Septic Tank Abandonment in Gwinnett County

Alcovy Septic handles septic tank abandonment in Gwinnett County: the pump-out and tank closure step at the end of a septic-to-sewer conversion, a teardown or a rebuild. The plumber ties your house into the sewer; we empty the old tank and close it the way the county requires, so the final inspection is not the thing that stalls your project.

When you have to connect

Georgia does not leave this to preference. Rule 511-3-1-.03 requires a property to connect to public sewer when sewer is available within 200 feet of the property line, and if the on-site system is failing and sewer is available, connection is required immediately.

If sewer is further away than that, you are not being forced anywhere — keep the tank on a normal pumping interval and watch the usual signs it needs pumping. Conversion only makes financial sense when the line is close or the system has already failed and drain field repair would cost more than connecting.

Gwinnett’s procedure, in order

For unincorporated Gwinnett, the county publishes the sequence in its residential septic to sewer procedure:

1. Get estimates from licensed plumbers for the connection work. That price is the plumber’s, not ours, and it is the largest single line item in most conversions.
2. Pay the county charges and collect the septic-to-sewer permit at the DWR Central Facility on Winder Highway in Lawrenceville.
3. Give the permit to your plumber, who pulls a plumbing-only permit from the Building Permits Division.
4. Connect to the cleanout — the house line is tied into the sewer service at the cleanout the county has provided.
5. Abandon the tank — it is either emptied and crushed, or filled with concrete or gravel.

Two inspections run during the work: one on the sewer cleanout connection, and one after the tank abandonment. Step five is our part.

What the county charges

For a three-quarter-inch residential meter, the county side is $4,172 — a $4,147 system development charge plus the $25 septic-to-sewer permit. The plumbing-only permit is billed at 0.6 percent of the construction estimate, with a $30 minimum. All of that is county money; the plumber’s labor, the trenching and any yard restoration are separate and quoted by the plumber.

Inside the City of Snellville, the county wrote its own version of the procedure: the same $4,172 in county charges and the same county septic-to-sewer permit, but the plumbing permit is a $60 City of Snellville permit and the city handles the inspections. Homeowners in Snellville should check which document their address falls under before paying anything. Our conversion cost guide walks through the full budget including the plumber’s side.

What “abandonment” actually involves

The tank gets pumped dry first. Everything — liquid, sludge and scum from both compartments — comes out and goes to a permitted receiving site. Crushing a tank with septage still in it puts that septage straight into the soil under your yard, which is the outcome the whole procedure exists to prevent.

Then the tank is closed. Crushed means the lid and walls are broken in and the shell collapsed, then backfilled to grade. Filled means the empty tank is packed with concrete or gravel and covered. Either way the result is the same: no void under the lawn that can give way under a mower, a vehicle or a child.

Finding the tank is the step people underestimate on a house where nobody has opened a lid in 30 years. Gwinnett’s septic records go back to 1959 and have been online since 2011 — our records guide shows how to pull your plat before the crew arrives. If the lids are deep and you are not converting yet, risers make every future visit cheaper.

Who does which part

The plumbing work is licensed plumbing work, and the price for it comes from your plumber. We do not quote it and we do not perform it.

What we do is the pump-out and closure: locating the tank, emptying it, hauling the septage as a certified pumper working for a company with a county septage removal permit under the Georgia Department of Public Health, and crushing or filling the shell. You get a dated record of gallons removed and where they went, which is worth keeping with the closing file — the same paperwork a septic inspection or a buyer would ask for. For commercial properties, commercial septic pumping covers the larger tanks and pump chambers that usually come with them. Get in touch once you have your plumber’s dates and we will schedule around the inspections.