Todd Temples Septic Tank Service Inc - does business in North East Polk County Florida area.  Haines City, Winterhaven, Winter Haven, Dundee, Lake Hamilton

I hope that when goggle picks up the key words and makes this page available to any one searching for info on Todd Temples Septic Tank Service Inc I will help prevent anyone else from making a very expensive mistake.

Todd Temples Septic Tank Service Inc deserves all the free web advertising I can give them.  If you need a Septic Tank pumped out you can bet you will get an inferior job.  Do not let them give you any kind of a septic tank inspection.  You will be sorry and out a bundle of cash, just like we were.  The state of Florida has licensed these folks so it leaves me with a bad taste on how the state government works.

The first hint of a problem with Todd Temples Septic Tank Service was when we took their inspection form to the state health department to get our septic system signed off in our attempt to obtain a building permit for a house addition.  Having Todd Temples Septic Tank Service perform the inspection turned out to be a gigantic mistake.  Not only did they cost us a bundle of cash but added a couple of months to the time line for the addition project.

The Florida State Health department was not happy with the inspection form we brought them.  They said we were supposed to have a full page inspection form and not this little sticker that was stuck on the small receipt Todd Temples Septic Tank Service provided us for their $235 rip-off inspection.

They reluctantly accepted it.  I was upset because I was just doing what the State wanted. Have the tank pumped and inspected by a septic tank company which we did.  We didn't know what form was required nor what info they needed.  I have since studied up on septic tank systems,  and the requirements of the State of Florida.  Something Todd Temples either never did or he didn't understand the material when it was presented to him.

Then came the shocker! The state charged us another $260 for their own inspection and permit.  What a joke! For that fee they made us wait for 7 days before they came out to do their part.  That's when I started to get an education in septic systems.  First they questioned the 900 gallon tank.  It wasn't big enough. They wanted at least a 1000 gallon tank but out of the goodness of the state inspectors heart he was going to let us use the existing tank.  But the existing 333 sq ft of drain field (figure provided out of thin air by Todd Temples) was not enough and he wanted another 100 sq ft installed.  He also wanted an output filter installed.

Now I am pissed.  I suspected the inspection information provided by Todd Temples Septic Tank Service was faulty.  Partly due to the questions the state inspector asked.  He seemed surprised that the tank wasn't bigger and questioned it's age.  I knew the tank had to be the same age as the house and that was aprox 1993.  What really got me to suspecting there was an error was the measurement method Todd used.  His unlaced boots! He reminded me of Pa Kettle with his big clod hoppers unlaced.  To damn lazy to get dressed so I was sure he was to lazy to do a good job also.

When Todd pumped the tank and performed his inspection he had only uncovered a small portion of the inlet end of the tank. Just enough that he could find the access hatch. He determined the size of the tank with a rod that he used to find the edges and then used Dead Reckoning to guesstimate the size of the tank. 

I researched the internet for hours.  I gave myself a great education on septic tanks, drain fields, and Florida Law.  I got the tractor out and uncovered the whole tank. I was surprised to find a hatch at the outlet end of the tank just like the inlet end. I found the following link to be very helpful for figuring the size of the tank

http://www.inspect-ny.com/septic/tanksize.htm

I used the formula Length x Width x Depth in feet x 7.5 = gallons.  The tank measured 5' x 10' with a Stanley tape measure and not paced off with Todd's clod hoppers.  I guessed the height to be 5'. Doing the math showed this tank was 1875 gallons. Wow. A hell of a lot more than 900 that Todd had ciphered.  Come to think of it Todd reminded me of Jethro in the "Beverly Hillbillies" The ciphering was about the same!

Of course that was using outside dimensions. So I used 4' wide by 9' long and used the actual depth of the water inside which was 4' on the nose. 4x9x4x7.5=1080 A whole lot larger than 900 and exceeded the size the state wanted.

I was excited!  All I had to do was get Todd to come back and correct his inspection.  I knew there was also more than 333 sq ft of drain field.  I was shocked when Todd came back out. He drawled out that I was wrong and he has been doing this for years and that was a 900 gallon tank. I think Todd's problem with the formula was he didn't understand all the X's in it.

 He stated he was being generous on allowing me 333 sq ft of drain field as he knew the drain field  wasn't even close to the 333 sq ft figure. 

I threw my hands up in the air and gave up on Todd.  What a stupid Nincompoop! Grandpa once told me that you can't confuse a man with facts once he has made up his mind.  Todd had made up his mind and there was no changing it.

There was nothing to do but call out someone who knew what they were doing. That someone was Daniel Ryan who came up from Indian Lakes area.  When he drove up he took one look at the tank from across the yard and stated that the tank was for sure a lot larger than a 900 gallon tank.  He walked up to the tank, took a shovel, dug down about 18 inches on one corner of the inlet side of the tank. Not finding what he was looking for he changed to the other corner on the inlet end and dug down again about 18 inches and low and behold, THERE WAS A MANUFACTURES PLACARD!

Hey, Todd, you Nincompoop, in case you don't know what a manufactures placard is, it states right on it the size of the tank.  In this case the manufacture stated this tank was 1050 gallons.  It didn't take Mr. Ryan 5 minutes of his time.  On Todd's second trip out here he spent 30 minutes defending his mistaken assumption on the tank size.  The only reason I can think of that Todd didn't look for the manufactures placard is being the nincompoop that he is, he didn't know!  Either that or it was to much trouble to dig down 18 inches, and after all, according to his own words, he has been doing this work for a long time and he knows what he's doing!  Yea right Todd, and elephants can fly!

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This page was last updated 12/03/08