Septic Advisor Has Served Southern Maine Septic Needs Since 1989

Six services built around one system

Septic Advisor is a locally owned septic and sewer company that says it has worked out of South Portland and Gorham, Maine, since 1989. Its website groups its work into six services: full septic system swaps, sewage pump replacements, sewer line work, distribution box repairs, drain field projects and sewer jetting to clear blocked lines. The company says it designs every full septic replacement to meet Maine Department of Environmental Protection standards, and that before any drain field is replaced, the plan has to pass review by a licensed site evaluator and the local plumbing inspector.

The company's website spends particular attention on drain fields, which it describes as the last stage of a septic system, filtering wastewater before it reaches the soil. It says Maine's freeze-thaw cycles, heavy rainfall and varied soil conditions can wear down a field over time, and that a tipped distribution box or a blocked line can look like a failed field even when it is not. Warning signs the company lists include standing water over the field, persistent odors in the yard, slow drains throughout a house, unusually lush grass over the field, and a system older than 20 years.

Soil conditions shape the work by town

Septic Advisor's website describes how the ground itself varies sharply across its coverage area: Freeport sits on fast-draining glacial sand near the Desert of Maine, while much of the coastal lowland lies over slow-draining Presumpscot marine clay with a high seasonal water table. In Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth, the company says, it sometimes has to raise a new field above that high water table, or above a layer of ledge instead. Nearby wetlands, including Scarborough Marsh and the clam flats along Freeport's Harraseeket River, bring shoreland-zoning setbacks into the design of any new system, the website says.

The company says it offers free estimates that include an on-site inspection and a written price before work starts, and that it moves quickly on backed-up systems, pump failures and tripped alarms. Its service area, the website says, runs from Biddeford and Old Orchard Beach, through Gray, Freeport, Yarmouth, Cumberland, Standish, Buxton and Saco, to Cape Elizabeth, Falmouth, Windham, Scarborough, Westbrook, Portland, Gorham and South Portland — 17 towns in all across Cumberland and northern York County.

More about the company at septicadvisor.com.