Septic tank and cesspool services in Ashford

Clay, sand and chalk within a few miles of the town

Ashford sits where four bands of ground meet. Weald clay lies to the south, the Lower Greensand runs through the middle of the town, the Gault clay crosses the northern suburbs and the chalk of the North Downs rises beyond it. Within a few miles of the town centre a tank can be sitting in heavy clay, in sand or in chalk, and the ground has a lot to do with how well a septic tank copes.

South and west of the town, the villages on the Weald clay, Bethersden, High Halden, Biddenden and Smarden, are where drainage fields work hardest, and where many older properties were built with a sealed cesspit instead. North of the town the ground climbs towards Challock and the chalk, where a drainage field has an easier time but the chalk carries water down quickly, so a leaking tank matters more. To the south east, Appledore looks out over Romney Marsh, where the dykes and the winter water table set the rules.

Water is the other thing that shapes the work here. Five main rivers meet at Ashford, the Great Stour, the East Stour, the Aylesford Stream, the Whitewater Dyke and the Ruckinge Dyke, and because they rise on clay they come up fast after heavy rain. Low ground beside them is where an old tank takes in groundwater through the winter and where a drainage field can sit waterlogged for weeks. If a field on the clay is giving up, replacing a failed drainage field sets out what a new one has to pass, and where the ground rules a field out, a treatment plant installation is usually the answer.