Septic questions, answered straight.
Everything homeowners and businesses on the Maine and New Hampshire Seacoast ask us: pumping, sewer lines, pool water, and what to do when something backs up.
L.W. Morgridge & Son is a septic and water-hauling company serving Maine and New Hampshire since 1948. We run two yards, Route 236 in Eliot, Maine and 674 White Mountain Hwy in Ossipee, New Hampshire, and cover about 25 miles around each. These are the questions we answer most, in plain language. If yours is not here, call (207) 439-1250 and a person answers.
Pumping & Maintenance
As a starting point: a 500 gallon tank every year, a 1,000 gallon tank every two years, and a 2,000 gallon tank every two and a half to three years. A full house fills a tank faster than a couple on the same size system, so the real interval depends on the household. We track it for customers on our maintenance schedule.
Four signs cover most cases: drains running slow everywhere at once, gurgling in the pipes, odors near the drains or over the tank, and soggy ground or a stripe of bright green grass over the leachfield. Two or more at the same time means call before it becomes a backup.
Keep vehicles, structures, and trees with heavy root systems off or away from the tank, the pipes, and the leachfield. Weight compacts the field and roots find the lines. Grass is the right cover.
Once a year covers most houses. A fuller house running more water through the tank should be closer to every six months. A packed filter stops the tank from discharging and sends water back toward the house.
Yes. On a pumping call the filter comes out and gets rinsed as part of the visit, and the tech checks the inlet and outlet baffles while the tank is empty.
Pro Pump is a bacteria additive we carry on the trucks for customers who want to keep healthy bacteria working in the system between pumpings. Ask for it on any scheduled visit.
Emergencies
Yes. (207) 439-1250 is answered 24 hours a day. Outside office hours a real person answers the emergency line and our on-call manager calls you back, never a voicemail box.
Sewage backing up into the house, a septic alarm sounding, or sewage surfacing in the yard. Any of those gets dispatched around the clock. A slow drain on its own can usually wait for a scheduled visit. Call and we will tell you honestly which one you have.
True emergencies, meaning backups, alarms and overflows, are dispatched 24/7 anywhere in our service area.
Stop running water. No laundry, showers, or flushing more than necessary. Keep people and pets away from any surfaced sewage, and clear a path to the tank or cleanout if you know where it is. The truck handles the rest.
Costs & Scheduling
You get an estimate before we start, free. Price depends on tank size, access, and what the job turns out to be, so tell us what you are seeing and we will give you a straight number.
Call or send the request form and tell us your tank size if you know it. We set the pumping interval, track it, and remind you when it is due, so you never have to think about the tank.
Yes. Septic inspections for home sales are routine work, including camera inspection of the sewer line, so problems surface before the closing instead of after.
We cover about 25 miles around each of our two yards, Route 236 in Eliot, Maine and 674 White Mountain Hwy in Ossipee, New Hampshire. That takes in the Seacoast and the Lakes Region, on both sides of the state line. There is no fixed town list. If you are anywhere close, call (207) 439-1250 and we will tell you straight away.
Sewer Lines & Inspections
A cable makes a hole through the clog. High pressure jetting strips the buildup off the pipe wall with water at up to 20 gallons a minute and flushes it out, so you get the whole pipe diameter back instead of a channel through the blockage.
Yes. It is water only, with no chemicals into the system or the soil and nothing excavated.
Yes. Jetting cuts out roots that have found the joints and grown into the line. A camera run afterward shows whether the pipe itself needs attention where they got in.
No, that is the point of the camera. It goes in through an existing access point, and locating equipment marks from the surface where anything sits, so if digging is ever needed it happens in exactly one place.
Pool Water
No. The pool water truck hauls clean water and nothing else. It says “Not the Same Truck” right on the tank because it is the first thing everyone asks.
Each load is 7,000 gallons. Most residential pools take one to two loads. Tell us the pool dimensions when you call and we will tell you how many trips it takes.
Backyard ice rinks, cold plunges, swim spas, hot tubs, and anything else you need filled with water. The same dedicated clean-water tanker that fills pools in the summer fills rinks through the winter.
Commercial Services
Most restaurants we service are on a monthly route. Trap size and kitchen volume decide whether that stretches longer or needs to be tighter, and cleanings are scheduled around prep and service hours so the kitchen never stops. Depending on local board of health regulations, service frequency may differ from town to town.
Yes. Pumping, cleaning and preventative maintenance for residential and commercial pump chambers, with panel, float and alarm checks on a schedule. Alarms are dispatched 24/7.
That is the normal arrangement for our commercial accounts. Grease traps and tanks are scheduled around prep and service hours so the kitchen never stops.
Still not sure? Call and a person answers, no phone tree.
Tell us what you need.
Send it over and we reply the same business day with an estimate. Backing up right now? Call (207) 439-1250, a real person answers 24/7.