Sometimes when a property is served by a shared septic tank there are circumstances in which installing a standalone system is the best course of action for the customer, it could even be down to personal preference to be the sole proprietor for your wastewater system.

We recently proposed to install a new package sewage treatment plant to handle the foul waste from a property in Northumberland, the system we proposed to install to suit the 3-bedroom property was a Klargester BioAir 2 Premium IPS package sewage treatment plant.

The new package sewage treatment plant was to be installed at the front right-hand side of the property with the drainage field towards the far-right hand side of the garden, due to the existing pipework levels we recommended that a pumped system was installed to allow the treated effluent to lift to a higher-level drainage field which allowed us to utilise the better-quality substrata.

Therefore, as a pumped system was to be installed the aeration unit is our preference, this is due to the fact that all electrical components are located above ground for these systems meaning in the instance of disruption to power or in the event of a pump failure the other mechanical parts are unlikely to be impacted by the system backing up or flooding.

To ascertain the exact size of drainage field required we needed to carry out percolation tests this helped us identify the ground conditions and associated porosity value, this allowed us to install a new drainage field designed to the correct standard.

There were also some surface water cross connections at the property which were required to be diverted to their own standalone soakaways. This required minor modification works to be made to the surface water drainage but this was an essential part of the installation process as excess amounts of roof water can overload the system.

Ensuring the entire wastewater system is installed correctly can prolong the life expectancy of the treatment plant.