Drainage Services in Hemel Hempstead

Hemel Hempstead's centre was largely rebuilt as a post-war New Town, so much of its drainage dates from the 1950s onward and uses concrete or early plastic pipework laid to planned falls, generally more predictable than older systems. However, the original village core around Old Town and Boxmoor retains genuinely old clay drainage tied to the chalk stream valley of the River Gade, where a naturally high water table can raise groundwater into shallow pipe runs after wet weather.

Estates such as Adeyfield, Bennetts End and Leverstock Green were built through the mid-20th century on chalk and clay-capped ground, and while their drainage is younger than in the historic centre, decades of tree growth along wide grass verges has led to root ingress in some pipe joints. Combined sewer sections remain in the oldest parts of town, and heavy rainfall on the chalk plateau surrounding Hemel can generate rapid surface water runoff into the valley.

In Hemel Hempstead we start with a CCTV survey to determine whether root ingress, silt from a high water table near the Gade, or a structural fault is the cause of a blockage. Jetting clears the majority of routine blockages, while no-dig lining is our preferred method for restoring cracked or displaced pipework beneath gardens and roads without major excavation across the town's mix of New Town and older housing stock.