Septic to Sewer Conversion in South Jersey

Switching from septic to public sewer is more than tying a pipe into the street. It is a sequence of approvals, digging, and cleanup, and every piece has to be done in order. When we take on a conversion, the job covers:

• Municipal approval from your town
• The county sewer connection permit
• Excavating and installing the sewer lateral from your house to the street connection
• Abandoning the septic tank: pump-out, then crush and fill or remove it, per local code
• Required inspections
• Yard, walkway, and driveway restoration

One crew does the digging, the pipe, the tank, and the restoration. You are not juggling an excavator, a plumber, a septic hauler, and a landscaper, and nobody can point at someone else when a step is late.

Before we write an estimate, we walk the property with you. We look at where the house drain leaves the foundation, where the street connection is, where the tank sits, and what is in between: driveways, walkways, trees, fences, gas and electric lines. That walk is what lets us give you a written number instead of a guess.

We also call in utility markouts before any digging, so buried gas, electric, water, and communication lines are located and avoided. It is a required step and an easy one to overlook if you are coordinating the work yourself.

A connection fee of $6,618 is a lot to pay at once, especially when the conversion was not your idea. CCMUA offers an installment plan for properties converting from septic or cesspool to public sewer.

You apply for the installment plan when you submit your connection application, so decide before the paperwork goes in. If you are not sure whether you qualify, ask CCMUA directly, or ask us and we will point you to the right contact. Current terms are on CCMUA's Connecting to the Sewer page.

The installment plan covers the county fee only. Your town's fee and the construction work are separate.

When you plan your budget, think of the conversion as three separate payments that land at different times: the county fee (paid in full or on the installment plan), your town's fee, and the construction contract. Knowing that up front makes it easier to decide whether the installment plan is worth applying for.

Once permits are approved and fees are handled, the construction itself moves quickly. Here is what a typical conversion looks like from your side of the fence.

Before day one, we confirm the schedule with you and with the town inspector, and utility markouts are completed. You will see paint and flags in the yard showing where buried lines run. We tell you where equipment will park and which areas of the yard we will be working in, so you can move cars, planters, or outdoor furniture ahead of time.

On the first day, we excavate along the lateral route and at the street connection. Where the line crosses a walkway or driveway, we cut it cleanly so the patch is neat. The new pipe is laid at the correct slope so it drains on its own, bedded properly, and connected at both ends.

The house is switched over from the septic tank to the new lateral, usually with only a short window when you should avoid running water. The inspector checks the connection while it is still exposed. After approval, we abandon the tank, backfill, and compact everything in layers so the ground does not settle into a dip later.

The last step is restoration: topsoil and seed or sod on lawns, and patching for walkways and driveways, as spelled out in your estimate. We clean up the site each day, and we leave you with copies of the permits and inspection approvals for your records.

The lateral itself is the biggest variable in the construction price. A house set close to the street with a clear front yard is a very different job from a long run under a driveway or around mature trees. Depth matters too: if the street connection is deep, the trench has to be deeper and wider to be dug safely. That is why we will not quote it over the phone.

Sometimes a town converts a large section of homes from septic at once. In that situation, CCMUA's rules allow the connection fee to be waived. Runnemede's 2025 agreement covering a 97-home area is one example.

If your street is part of a town project, ask your municipality whether a waiver applies before you pay anything. And talk to us about scheduling neighbors together. When several homes on the same block convert in sequence, the work is easier to plan and the street is torn up for less time overall.

Once your house drains to the sewer, the septic tank is no longer needed, but it cannot just be left in the ground. It has to be abandoned properly, and local code sets how.

A septic tank is a large buried concrete, steel, or fiberglass box that has been holding wastewater for years. Steel tanks in particular rust from the top down, and concrete lids crack. Once the tank is no longer in use and is not maintained, those weaknesses only get worse.

The usual process:

• Pump the tank out completely
• Disconnect it from the house line
• Crush or break the tank in place and fill it, or remove it entirely, depending on what local code requires
• Backfill, compact, and restore the surface
• Have it inspected where required

We also look for the drain field and any distribution box during the site visit. Local code determines what, if anything, has to be done with them, and we include that in the estimate so there are no surprises.

Doing it right matters for three reasons. Safety: an empty or poorly abandoned tank can collapse under a person, a mower, or a vehicle, and old tank lids are a known hazard. Code: towns require abandonment as part of the conversion, and skipping it can hold up final approval. Selling: buyers and inspectors ask about septic systems, and documentation that the tank was properly abandoned keeps that question from turning into a problem at closing.