How to hire
Match the firm to the job first. A drainage contractor owns blockages, camera surveys, jetting, repairs and septic tanks; a surfacing contractor owns driveways, patios and tarmac; a landscaper mixes planting with hard surfaces; and a civil engineering contractor runs housing and infrastructure programmes. Say which of these you need in your first enquiry, with photos of the manholes, the standing water or the worn-out drive, the postcode, and whether anything is urgent.
Check the registers that matter for this trade before you book. Type the company name into the DrainSafe search, which lists drainage contractors by place and category, from camera surveys to lining and repairs [1]. Jetting association, commercial safety scheme and platform badges on a website are the firm's own statements, so ask for the current certificate details with your quote rather than taking a logo at face value. Where spoil or tank contents leave your site, check the carrier on the Environment Agency register and confirm the tier covers construction and demolition waste [2]. A limited company should match its Companies House record on name, number and address.
Before you call anyone, work out whose pipe is blocked. Severn Trent looks after public sewers and the shared sections outside your boundary, while drains inside your boundary that serve only your home are yours, and blocked road gullies sit with the council [12]. Where more than one house is affected, or a manhole outside your boundary overflows, the water company's helpline comes before any contractor's number.
Settle permissions before anyone digs. A new or replacement driveway of any size avoids planning permission where it uses permeable surfacing, or where rainwater runs to a lawn or border; past five square metres, an impermeable surface with nowhere for the water to go needs permission [8]. Where the drive meets the road, Telford and Wrekin Council needs a dropped kerb application, and it will not inspect until planning permission is granted, with around six metres of hardstanding behind the footway [10]. New drains and septic systems need building approval, and septic discharges must meet the general binding rules [9].
If your home sits in one of the borough's eight conservation areas, the Severn Gorge, Wellington and Wrockwardine among them, works that need no permission elsewhere can need it there, and the Gorge carries an Article 4 direction over minor changes [13]. Much of the Gorge is also a World Heritage Site with its own planning policies, and the council runs free planning surgeries for residents inside it [14]. Older terraces, steep Gorge plots and narrow side entries all change how plant gets in and spoil comes out, so describe your access plainly in the first enquiry.
Get two or three itemised written quotes on the same written scope, so you compare like with like. Each quote should separate labour, materials and VAT, name the exact work, from rodding or jetting through excavation, bedding, levels and reinstatement, with access arrangements, spoil removal, start and finish dates, and payment stages. A deposit for materials is normal, while full payment before completion is not. Treat an outlier far above or below the rest as a question rather than a bargain, and ask what is included or excluded.
For septic tanks, add three questions to every enquiry: when was the tank last emptied, where does the effluent discharge to, and who carries the waste away. Emptying typically runs to a few hundred pounds and must leave with a licensed carrier [5]. A septic tank must not discharge to a watercourse, and replacing or upgrading a system means building approval and the binding rules from the start [9]. If a survey finds a failed drainage field, price the replacement field, not just the pump-out.
New drains and altered drainage need building control sign-off through Telford and Wrekin Council, either as full plans with an approval notice or, for minor works, a building notice taken out before work starts [15]. A building notice cannot be used within three metres of a public sewer, and surveyors inspect every job at key stages before a completion certificate closes it [15]. Name the application route on the quote, agree who arranges the inspections, and file the completion certificate with your invoice and guarantee.
At the end, collect the paperwork before you pay the balance: the invoice showing labour, materials and VAT, the CCTV footage and written report where a survey was done, the guarantee terms with length and exclusions, and the waste paperwork where spoil or tank contents left the site. Walk the finished levels with a hose or a bucket of water where you can, and photograph connections before backfilling hides them. If a defect appears later, write promptly with dates and photos; Citizens Advice sets out the consumer steps where a trader will not put it right [11].
Pricing
As of autumn 2026, rough Telford ranges run like this: clearing a blocked drain around £85 by rodding or nearer £185 by jetting, with an average call-out near £60 and emergency attendance nearer £180 [3]. A basic camera survey sits between £85 and £235, and a full survey with footage and report between £200 and £350 [4]. Emptying a standard septic tank typically costs between £175 and £312, with around £225 the usual figure [5].
Surfacing runs to bigger tickets: a block paved driveway averages £90 to £130 per square metre, or around £5,500 for a double driveway, with clay and natural stone dearer than concrete blocks [6]. Patios range widely by material, from budget slabs near £70 to £100 per square metre toward several hundred for flagstone, with a 25 square metre patio near £3,250 and labour near £280 a day [7]. Telford usually sits below London and South East prices.
Access moves the price most: buried defects that need excavation can add £100 to £300 a dig, clay ground and high water tables complicate soakaways and drainage fields, and long hose runs, tanker distance and emergency timing all add to septic and unblocking bills [4] [5]. Material choice drives surfacing: stone and clay pavers, thicker sub-bases for cars rather than feet, steps, drainage channels and taking old spoil away each lift the total [6] [7].
Soakaways and drainage fields are the dearest drainage tickets short of full excavation. Cost guides updated through this year put a complete domestic soakaway between £1,000 and £2,500, with labour near £240 a day and waste removal around £200, while a channel drain for the driveway sits between £25 and £500 [16]. Clay ground, high water tables and poor access all push the figure up [16].
Ask whether VAT sits on top of every figure, since published guides exclude it or state it separately [6] [7]. Firms in this round publish almost no example rates of their own, so treat any single fixed price for a large job with no breakdown as a question, not an answer. Get the scope in writing before work starts, with the staged prices for clearance, survey and repair agreed separately, and keep every quote, invoice and report together.
Red flags
Quotes excavation, relining or a new driveway without visiting or asking for photos, levels and access.
Cannot name which approval scheme it belongs to or give membership details you can check on the scheme register [1].
Plans to shift spoil or tank contents with no registered carrier and no waste paperwork [2] [5].
Asks for full payment in cash before starting, with no written quote or terms.
Lays an impermeable front drive with nowhere for rainwater to go and no mention of planning permission [8].
Starts a dropped-kerb job with no council application and no planning position settled [10].
Gives one fixed price for a large surfacing or drainage job with no breakdown of labour, materials and VAT.
Starts work within three metres of a public sewer with no building control route agreed [15].
Prices work on a Gorge or conservation-area home as if no permission could be needed [13].
Will not put the scope, price, start date and guarantee terms in writing before lifting a tool.