Pumping, installation, repair & maintenance for Kennard homes, cabins & forest properties
Whippoorwill Septic covers Kennard and the east side of Houston County with septic tank pumping, conventional and aerobic system installation, repairs, real estate inspections, and maintenance plans. Our licensed Lufkin crew, including a Registered Sanitarian and licensed site evaluators, works the Highway 7 corridor through the Davy Crockett National Forest week in and week out, so a cabin on a forest road is as easy for us to reach as a house on Main Street. Reach us at 936-824-2281.
Ratcliff Lake, two miles up Highway 7 from Kennard, began as the log pond for the Four C sawmill that built the town. Photo: Billy Hathorn, CC BY-SA 3.0
Kennard owes its existence to the Four C Mill. The Central Coal and Coke Company bought a huge tract of Houston County timber in 1899, moved its sawmill to Cochino Bayou in 1901, and built the town around it; the Kennard post office opened in 1902, and the mill was said to be the largest west of the Mississippi before the timber ran out and the company shut it down in 1920. The cutover land went to the federal government, the Civilian Conservation Corps replanted it in the 1930s, and today Kennard is a city of a few hundred people with State Highway 7 for a main street and the Davy Crockett National Forest on nearly every side. Two miles up the highway, 45-acre Ratcliff Lake, the mill’s old log pond turned CCC recreation lake, draws campers and anglers all summer.
There is no central sewer out here. Homes in town, cabins on forest inholdings, hunting camps, and the places along FM 357 and FM 2781 all run on septic. The ground is mostly the sandy loam that grows good pine, and it usually accepts a conventional drain field, but the forks of Cochino Bayou that drain the town and the low ground along other creeks can hold water near the surface for part of the year, and a loamy or clay layer under the sand can slow absorption down. The required licensed soil evaluation on your own lot, which our licensed site evaluators perform, settles whether trenches will work or an aerobic system is the right call.
Kennard is about 30 miles west of our Lufkin shop on State Highway 7, a little past the halfway point to Crockett with the national forest in between, and it sits inside our regular Houston County routes. We handle OSSF permits through the county’s authorized agent for Houston County from soil evaluation through final inspection, pump and inspect tanks, repair failing systems, and keep aerobic units on their required maintenance schedule. Our coverage takes in Kennard, Ratcliff and the forest-road properties around Ratcliff Lake, out FM 357 toward Apple Springs, and west along Highway 7 toward Crockett.
We also serve nearby communities: Crockett, TX · Lufkin, TX · Trinity, TX. Or browse all of our East Texas service areas.
Routine and urgent septic tank pumping for Kennard homes and businesses. Whether it's scheduled maintenance or a tank that can't wait, our trucks and licensed technicians are ready.
Conventional and aerobic septic systems for Kennard properties, handled from soil evaluation and permitting through final inspection. New builds and replacements done right and up to code.
Commercial grease trap pumping and maintenance for Kennard restaurants and commercial kitchens. Regular service keeps you in compliance and prevents costly blockages and downtime.
Failing drain fields, broken pumps, collapsed tanks, alarm calls: expert diagnosis and fast repairs for every component of your Kennard septic system.
Maintenance plans that keep your Kennard system healthy, extend its life, and satisfy Texas's required inspections for aerobic systems. Choose the plan that fits your property.
Septic questions from Kennard homeowners and cabin owners
Texas requires an OSSF permit for any new, replacement, or significantly altered septic system, and for Kennard and the rest of Houston County it comes through the county’s authorized agent. Whippoorwill Septic handles the full process: the licensed site evaluation, the system design, the permit application, and the final inspection coordination. Routine pumping does not need a permit.
Usually, yes. The sandy loam under the pines around Kennard tends to absorb effluent well, which is what a conventional drain field needs. The exceptions are lots near Cochino Bayou or other creek bottoms where water sits close to the surface part of the year, and spots where a tighter loam or clay layer sits under the sand. A licensed soil evaluation on your specific lot, a required permitting step our licensed site evaluators perform, tells you which situation you have before anything is designed.
Most Houston County households should plan on every 3 to 5 years. A home that is lived in full time with a garbage disposal fills faster; a hunting camp used a few weekends a year fills much slower. If you are not sure, we can inspect the tank, measure the sludge and scum layers, and set a schedule based on how the place is actually used.
The main differences are access and use pattern. Forest-road properties around Kennard and Ratcliff can be tight to reach with equipment, so we plan the route before we show up, and a cabin that sits empty for weeks and then hosts a crowd stresses a system differently from a daily-use home. We design new systems and schedule pumping with that intermittent use in mind, and we size tanks and drain fields for the peak weekend, not the quiet weeks.
Yes, and before you close. An inspection on a Kennard-area property tells you whether the tank is sound, whether the drain field is absorbing properly, and whether the system was permitted and sized for the house. Replacing a failed system is a major expense, so finding out beforehand gives you room to negotiate or walk away. Call 936-824-2281 and we can schedule it around your option period.
There is no single number. The cost depends on whether you need a conventional or aerobic system, the tank size, the soil on your lot, and how far equipment has to travel on forest roads. We would rather look at the property and quote the job accurately than give you a range that turns out to be wrong. Call 936-824-2281 and we will come out.
From a pump-out on Main Street to a new system for a cabin off a forest road near Ratcliff Lake, Whippoorwill Septic serves Kennard and eastern Houston County with licensed, insured service.