The Trent and its tributaries, the Tame, the Sow, the Dove and the Blithe, drain almost all of the county. The valley floors are flat, close to the river and well connected by road, which has made the A38 and A50 corridors a natural home for large warehouses and distribution centres.
A big roof and a wide yard produce a lot of runoff in a short time, and the river can only take so much, so these sites carry large attenuation tanks. In the river terraces, sands and gravels can drain well, but groundwater is often close to the surface, which can make infiltration unsuitable. A sealed, welded tank keeps the stored water separate from the groundwater around it.
In the north of the county, Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme have plenty of brownfield land from the pottery, mining and steel industries. Around Cannock, the old coalfield brings the same issues: made ground, old shafts and workings, and contamination that rules out putting water into the ground.
On these sites the membrane does two jobs. It holds the stored water in, and it keeps polluted ground and groundwater out of the drainage. Seams are heat-welded throughout, with no tape, and we log a test weld before the tank is covered.
Around Lichfield, Stafford, Burton, Stone and Uttoxeter, the work is mostly new housing, with tanks under estate roads and open space. In the countryside it is farm buildings, rural business units and small village schemes. Our Tamworth base is close to most of the county, so short visits for a small tank or an extra connection are easy to fit in.
Housing schemes here are often built in phases, with each phase bringing its own tank or extension to the drainage. We return as each phase is opened up by the groundworker, and keep the QA records phase by phase so they follow the site through to adoption.
- Large tanks under distribution yards in the Trent valley
- Brownfield sites in the Potteries and around Cannock
- Estate tanks on new housing around the county towns
- Small tanks on farm and village schemes
The tank's design and size are your drainage engineer's job, and the dig, formwork and backfill are your groundworker's. Ours, supplied and installed or install only, covers fleece and membrane, 95–97% void crates, the inlet, outlet and flow-control connections, a test weld on record, plus the QA and handover file that building control will want.
