Ironbridge · TF8

Septic Tank Installation & Replacement in Ironbridge

Replacement of failed or non-compliant septic tanks, from percolation testing and design through excavation, installation and building regulations sign-off. Serving Ironbridge and the surrounding villages, including Coalbrookdale, Coalport, Madeley, Buildwas.

Call 01743 562954 Describe your problem

Photo: Colin · CC BY-SA 4.0

Septic tanks do not last forever. Older brick or concrete tanks crack and leak, single-skin steel tanks corrode, and many older installations no longer meet the rules that now apply to off-mains drainage. When a tank fails, or a survey flags it during a house sale, replacement is usually the right answer.

Replacing a tank in the gorge runs into a constraint that does not apply elsewhere in Shropshire: the hillsides move. Landslips affect both sides of the valley and extend up the tributary valleys, the Jackfield slip among them, and Telford & Wrekin has spent tens of millions on stabilisation since the 1980s. Excavation, backfill and any change to where water goes are stability questions here, and development within the mapped instability zones is expected to be supported by a ground stability report. The Coal Measures underneath — clays, mudstones, siltstones, sandstones and coal, much of it disturbed by three centuries of mining and tipping — mean made ground and old workings turn up regularly, so a trial hole a few metres away can say very little about what is under the tank.

Mains sewerage reaches the main gorge settlements, but the properties strung along the valley sides and the farms on the plateau above frequently do not have it. Cottages built for ironworkers and tile makers, converted works buildings and isolated houses up the side valleys run on private systems, many of them old, undocumented and inherited with the house.

How septic tank installation and replacement works, in full →

Ground conditions around Ironbridge

The gorge cuts through Coal Measures: an interleaved sequence of clays, mudstones, siltstones, sandstones, limestones and coal, much of it disturbed by three centuries of mining and tipping. Made ground and old workings are common, so what a trial hole finds a few metres away may say very little about the ground under the tank.

Watercourses and the rules around Ironbridge

The Severn runs the length of the gorge, and the steep tributary valleys feed it directly and quickly. There is very little distance and even less time between a failing system on these slopes and the river, in a valley whose water quality is watched closely on both environmental and heritage grounds.

Buying or selling around Ironbridge

Gorge property is characterful, listed in large numbers, and sold at a premium for the setting. Conservation area and World Heritage constraints shape what can be altered, and drainage upgrades on a listed cottage on a steep plot are a planning question as well as an engineering one, which is why they surface early in a sale.

What the service includes

Site assessment and percolation testing to BS 6297
Honest advice on whether a septic tank or a treatment plant is the right fit for your ground
Supply and installation of modern tanks certified to EN 12566
Excavation, concrete backfill where required, and reinstatement of the site
Decommissioning and safe removal or infilling of the old tank
Building regulations liaison and completion paperwork

Around Ironbridge

As well as Ironbridge itself, the surrounding villages and farms are covered, including Coalbrookdale, Coalport, Madeley, Buildwas, Leighton, Sutton Maddock, Beckbury, Ryton, Barrow, Kemberton. If you are somewhere smaller or somewhere between, get in touch anyway.