Soakaway installation in Staffordshire

Ground that changes across the county

The sandstones and pebble beds that form Cannock Chase drain quickly, and plots on them can often return roof water straight to the ground. The Trent and Dove valleys have sand and gravel terraces that drain too, though groundwater in them can sit close to the surface. In the north, the Coal Measures around Stoke-on-Trent and Kidsgrove, and the mudstone across much of the middle of the county, hold water and usually rule infiltration out.

Limestone and gritstone in the Moorlands raise their own questions for the engineer. None of this is ours to judge on site: the soakaway is sized from percolation results and placed by your designer, and we install to that drawing.

Coalfield land and infiltration

Around Cannock, Norton Canes and the Potteries, old mine workings and made ground often lead the designer to keep water out of the ground altogether, even where it would drain. Infiltrating water can move contamination or find its way into old workings. Where that decision goes against a soakaway, we install attenuation instead.

What we install

We don't excavate or backfill. Your groundworker forms the pit, we build the soakaway inside it, and your contractor places the backfill after we hand over.

• Crates and permeable geotextile supplied to the design, or install only
• A formation check before material goes into the pit
• Crates built inside the wrap to the designed volume
• Catchpit and filter connections for silt management
• The wrap closed over the top, ready for backfill
• Inspection records and handover paperwork

Typical Staffordshire jobs

Our base is in Tamworth, in the south-east of the county, so short visits are easy to fit in. Soakaway work here is mostly on the smaller side: one-off houses and extensions around Lichfield and Penkridge, barn conversions, village infill and farm buildings. Soakaways under drives and parking areas are built to the loading class on the design.

High water in the Trent and Dove valleys

On the terrace gravels around Burton, Alrewas and Uttoxeter, the ground takes water readily, but the water table can rise close to the surface in winter. A soakaway only works with unsaturated ground beneath it, so the engineer looks at seasonal groundwater as well as the percolation rate. Where the gap is too small, the usual outcomes are a shallower, wider soakaway or a move to attenuation, and we install whichever is chosen.