We survey across B77 to B79 from our base in Castlecroft, Wolverhampton. Every section graded, every defect coded to MSCC, a site plan, the full video — and the report back the same day, by NADC-certified surveyors.
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Why drains fail in Tamworth
A drain fails because of what is around it, not just what goes down it. Three things account for most of what we log locally.
An overspill town, built almost entirely in two decades. Tamworth expanded enormously through the 1960s and 70s to take Birmingham overspill, which means estates like Stonydelph, Belgrave and Glascote went up squarely in the pitch fibre era. That pipe deforms rather than cracks – the bore closes gradually and blockages become steadily more frequent, with nothing visible at the surface until it is well advanced. It is also not repairable in place.
Two rivers meeting. The Tame and the Anker join here, and the low ground around Bolehall and Kettlebrook has a history of flooding. High groundwater means infiltration through open joints, and a system with no spare capacity in wet weather.
None of that is visible from the surface, which is why a camera settles in an hour what guesswork will not settle at all.
Why people here ask for one
Most often it is a drain that keeps blocking, or no record of where anything runs. All the reasons a survey gets commissioned
Areas we cover
Amington, Belgrave, Bolehall, Dosthill, Fazeley, Glascote, Kettlebrook, Stonydelph, Tamworth town centre and Wilnecote — B77 to B79.
Tamworth sits inside our survey radius but outside our drain unblocking radius, so we cover it for planned survey work rather than emergency call-outs.
A question we get asked here
How do I know if we have pitch fibre? It is obvious on camera within the first few metres, and on Tamworth’s 1960s-70s estates it is the first thing we look for.
What we need on site in Tamworth
Around Amington, Belgrave, Bolehall the housing is old enough for this to matter, and B77 and B79 is where we see it most.
A few practical things that make the difference between an hour and half a day.
Somewhere to park within reach of the run. The hose and the camera reel both have a working length.
An accessible chamber. Buried or paved-over covers are common on older Tamworth property and finding one is part of the job, but knowing where it is saves time.
Water and power are not needed – the van carries both.
Clear the area if you can. Bins, planters and parked cars over the covers are the usual delay.
Why it only floods when it rains
On Tamworth property, and particularly around Amington, Belgrave, Bolehall, this is the usual picture.
A drain that copes all week and backs up in a downpour is usually telling you about capacity rather than a blockage.
On combined systems, common across older Tamworth property, roof and yard water shares the pipe with everything else. Lose part of the bore to silt, roots or a displaced joint and the run still copes with normal flow – until the rain arrives.
Our surveys record water levels at intervals for exactly this reason: a section holding water where it should be running is a finding, not a detail.
Whose drain is it in Tamworth?
We cover B77 and B79, and this comes up often enough on Tamworth property to be worth setting out properly. Amington and Belgrave see it as much as anywhere.
Worth settling before money changes hands, because for a good proportion of blockages the answer is Severn Trent and they will attend their own assets at no charge.
Since 1 October 2011, private sewers and lateral drains connected to the public system transferred to the water and sewerage company. The test is two questions: does the pipe still serve only your property, and is it still inside your boundary? If both are yes, it is yours. If either is no – it is shared, or it runs past the boundary – it is very probably theirs.
We will tell you if that is what we find rather than invoicing you for it.
South Staffs Water supplies the drinking water across much of this area but does not handle sewerage. For drainage, Severn Trent is the right number.
Recurring blockages: the cheaper order of operations
In Tamworth – B77 and B79 – this is one of the questions we are asked most, and the answer is usually the same across Amington and Belgrave.
Clearing the same Tamworth drain every few months costs more over a year than finding out why once.
Repeat blockages in one spot almost always have a physical cause. A displaced joint leaves a step for solids to catch on. A length that has lost its fall holds water, and solids drop out of suspension in the flat. A crushed section under a drive does the same.
So: jet it properly rather than rod it, put the camera down while the bore is clear, and get the defect positioned in metres and coded. “There is a problem out the back” is not something anyone can quote against. “Joint displaced medium at 14.2 m, severity 3” is.
Getting to you
Tamworth is consistent enough, from Amington and Belgrave outwards, to describe in one go. B77 and B79 are the area meant.
We work out of Castlecroft in Wolverhampton. Tamworth is within the area we survey, though outside the radius we cover for emergency unblocking.
If you need a survey here, ring and we will book it in. If you need a drain cleared today, we will tell you straight rather than take the job.
Pre-purchase surveys in Tamworth
In Tamworth – B77 and B79 – this is one of the questions we are asked most, and the answer is usually the same across Amington and Belgrave.
Booked before exchange, a drainage survey is one of the cheaper pieces of due diligence available on a house purchase, and one of the few that can change the price.
You get every accessible run on camera, each defect coded to MSCC and positioned in metres, a condition grade per section, and a plan of where the drainage actually goes – which for a great many properties is the only accurate drawing that has ever existed.
Two thirds of the sections we survey come back at the top grade. A clean report is a perfectly good outcome and worth paying for: it takes drainage off the list of things to worry about, with a recording to prove it.
Nearby: Lichfield · Burton upon Trent · Sutton Coldfield Coverage: Areas we cover across Staffordshire
Talk to the person who will do the work.
Surveys across the West Midlands, south Staffordshire, east Shropshire and north Worcestershire. Unblocking closer to home.