Installation Guide for Homeowners

Sewage treatment plant or septic tank installations need careful planning. Below are the steps to take in the right order:

1. Research the different types of sewage treatment plant and septic tanks online to see the products available and their features and faults. Forums are a good idea as often faults are highlighted there by purchasers. No plant is perfect.

2. Call us to get informed advice on which treatment plants are suitable for your particular situation and use.

3. Ring your local council to see if they require a Planning Permission Application - some do, some don't.

3. Arrange a site visit by your local Building Regulations officer to assess the site and discuss your plans. If you intend to use a soakaway drainfield for effluent disposal to ground, do the Groundwater Source Protection Zone search, the Trial Site assessment Hole Test and the Percolation Tests to make sure that the land is suitable.

4. Arrange a site visit by our  experienced drainage installer to assess the specific location of your treatment plant and drains. Once the site visit has been performed, we will be able to give you a very good idea of the costs involved.

5. Apply for a discharge exemption or permit from the Environment Agency, if required.  These are generally fairly easy to obtain provided you are installing a sewage treatment plant which has an EN 12566-3 2005 Certificate and are not in a groundwater source protection zone.

    (a)    to do this, you will need to make sure you are not in a groundwater source protection zone. Telephone us for help.

    (b)    once you have confirmed (a), we will guide you to the Exemption Application Form on the internet and help you fill it out. We will also help you find your Grid Reference number for the form.

    (c)    Print the form and send it off to the address on the bottom of the form. The exemption certificate usually take around 10 to 15 days to arrive.

6.  Arrange a date for installation with our qualified staff.  We will be able to discuss what requirements we may have for this installation.

7. Order the sewage treatment plant. This can take up to 2 weeks for delivery, depending on the make.

8.  Tell the local Building Regulations Officer about the dates for installation so he can inspect the install and pass it.

9.  Installation is completed, conforms to all the rules and regulations and has been signed off by the Building Inspector with building regs consent. Treatment plant is commissioned for use by the installer.

10. Take out a Maintenance Agreement with us.

If everything goes well, all the steps above could be performed in the space of 3 weeks. The process is not complicated and, provided the site conforms to the Environment Agency and Building Regulation requirements, you should have no problems installing the treatment plant.