Drainage Services in Shepton Mallet

Shepton Mallet sits in the valley of the River Sheppey on the southern Mendip limestone, and the topography is steep. Drainage runs fall quickly off the surrounding slopes, scouring at the top and depositing silt where gradients flatten in the valley bottom, which is where most blockages accumulate in the town's older clay pipework.

The limestone itself behaves unpredictably. Karst features — fissures, swallets and solution cavities — mean surface water can drain rapidly in one place and not at all a short distance away, so soakaway performance varies plot by plot and cannot be assumed. In the valley bottom the water table is shallower and clay deposits slow percolation. The historic town centre has shallow Victorian clay drainage, some combined, beneath narrow streets and listed frontages, with mature trees causing root ingress into displaced joints. Surrounding villages such as Doulting and Oakhill include many off-mains properties.

We CCTV survey before pricing work in Shepton Mallet, both to grade pipe condition on the older runs and to establish how the ground behaves at that specific property. Jetting clears silt and root blockages from the valley-bottom sections, no-dig lining repairs fractured pipework beneath the historic centre without excavation, and any new drainage on limestone is designed from measured percolation rather than assumption.