Septic System Installation in High Point, NC

Where High Point Lots Need a Septic System

High Point's water and sewer extension policy was approved in 2001 and last amended in 2018. Outside the city limits, an exception can cover one home on three acres or less. That owner pays the city's outside rates and signs a recorded agreement to annex later.

The policy names its exceptions in the Randleman Lake critical area. They are parts of the Richland Creek and Business 85/Riverdale Road sub-basins. Where city lines already cross the critical area, new development still cannot connect. An existing home there can still be approved for a connection under the general rules.

Jamestown runs its own water and sewer, and Archdale runs its own sewer lines to High Point's Eastside treatment plant. Past the ends of those lines, a house needs its own septic system. Guilford County's RS-30 zoning, meant for areas without public water and sewer, sets a 30,000-square-foot minimum lot.

Who Permits a Septic System in High Point?

About 94 percent of High Point's residents live in its Guilford County part, per 2025 Census Bureau estimates. Lots there go to Guilford County Environmental Health. Its On-site Wastewater Program evaluates the soil and issues the Improvement Permit. The Construction Authorization comes next and sets the system type and layout.

Lots on the Randolph County side, around Archdale and Trinity, go to Randolph County Environmental Health. That office runs the soil evaluation and permits the system. The county inspects the installation before it is covered, and the Operation Permit follows.

The building permit waits on the septic permit, because state law bars it until the Construction Authorization is issued. Inside the city, building permits come from the City of High Point's Development Services Center. Guilford County's Inspections Department covers the unincorporated county and, by contract, Jamestown.

Guilford County also requires an inspection before new construction starts on a property with an existing septic system or well. Pump systems installed or repaired from July 1992 on get routine county checks. A single-pump system is checked every five years, and a low-pressure system every three.

Soils and Lakes Around High Point

NRCS soil maps show tough ground for drain fields around High Point. South of the city toward Archdale and Trinity, the main soils are Wynott, Mecklenburg, Enon and Wilkes. NRCS rates nearly all of that ground very limited for a septic drain field. The main reasons listed are slow water movement and bedrock close to the surface.

North of the city around Oak Hollow Lake, Enon still leads, but Cecil and Appling soils turn up more. NRCS rates those two somewhat limited. On any lot, the county evaluates the soil profile rather than running a perc test. Some sites need pits dug so the specialist can see deeper.

On shallow or slow soils, the permit may call for something other than a conventional system. Guilford County describes a low-pressure pipe system as a pumped system with small pipe. It sits in shallow trenches, 12 to 14 inches deep.

High Point Lake and Oak Hollow Lake sit on the Deep River and its West Fork. The state classes both as water supply critical areas, and the river runs on to Randleman Lake. Across the Randleman Lake watershed, a state rule protects a 50-foot buffer along streams, lakes, reservoirs and ponds. The city or county can say whether a lot sits in that watershed.

The state's septic rules also keep a drain field at least 50 feet from lakes and streams. On a wooded lot, clearing the house site comes first, and it has to respect the buffer. Disturbing more than an acre also takes an approved erosion and sedimentation control plan.

Homes and Roads Around High Point

From Burlington, the trip runs west on I-40 and I-85 to Greensboro, then US 29 southwest into High Point. Archdale and the south side come off I-85. North High Point comes in on Wendover Avenue and Skeet Club Road.

Inside the city, the Census Bureau estimates about 49,100 homes, and 63 percent are detached single-family houses. The median home was built in 1989, and about 22 percent went up from 2000 to 2009. The Census Bureau puts the city at about 120,600 people in 2025, up from 114,059 in 2020.

A new house on a county lot needs more than the septic system. We also build gravel driveways and handle grading for a house pad. State septic rules keep grading and soil compaction off the drain field and its repair area.

Replacing an old house starts with house demolition. Inside the city, the Development Services Center issues the Demolished Structure permit. Guilford County's On-site Wastewater Program also oversees the abandonment of old septic systems.