Service areas
We cover Iowa’s metros and the rural counties around them. Each city page names its county office.
Iowa's time-of-transfer inspection is a statewide rule set by the Iowa DNR, but a county environmental health or public health office administers it where you live, and some counties add their own requirements. Each page below names that office and the one local detail that changes the process, then offers a free quote. New to the rule? Start with the time-of-transfer guide.
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Des Moines
Polk County
The sewered core rarely triggers the rule; the on-septic ring of acreages and unincorporated parcels does.
Administered by Polk County Environmental Health Services. See the Des Moines page.
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Ankeny
Polk County
Fast growth keeps pushing new buyers toward exurban parcels still on private septic.
Administered by Polk County Environmental Health Services. See the Ankeny page.
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West Des Moines
Polk and Dallas counties
The city line splits two counties, so two offices can apply to one town.
Administered by Dallas County Environmental Health (west side) and Polk County. See the West Des Moines page.
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Cedar Rapids
Linn County
A tank must be pumped at inspection, or documented as pumped within three years.
Administered by Linn County Public Health, On-site Wastewater Program. See the Cedar Rapids page.
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Iowa City
Johnson County
The county layers its own 2020 septic regulations on top of state code.
Administered by Johnson County Public Health. See the Iowa City page.
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Council Bluffs
Pottawattamie County
A county ordinance (Chapter 5.50) applies alongside state code.
Administered by Pottawattamie County Environmental Health. See the Council Bluffs page.
Do not see your town? Get a free quote anyway and tell us where you are in Iowa, or browse the full list of septic services.
What it costs, and what happens after you send it
Across Iowa, a 1,000-gallon tank cleaning is published at about $233 to $274, a new conventional system for a three-bedroom house at $6,282 to $7,464, and a drainfield replacement at roughly $2,500 to $10,000. Those are cost-aggregator estimates, not contractor quotes. No Iowa contractor publishes a flat price for this work, so treat them as a budget and get a real quote. The time-of-transfer inspection itself is a few hundred dollars, and no range is printed for it here because no aggregator this site can cite publishes an Iowa inspection price. The pattern the figures show is the one that matters: the inspection is the small number and the repair it can trigger is the large one.
Your request goes to an independent local septic professional, usually within about an hour during the day. That professional then contacts you to look at the system and quote the work on their own schedule.
Only a septic professional standing at your system can price it.
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