A septic inspection usually happens once, for a sale, with a buyer and a seller both waiting on the answer. The tank is dug out, the lids come off for an hour, and then everything goes back underground. Whatever was not written down in that hour is gone.
Record each component, not just the tank
The tank is only part of the system. A proper inspection looks at the inlet and outlet baffles, the sludge and scum levels, the distribution box, the drain field and any pump or alarm. Each gets its own condition, because a sound tank feeding a failing field is still a failing system.
Use words that mean something
A note that says it looks fine helps nobody six months later. A consistent condition scale, the same few words used the same way on every job, is what makes one report comparable with the next and defensible if the sale falls through.
Photograph it while it is open
Once the lids go back on, nobody can check your work. Photos of each component in the state you found it are the only evidence left afterwards.
A signed report the same day
Buyers, sellers and lenders all want the report quickly, and a signed PDF produced on site is harder to argue with than notes typed up later from memory.
SepticProof is an app built for exactly that visit. It gives you a field for every component you open and a condition for each, and produces one signed PDF at the end.
