West Palm Beach Quality Septic: Mound Septic Systems in West Palm Beach, FL
Raised drainfields for lots where the water table sits too close to the surface for a field in the ground.
- Within 20 miles of downtown West Palm Beach
- Written price before work starts
- We work with licensed, insured local contractors
- Phones answered 7am to 7pm, seven days
West Palm Beach Quality Septic arranges mound systems, also called raised or filled drainfields, for properties in and around West Palm Beach where the ground does not leave enough dry soil for a conventional field. You have probably seen them without knowing it: a long grassy hump in a side yard, a couple of white pipes poking out of the top. That hump is the drainfield, lifted up on imported sand so the effluent has the dry soil Florida requires between it and the groundwater.
A mound costs $12,000 to $25,000, so the $325 to $625 pump-out that keeps it from clogging is the best money a mound owner spends.
Why the water table decides it
Florida requires the bottom of a drainfield to sit at least 24 inches above the wet season high water table. The number is not measured on the day of the dig; it is estimated from the soil itself, from its colors and texture, which record where water sits at the wettest time of year. When that seasonal high sits close to the surface, as it does in much of the county's flatwoods, there is no room to dig a field in, so the field is built up instead.
The fill is clean sand brought in to raise the bed to the required elevation, with sloped, grassed shoulders around it. Because the field now sits above the tank, a pump in a second chamber usually lifts effluent up to it in measured doses, with a float switch and an alarm to warn if the pump stops.
Living with a mound
A mound is a working part of the system, not a garden feature. Keep vehicles, pools, sheds and heavy equipment off it, keep irrigation from soaking it, and leave its grass cover in place, because the grass protects the fill from erosion and helps move water out of it. Trees and large shrubs belong away from it, since their roots go looking for exactly the moisture a mound provides.
The pump is the other half of a mound. Know where the control box is, know what the alarm sounds like, and treat an alarm as a call to action rather than a nuisance: it means the pump chamber is filling and the mound is not being dosed.
- Nothing heavy on the mound, ever
- Keep sprinklers off it
- Keep the grass cover healthy and the trees away
- Answer the pump alarm promptly, never ignore it
Describe what the system is doing and get a straight read on what it usually means in West Palm Beach.
Call (561) 658-4115What a mound septic system costs in West Palm Beach
Fill volume is the main driver: the higher the field has to rise, the more sand, and the larger the footprint of the shoulders. Typical local ranges:
Mound or fill drainfield: $12,000 to $25,000
New system with a mound drainfield: $15,000 to $30,000
Lift pump replacement: $900 to $2,500
Pump control panel replacement: $600 to $1,600
Typical ranges in the West Palm Beach area, not quotes. Call (561) 658-4115 and the price for your property is put in writing before anyone starts.
Raised drainfields in Palm Beach County
The rule that creates the mound
The requirement comes from 62-6.006 of the Florida Administrative Code: 24 inches between the field bottom and the wet season high water table for a new system. For repairs, a field that already sits closer than 24 inches must keep its existing separation or at least 12 inches, and one below 12 inches must be brought up to new-system standards. Mounds are permitted and inspected through the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County.
The layer that holds the water up
The flatwoods soils across much of the county, such as Myakka, the state soil, look like freely draining sand. About a meter down, many of them carry a spodic horizon, a layer of organic matter cemented with iron and aluminum that slows water on its way down. In the wet season, water perches above it and the seasonal high can sit within half a foot to a foot and a half of the surface. That is the ground a mound is built to rise above.
Where mounds are most common
Raised fields tend to be needed where the land is flattest and lowest, which in this area means the western flatwoods, including The Acreage, where almost every home has its own well and septic system. On the Atlantic coastal ridge nearer the city, where the sands sit higher and drain faster, there is more often room for a conventional field in the ground.
If the mound is wet or the pump alarm is sounding
A soggy mound or a sounding alarm on a mound system usually means the pump or its floats, and it gets worse by the hour as the chamber fills. Cut water use and call.
Mound Septic Systems: questions people ask
How much does a mound septic system cost in West Palm Beach?
A mound or fill drainfield typically runs $12,000 to $25,000 as a replacement, and a complete new system with a mound typically runs $15,000 to $30,000. The height the field has to rise, and so the volume of fill, is the biggest variable.
Why does my property need a mound septic system?
Because Florida requires at least 24 inches of unsaturated soil between the bottom of a drainfield and the wet season high water table. Where the seasonal water table is close to the surface, the field has to be built up with fill to achieve it.
Does a mound septic system need a pump?
Usually. Because the raised field sits above the tank, a pump in a separate chamber lifts effluent up to it in doses, controlled by floats and protected by an alarm.
Can I plant or build on a mound drainfield?
Keep only grass on it. No structures, no vehicles, no pools, no irrigation soaking it, and no trees or large shrubs nearby, whose roots will seek out the moisture in the fill.
How long does a mound system last?
It depends mostly on how well the tank protects it. A mound fed by a tank that is pumped on schedule, with a clean effluent filter and a working pump, lasts far longer than one fed solids from a neglected tank.
Often needed alongside mound septic systems
Drainfield Replacement
A new drainfield designed around your lot, your water table and Florida's separation rule, permitted and inspected.
Septic Lift Pump Repair
Effluent pumps, floats, check valves and control panels on pressure-dosed and raised septic systems.
Wellington
Septic service for the Wellington homes and horse properties that sit outside the village sewer system.
The Acreage and Loxahatchee
Well-and-septic country west of Royal Palm Beach, where nearly every home runs its own system.
Not sure which of these you need? Call (561) 658-4115 and describe what you are seeing. Every service and the full service area are listed too.