If you have a septic tank, a sign that the soakaway may not be working properly comes when you have to empty it a lot more frequently. Sodium is in washing powder, detergents, sweat, dishwasher tablets, water softenersand water from vegetable cooking, etc. With the chemical having such destructive effect in indoor drains, it is quite obvious what it will do to the debris of an outside drain within minutes. Even after clearing the blocked external drain, there may be some debris that could lead to blockage again. The good news is that Quest Waste Management offer a range of inspection, cleaning and repair services that will ensure your soakaway stays in pristine condition for the foreseeable future.

You will never obtain an Environment Agency Exemption for these conversion kits and in any case, they became illegal on 1st July 2013 under the Construction Products Directive. If it’s a straightforward “soft” blockage, you can have it cleared by a reputable drainage clearance company. If you attempt to carry out work on a rainwater drain blocked with mud, you need to remember to wear protective equipment to avoid contact with bacteria.

Read this guide to identifying and resolving problems with surface water drainage caused by blocked soakaways.

It is probably helpful to point out at this stage that in our experience most blocked drains are simple and are cleared within half an hour. On the other hand, if the volume of wastewater coming from the building is more than the system is designed to handle, it can cause overflow. First off before we tell you how to clear away a soakaway, let’s tell you what one is for those that don’t know. You must also have a winter water table that never comes to within a metre of the bottom of the bottom of the drainage field and no rock within 1M of the bottom of it. Soakaway CRATES and TUNNELS are also not allowed for septic tank or any sewage effluent, only for rainwater.Failure to look after your septic tank means you’re going to potentially cause bad smells, leakage of sewage, and grind your drainage to a halt. However, if the drain has been closed for an extended period, then it will be difficult to remove the cover. If the network is near to the surface, vehicles driving over the soakaway can also cause damage to the piping. Though it may be unpleasant to think about, large clumps of organic waste matter can (and do) leak out of poorly maintained septic tanks and find their way into a neighbouring soakaway.

OMDI has been working for decades with the maintenance of soakaway systems, both the traditional gravel variety and plastic crates. The fewer contaminants you discharge into your tank the less material there is to digest and the less likely that problems will occur as a result. If you find your soakaway blocked or suspect in any way that it is not functioning as it should, OMDI can also perform an inspection and clean it out.These problems will require a drainage professional or engineer to use specialised equipment to unblock drains correctly. With over 30 years of experience in this field, we are experts in excavating, re-excavating and clearing soakaways. When you take a look inside your drain and begin to ask yourself questions like ‘ Should there be water in my outside drain? Modern soakaways use big plastic crates wrapped in permeable membrane and are pretty good for not getting blocked up.

No matter your type of septic tank – whether it’s a traditional unit, onion-shaped, or a modern package sewage plant, the best septic treatment for your system is a bacteria top-up.Similarly, silt traps must be regularly inspected and cleaned out for the optimum free flow of water within the soakaway crate. We can provide reports and manage the claim from start to finish so that you don’t have to worry about it at all.