What "turnkey" means on our jobs
For us, turnkey means the lot is ready to park on and hook up to, not just cleared. That's usually:
- Clearing whatever's in the way and grading the pad with a drainage slope so water moves off it, not toward it
- A gravel surface built to hold a rig, not just look finished
- A trench for the power run, buried to code depth, ending at a 30/50-amp pedestal
- Water — either a tap into an existing well or line, or coordination for a new one
- A septic system sized for the number of RVs or campers using the lot, permitted through TDEC, installed by us — a TDEC-permitted septic installer, Permit No. 14830 (conventional systems) — and inspected before anyone hooks up a sewer line
- The access road or driveway in and out, gravel or otherwise, that gets a rig from the county road to the pad
Every one of those pieces has to happen in the right order. Power and water trenches get dug before gravel goes down, not after. The septic system has to be inspected before anyone runs a cleanout line to it.
Two lots we've built
A river lot near Clifton, in Perry County, is a good example of the whole process start to finish. We cleared the lot, put in gravel access, and coordinated the TDEC permit for a system sized for two RVs or campers at 100 gallons a day. The soil tested well — a 30-minute-per-inch absorption rate on the perc test — so the state approved a reduced field line, 67 linear feet across three trenches, with a two-compartment 1,000-gallon tank and a chamber-type field. That system was installed and inspected in July 2024. The whole job ran about two weeks of crew time. The following year, the same owner had us pour a footer for a 40-by-80 pole barn on the same lot.
A six-pad RV expansion at a commercial property in Clifton was a different scale but the same logic. We stripped topsoil, cut and filled with material already on site, hauled in a dozen loads of chert to build up the low spots, and finished all six pads with crusher run. That one ran three to five working days once the dirt work started — the timeline that stretched was the permitting ahead of it.
The septic permit is what sets the timeline
If there's one thing that surprises people, it's this: the dirt work is usually the fast part. The permit is what gates everything.
In Tennessee, septic permits don't come from the county health department — they come from TDEC's Division of Water Resources, and for most of the counties we work — Wayne, Perry, Lewis, Hickman, Maury, Lawrence, Giles, Marshall — that's the Columbia Environmental Field Office; Rutherford, Decatur, and Hardin go through TDEC's other regional offices. Before the state issues a permit, the lot needs a perc test done under the state's own timing rules — a pre-soak, then a 24- to 30-hour wait, then a timed 4-hour measurement. There's no such thing as a same-day perc test that holds up. Once the application goes in — the state form is CN-0971 — review generally takes about 10 days and by rule has to be resolved within 45.
We've had the camper's sewer hookup sitting ready to go, waiting on nothing but the permit in hand. That's not a delay we cause; it's the process working the way it's supposed to. We keep a short questionnaire on hand — county, landowner, subdivision or lot, number of bedrooms or RVs, water supply, whether the site's staked — so we can get the TDEC application moving as early as possible instead of after the dirt work starts.
What drives the cost
We don't quote a number until we've walked the lot, and here's why. Cost moves with:
- How much clearing the lot needs — a field is not a wooded slope
- What's under the topsoil— clay grades fast; rock does not
- How far power, water, and septic have to travel from the road or the tap to the pad
- Soil performance on the perc test — a soil that absorbs well can mean less field line; a soil that doesn't means a bigger system
- How many pads— one camper spot is a different job than a multi-pad expansion
- Access — whether equipment can get to the site without building a road first
For a 40-foot camper we build the pad at least five feet bigger than the rig on every side — roughly 50 feet long by 20 wide — with 4 inches of compacted gravel. Softer ground gets fabric underneath first. The power conduit is buried 18 to 24 inches, depending on the code that applies.
What can go wrong
Rock is the one we see most. It's a live risk on nearly every job in this part of the state, and when we hit it, it gets priced as its own line item — never buried in the total after the fact. Wet ground is the second: a lot that looks fine in August can turn to soup after a wet week, and that changes how we sequence the work. And permits get revised — a perc test comes back different than expected, or TDEC asks for a design change — which resets the clock, not the dirt work.
How we're different from RV-park developers
We're not building a campground. We build the one lot, or the handful of pads, that a landowner or a small commercial property actually needs — not a fifty-site park with a clubhouse and a reservation system. That means we can size the septic system to the real number of RVs using it, run gravel and power to exactly the pads that exist, and skip the amenities nobody on a private lot is asking for.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a permit for an RV pad in Tennessee?
If the lot needs a septic system to support the RV, yes — that permit comes from TDEC, not the county, and it has to be issued before the system goes in. If you're hooking into an existing, already-permitted septic system, there may not be a new permit required; that depends on the system's original design.
How long does RV lot prep take?
The dirt work itself is often just days — three to five for a multi-pad job, about two weeks for a full lot with a new septic system. The bigger variable is the septic permit timeline, which runs on TDEC's schedule, not ours.
What size pad do I need for a 40-foot rig?
At least five feet bigger than the rig on every side — for a 40-footer, roughly 50 by 20 feet — with 4 inches of compacted gravel. We size it to your rig and your site and walk it with you before anything's ordered.
Can I hook an RV lot up to an existing septic system?
Sometimes — it depends on what the existing system was designed and permitted for. A system sized for a house may or may not have capacity for an RV's water use; that's something we check against the original permit before assuming it'll work.
Which counties do you work in?
Wayne, Perry, Lewis, Hickman, Maury, Lawrence, Giles, Marshall, Rutherford, Decatur, and Hardin — eleven counties across Middle and West Tennessee. We're based in Clifton and work all of them.
If you've got raw land and want it ready to park on before the weather turns, walk it with us. Call or text 615-977-1626 — we work eleven counties across Middle and West Tennessee.
INTERNAL LINKS: "permitted through TDEC, installed, and inspected" and "septic system sized for the number of RVs" → septic section of /learn-more-about-services. "river lot in a Clifton subdivision" → /gallery. "How septic permits work in Lewis, Wayne & Perry County" → the companion post once published.