0800 772 33 99 — we cover TF1 to TF7 across Telford, Wellington, Oakengates, Dawley, Madeley, Hadley, Ketley, Lawley and Priorslee.

Telford call-outs have a pattern to them: drains that have been blocking a little more often each year. That is rarely something someone has put down the drain – it usually means the pipe itself has started to deform.

Ring us and we will tell you when we can get to you. You speak to the people doing the work.

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How we clear it

Jetting, at a pressure chosen for what the pipe is made of. That distinction matters more in Telford than anywhere else we work, because a deformed pitch fibre run can be damaged by an unconsidered head.

How high-pressure drain jetting works

Why drains fail in Telford

Most recurring problems here trace back to ground conditions rather than to anything that was put down the drain. This is why.

Telford was designated in the 1960s and built out through the 1970s and 80s. That single fact explains most of the drainage problems in the town.

Pitch fibre. The construction of Telford coincides almost exactly with the period when pitch fibre pipe was standard. It is bitumen-impregnated, has roughly a fifty-year design life, and that life is now up. It does not crack — it delaminates and deforms, so the bore closes gradually and blockages become more and more frequent. Nothing shows at the surface until it is well advanced.

This is the one material where jetting can make things worse. A deformed pitch fibre run can be damaged by an unconsidered jetting head. We would rather look first and know what we are dealing with than clear it blind — which is why, in Telford more than anywhere else we work, a camera and a jetter belong on the same visit.

Historic mine workings underneath. The East Shropshire coalfield was worked for coal, ironstone, fireclay and limestone long before the new town existed, much of it shallow. Ground movement over old workings pulls pipe joints apart, and a displaced joint catches solids every time.

Newer estates fail differently. Lawley, Priorslee and Muxton are modern PVC. The faults there are usually construction faults — joints pulled at installation, builders’ debris left in the pipe, runs laid with too little fall. Worth establishing, because those are often someone else’s to put right.

That is the reason a repeat blockage here is worth looking at properly rather than clearing again – the cause is usually structural and it is usually visible.

If it keeps happening

A drain that blocks repeatedly has a cause. We surveyed a large system in Priorslee across thirteen separate runs and found a single displaced joint — which is exactly the point of looking: the fault is usually one specific thing in one specific place, and jetting the whole system every six months is not the answer.

See CCTV drain surveys in Telford.

Who pays

Shared drainage and anything beyond your boundary became Severn Trent’s responsibility in 2011. On the newer estates, where runs are often shared between several properties, this catches people out regularly – so we will tell you whose problem it is before anything is invoiced.

Areas we cover

Admaston, Dawley, Donnington, Hadley, Horsehay, Ketley, Lawley, Leegomery, Madeley, Muxton, Oakengates, Priorslee, Shawbirch, St Georges, Stirchley, Sutton Hill, Telford town centre, Trench, Wellington and Woodside — TF1 to TF7.

Pre-purchase surveys in Telford

Admaston and Dawley and the rest of Telford share the same drainage story, so it is worth telling once. TF1, TF2 and TF7 are the ground being described.

CCTV view looking along a drain through a series of pipe joints receding into the distance

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.

Build over agreements around Telford

In Telford – TF1, TF2 and TF7 – this is one of the questions we are asked most, and the answer is usually the same across Admaston and Dawley.

A survey before the drawings are finished is considerably cheaper than a diversion after them.

You cannot normally build over an inspection chamber – access has to be maintained. The options are to redesign around it, relocate it, or divert the run under Section 185 of the Water Industry Act 1991, which obliges the undertaker to divert a sewer where it is reasonably practicable, at the applicant’s cost.

In several of the properties we have surveyed, chambers had been buried by previous landscaping. A chamber nobody knows about is the one that stops a build, so the survey records them explicitly.

We do not carry out diversions or excavation. We produce the plan and the graded report that goes with the application.

Pipe material, and why we record it

Admaston and Dawley are a fair sample of Telford drainage, and what follows is what we find across TF1, TF2 and TF7.

Every section in our reports names the material, because it is the first thing any repair quote will turn on.

Vitrified clay dominates older Telford drainage. Short lengths, many joints, and the joints are the weak point rather than the pipe.

Pitch fibre appears on post-war estates. It deforms along its length instead of cracking at a point, so it is a whole-run problem when it goes.

Modern plastics are on newer work. Better in most respects, but not immune – they crush under load and settle in made ground like anything else.

What the camera actually shows

We cover TF1, TF2 and TF7, and this comes up often enough on Telford property to be worth setting out properly. Admaston and Dawley see it as much as anywhere.

A survey is not a torch down a hole. The camera is fed the length of the run and every observation is recorded against a distance from the start.

Displaced joints show as a step or a crescent of shadow where the far pipe no longer lines up with the near one.

Open joints show a dark band all the way round, sometimes with soil visible behind.

Roots appear as fine fibres trailing in the flow, or a dense mass filling the bore – nearly always at a joint you can see behind them.

Cracks are break lines that are not visibly open, recorded by clock position.

Infiltration is water entering where no connection exists.

Every one of those carries a still image in the report, so you can see the thing being described rather than take a code on trust.

What we pull out of drains around Telford

On Telford property, and particularly around Admaston, Dawley, Donnington, this is the usual picture.

The blockage itself is rarely a mystery. It is nearly always one of five things.

Wipes, marketed as flushable. They are not. They keep their structure in water, and they are the first thing we look for.

Sanitary products and nappies. Both swell on contact. Both are common enough that a family home in TF1, TF2 and TF7 will meet the problem sooner or later.

Cooking fat. It leaves the sink as liquid and arrives in the drain as a solid. Where a run is shallow or has lost its fall, it builds into a plug.

Root ingress. Mature trees and a joint that has moved are all it takes.

Structural damage. A displaced joint or a crushed section catches solids on every flush, and no amount of clearing fixes that.

Common questions

How quickly can you get here? Ring us and we will give you a realistic time before you commit to anything.

What will it cost? We will give you a price on the phone before we come out, so there are no surprises when we arrive.

My drains are pitch fibre — can you still clear them? Yes, but carefully, and it is worth knowing that is what they are first. Pitch fibre that has deformed will keep blocking, and clearing it is a holding measure rather than a fix.