Gastonia was, and the old courthouse still sits in the middle of the square. The housing around it runs from genuinely historic through to postwar, and out past the town limits it turns into acreage.
Age is the recurring theme for septic work here. A tank installed for a four room house in 1960 is sized for a four room house in 1960, and a couple of additions and a modern laundry later it is being asked to do something it was never built for. That shows up as a tank that needs pumping more often than the neighbors, which people usually read as bad luck rather than as information.
Dallas is a six minute drive from our office in High Shoals, which is close enough that coming back to look at something is not a scheduling problem.
Concrete tanks, steel tanks and which one you have
Most tanks around here are concrete and they last a long time. Older properties sometimes turn up a steel tank, and steel tanks have a finite life because they rust from the inside out. A steel tank that has thinned to the point of failure is a genuine safety issue, not just a plumbing one, because the lid is what somebody is standing on.
You find out which you have by opening it, which is one of the incidental benefits of a pump out. It is also the moment to look at the baffles, because a missing inlet or outlet baffle lets solids go straight through to the field, which is the expensive failure rather than the cheap one.
If nobody has opened your tank in fifteen years, the condition of it is a bigger unknown than the level in it.
Where the tanks tend to be in an older Dallas yard
There is no rule, but there are habits. A tank is usually on the side of the house the bathrooms are on, generally within twenty feet of the foundation, and downhill of it wherever the ground allowed. Where a house has been extended, the tank is often now under a patio, a deck or a driveway that came later.
That last one is the awkward case, and it is worth knowing before somebody arrives with a shovel. If your addition went over the tank, the honest answer is that access is a construction problem rather than a septic one, and it is worth talking through on the phone first.
Book a Dallas job
Next town over from us. Tell us the address and what the house is doing.
What 245 homeowners said
Every quote below is a real review, word for word, from our Google profile.
I called Ray's back at 8:50PM Friday night, and not only did they answer they talked to me for 10 minutes and methodically went through what to check. We discovered over the phone that the pump float had fallen off the pole and wasn't activating the pump. He described how to fix it over the phone and saved me a lot of money not having to have an emergency response. Unbelievable customer service, most folks would have charged me the service fee.
Andre came out and he was absolutely amazing. Very kind and honest. The prices they have are great but we would honestly be willing to pay more for the customer service. We were told by another septic tank company that we had to replace our entire system, we called Ray's and that was not the case at all. Just needed a pipe cleared.
We've gotten pump outs from another local company every 7 years for the 26 years since we built our house. This time we contacted Ray's Septic. What a difference. The price was substantially less than several other companies and our usual vendor. Andre was without a doubt one of the most customer service focused people I've ever met. He performed the job, cleaned up the work area and was extremely professional.
We used Ray's to pump our ancient tank from the 1930's. Andre was our technician and he was nothing short of spectacular. Found our septic tank, didn't make a huge mess digging, pumped it efficiently, and gave us great tips for taking care of our tank moving forward. All for a very reasonable price.
They sent the most knowledgeable and polite technician, Andre. After he pumped the tank he explained I still had water dripping into the septic tank due to a faulty flapper in the toilet tank, that you could not hear running from inside. I called my plumber to come out and repair, he said Andre was right, bad flapper.
I asked around for a good priced knowledgeable and honest pumping service, most answers were Ray's. I had my pick of any day. Gabe showed up, very knowledgeable. I had just purchased my house so I didn't know where my tank or lid was, but I had the environmental diagram so Gabe found the lid in no time, pumped my tank, and took time to help me understand more about it.
Septic and well service across Dallas and the old county seat.
About six minutes. We are at 317 North Lincoln Street in High Shoals, which is the next town over.
Usually either more water going in than the tank was sized for, or solids no longer settling the way they should. Both are things a technician can see with the lid off.
By opening it. Concrete is far more common but older properties do turn up steel, and a corroded steel lid is a safety problem worth knowing about.
No. Dallas is inside our normal service area and the inspection is free there like everywhere else we work.
Call (704) 748-9595 and we will book the visit on the phone. Dallas is inside our normal service area.
We cover septic tank pumping, septic system installation, septic repair and sewer lines, septic and well inspections, well drilling and water systems and well pump and water pressure repair. Every one of them has its own page with what is included.
Tell us what the house is doing.
Septic or well. Give us the address and the symptom and we will come back to you.