ADC Septic

Contacted them for repairs needed on my system. Owner himself came out to address the issue, inspect the problem and make a recommendation. They were very timely, communicative and helped me minimize the overall cost for the job. Highly recommend!!

"He likes to fail people." That's a quote from one of his competitors, and it couldn't be more true. I enlisted Chris and ADC septic to perform a Title 5 inspection on my septic system. After about two months of delay for various excuses he got around to it early this year, knowing full well it was time sensitive as I was trying to sell the property. He came in and dug around, and then complained that my hedge was too large and needs to be cut back. He ended up cutting about about 1/3 of it, and severed the power line to my lamp post in the process (without notifying me). I received a text that day that said simply "failed, you need a new system". I called him for an explanation but only got vague responses like "I've been doing this for 20 years, I know what I am doing", rather than explaining why it failed, or what can be done other than "needs a new system". His estimate, ~$20,000+. He also informed me that he would not be submitting a failed Title 5 into town, implying that I have my new system installed with him or he would submit the report. Inspectors under the Title 5 law need to recommend three other installers besides the person inspecting. The only installer he told me about was himself. He also mentioned that I had a leach field system. After talking with a few people who know Chris, I decided to get a second opinion. I called in an out-of-town engineer, and we dug up most of the system. This new engineer indicated to me that there was a simple block in the pipe that leads out to the soil absorption system that could be remedied, but I would also need a new baffle to prevent future blockages, and a new distribution box. That estimate was $1,800. He urged me to get it reinspected. He also notified me that I did not have a leach field, but a cesspit, which should have been plainly obvious to any competent inspector. It's really hard to mix those two types of systems up. I called another out-of-town company for re-inspection. I got it reinspected two weeks later, and they gave me a conditional pass with repairs, a d-box replacement and a new baffle. Chris happened to drive by the property while it was being inspected and texted me "your(sic) wasting your time and your money..your system wont pass title 5". A primitive veiled threat but I could tell there would be trouble ahead. Very unprofessional behavior. Per the town BoH repairs went on hold until the "repair season" opened up. I could still sell the house with the pass and get the repairs done in time for closing. Eventually, the repairs were completed and all that needed to happen was an approval by the Board of Health. But there is a problem. Literally 5 days before close, I got a call from the town engineer on behalf of the BoH, who said there was a conflicting Title 5 from ADC showing a fail. I never saw this ADC Title 5 at the BoH, and my second inspector never saw it at the BoH either, it's very likely that it was filed after the mandatory 30 days (per Title 5). The Town does not have a chain of ownership protocol for when documents are filed, unfortunately. I still have not received a copy of this failed Title 5 from ADC. The only thing I ever received was an ADC bill that says no report will be filed. Once the second inspector obtained a copy of Chris' failed title 5 from the town engineer, we found it was done hastily and poorly, and the town engineer couldn't even defend it if it was valid. It showed a leach field, which I do not have. There was no inspection of baffles or indication of a missing baffle. There were attached pictures which tried to indicate pipes that do not exist in the system. ADC also claimed that the system was "snaked", which must be a fabrication because a cesspit was never found and additional outlet pipes indicated on the report do not exist. My second inspection company disregarded this new Title 5 and went ahead and passed my system. We had a good laugh over it. However, we sobered up pretty quickly when we started to wonder just how many other systems he failed unjustly... TL;DR - If you value your time and money, do not use ADC. Chris is sloppy, unprofessional, and only looking to make money with new system installs. If you ask my opinion, it's a huge conflict of interest that inspectors are also installers, and are able to tamper with an inspection process and influence the BoH to push business to them.