Shrewsbury · SY1, SY2, SY3, SY4, SY5

Soakaway Installation & Repair in Shrewsbury

Percolation testing, drainage field design, and installation or repair of soakaways for septic tanks and treatment plants. Serving Shrewsbury and the surrounding villages, including Baschurch, Bomere Heath, Bayston Hill, Condover.

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Photo: Richard Symonds · CC BY-SA 3.0

The soakaway, properly called a drainage field when it serves a septic tank or treatment plant, is where your system finally hands the water back to the ground. It is also the component that fails most expensively, because a clogged or collapsed drainage field usually means excavation and fresh land.

Soakaway design around Shrewsbury is a tale of two grounds. River terrace gravels along the Severn corridor take water willingly and support compact, conventional drainage fields; the glacial till that covers much of the surrounding farmland does not, and fields there need generous sizing or fail the percolation test outright. Two villages a couple of miles apart — Bicton on the terrace, Hanwood on the clay — can produce opposite test results, which is why testing comes before design every time.

The villages and scattered farms around Shrewsbury are classic off-mains territory. Older properties typically run on septic tanks of varying vintages, newer rural builds and barn conversions on package treatment plants, and it is common for a property changing hands here to be the first time anyone has looked hard at the system in years.

How soakaway installation and repair works, in full →

Ground conditions around Shrewsbury

Ground around Shrewsbury is mixed. The Severn valley carries river terrace sands and gravels that generally drain well, while much of the surrounding farmland sits on glacial till with a heavy clay content where percolation tests need to be taken seriously before any soakaway is designed.

Watercourses and the rules around Shrewsbury

The Severn dominates the local drainage, fed by a network of brooks such as the Rea Brook and Cound Brook. Plenty of rural properties here have a ditch or watercourse within metres of the tank, which is exactly the situation the General Binding Rules were written for: septic tank discharge to those watercourses is no longer permitted.

What the service includes

Percolation tests to BS 6297 with written results
Drainage field design sized to occupancy and measured soil performance
Full installation with distribution pipework and correct aggregate
Investigation of failed soakaways, including whether the fault is the field or the tank upstream
Repairs, extensions and full replacements
Advice on alternatives where the ground genuinely will not percolate

Around Shrewsbury

As well as Shrewsbury itself, the surrounding villages and farms are covered, including Baschurch, Bomere Heath, Bayston Hill, Condover, Atcham, Montford Bridge, Pontesbury, Hanwood, Uffington, Bicton. If you are somewhere smaller or somewhere between, get in touch anyway.