← Septic pumping bid calculator
The number a homeowner wants is a published “$325 pump special.” That number is not a takeoff. A 1,000-gallon tank with an exposed lid and the truck at the riser is not the same job as a 1,500-gallon two-tank system with a buried lid, a 150-foot hose, baffles, and an inspection. The word “pump” is the same. The hours are not.
Open the free bid calculatorBasement-waterproofing calculators price wells, a pit, and discharge. Water-heater calculators price a vent, a gas upsize, and an attic. Junk-removal calculators price haul volume and a landfill ticket. A septic stop is a service: the included gallons, the access to the lid, the hose the truck cannot get closer on, extra tanks, and the dump fee. Quoting all of that from a published special is how the first buried lid eats the field margin.
Each buried lid is locate-and-dig that never appears on the brochure. Extra gallons over the included pump are billed as their own hours and their own dump ticket. A second tank, baffles, risers, and a written inspection are adders that get forgotten on a driveway special. On the sample rates a two-tank buried job with 2,000 gallons, a 150-foot hose, baffles, two risers, and an inspection prices about $1,972 ($0.99 per gallon pumped, 9.4 crew-hours). The same shop’s 1,000-gallon exposed-lid driveway pump prices about $488 ($0.49 per gallon, 1.8 hours, walk-away $351). Matching the brochure job’s per-gallon number — or a $325 special — on the two-tank stop is how that job becomes a loss.
A 1,500-gallon buried emergency with one extra tank and a 120-foot hose is not the two-tank inspection job plus 50%. On the sample rates that after-hours stop prices about $1,311 ($0.66 per gallon, 6.5 crew-hours) — more than the brochure special, less than the two-tank buried takeoff, because the risers, baffles, and written report do not live in a published emergency adder. A typical 1,250-gallon buried lid with one riser and 80 feet of hose prices about $1,002 (4.3 hours). Treating either as a blended add-on is how the special that looked fine turns into a loss after the first dig.
A $38/h pumper loaded at 32% payroll burden is $50.16. Margin is a share of the price you send, not a markup on cost. The walk-away price is total cost — below that the job makes nothing before you take a dollar home. On the sample rates even the brochure driveway pump walks away at $351, which is why a $325 special is already a loss before the first extra hose foot. Replace every rate with your dump tickets before you send either number.
This is not a septic design, a building-code determination, a permit, an environmental report, or a recommended market price. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type. Tank size, access, hose run, extra tanks, and whether the stop is after-hours are yours to confirm.
Charge from the included gallons, extra gallons over that include, buried-lid locate-and-dig, hose beyond the included run, extra tanks, baffles, risers, inspection, after-hours dispatch, dump tickets, loaded labor, overhead, and a margin that is a share of price. A default 1,000-gallon exposed-lid driveway pump at the sample rates in this calculator prices around $488 — about $0.49 per gallon.
Homeowners count 'a pump is a pump.' Extra gallons, a buried lid, a long hose, a second tank, baffles, risers, and emergency dispatch do not live in a $325 special. Matching a cheaper per-gallon quote written for a brochure driveway stop is how a two-tank buried job becomes a loss.
Not in proportion. On the sample rates a two-tank buried job with 2,000 gallons, a 150-foot hose, baffles, two risers, and an inspection prices around $1,972 ($0.99 per gallon), while a 1,000-gallon exposed-lid driveway pump prices around $488 ($0.49 per gallon).