Where we work
Based at 33a, Parker House, Mansfield Rd., Derby DE21 4SZ. Most of Derby is inside twenty minutes of the office. We cover Derbyshire and the Nottinghamshire border towns from the same base.
A drainage company's service area is really a statement about response time. Ours is set by where the vans start. That is Mansfield Road on the east side of Derby, between Chaddesden and Oakwood. The A52 and A38 are a few minutes away. From there, the notes below are what our engineers actually find in each area, because the housing stock decides the drainage problems.
Whose drain is it? Severn Trent owns and maintains the public sewers in Derby. Since the 2011 transfer of private sewers, most pipework beyond your boundary became theirs. So did shared drains serving more than one property. The drain that serves only your property, inside the boundary, remains yours. Derby City Council is the Lead Local Flood Authority for surface water and ordinary watercourses in the city. Highway gullies on adopted roads are theirs; the gully in your yard is not. Our guide to who is responsible for blocked drains sets out the whole split, including shared drains and roadside gullies.
Derby and Derbyshire, area by area
- Normanton and Rose HillDE23
Dense late-Victorian terraces around the Arboretum, most on their original salt-glazed clay drains with rigid joints. Shared runs between neighbours are common, which is why a blockage in one house can show up next door first.
Most common jobs here: Emergency drain unblocking, Blocked toilet, Drain repair.
Directions from our office - LittleoverDE23
Edwardian and inter-war semis nearer the city, larger post-war plots towards Burton Road. Mature gardens mean tree roots in clay drains are the usual cause of repeat blockages.
Most common jobs here: Emergency drain unblocking, Drain repair, CCTV drain survey.
Directions from our office - ChaddesdenDE21
Mostly 1930s to 1960s semis on the east side of the city, a few minutes from our Mansfield Road office. Original clay drains and long back-garden runs to a rear gully are typical.
Most common jobs here: Emergency drain unblocking, Outside drain and gully unblocking, Drain jetting.
Directions from our office - OakwoodDE21
1980s and 1990s estates with uPVC drainage. Fewer collapses, more blockages from wipes and fat, and surface-water problems where soakaways were undersized for today's paved drives.
Most common jobs here: Blocked toilet, Blocked sink and shower, Surface water and storm drainage.
Directions from our office - SpondonDE21
An old village core with Victorian cottages, surrounded by post-war housing. The village centre still has some of the oldest private drainage in the east of the city.
Most common jobs here: Drain repair, CCTV drain survey, Collapsed drain repair.
Directions from our office - AllestreeDE22
Leafy 1930s to 1960s suburb on the north side with large gardens and mature trees, so root ingress into clay drains is the most common survey finding.
Most common jobs here: CCTV drain survey, Drain repair, Drain jetting.
Directions from our office - Darley AbbeyDE22
A conservation-area mill village on the Derwent, part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. Georgian mill-workers' cottages with the oldest drainage in the city and strict rules on external works, so no-dig repairs matter here.
Most common jobs here: Drain repair, Collapsed drain repair, CCTV drain survey.
Directions from our office - MickleoverDE3
Derby's largest suburb, mainly 1960s onwards with newer estates on the western edge. Long private drains to the adopted sewer and plenty of shared drives, which affects who is responsible for a blockage.
Most common jobs here: Emergency drain unblocking, Outside drain and gully unblocking, Surface water and storm drainage.
Directions from our office - AlvastonDE24
Inter-war and post-war housing around Alvaston Park, on flat ground close to the Derwent. Shallow falls on the drains mean silt and fat build up faster than on sloping sites.
Most common jobs here: Drain jetting, Emergency drain unblocking, Outside drain and gully unblocking.
Directions from our office - SinfinDE24
Post-war estates alongside the Rolls-Royce site. A mix of concrete and clay drains from the 1950s and 1960s, now at the age where joints displace.
Most common jobs here: Drain repair, CCTV drain survey, Emergency drain unblocking.
Directions from our office - City centre and Cathedral QuarterDE1
Shops, pubs, offices and flats above them, many in Georgian and Victorian buildings with combined drains and grease-heavy waste. Out-of-hours callouts are the norm because a blocked toilet closes a business.
Most common jobs here: Commercial drainage, Emergency drain unblocking, Blocked toilet.
Directions from our office - Pride ParkDE24
The business district around Derby County's stadium and Derby Arena, built on reclaimed railway land in the 1990s. Large modern drainage systems that need planned maintenance rather than emergency calls.
Most common jobs here: Commercial drainage, CCTV drain survey.
Directions from our office - Belper and DuffieldDE56
Mill towns up the Derwent valley, twenty minutes north of the office. Stone-built terraces and older village properties, and a higher share of septic tanks once you leave the main road.
Most common jobs here: Septic tanks, Drain repair, CCTV drain survey.
Directions from our office - Elvaston, Thulston and BorrowashDE72
The villages south-east of the city around Elvaston Castle, where mains drainage ends at the edge of Derby and septic tanks and soakaways take over. Older village properties with long private runs and, on the lower ground near the Derwent, soakaways that struggle in a wet winter.
Most common jobs here: Septic tanks, Surface water and storm drainage, Outside drain and gully unblocking.
Directions from our office - Ilkeston and Long EatonDE7 and NG10
The Erewash towns on the Nottinghamshire border, covered from Derby in under half an hour. Victorian terraces and inter-war semis much like the east of Derby.
Most common jobs here: Emergency drain unblocking, Drain repair, Drain jetting.
Directions from our office
Landmarks we work around
Useful if you are describing where you are on the phone, and a fair picture of the ground we cover.
- Derby ArboretumDE23
Opened in 1840 as England's first purpose-designed public park, gifted by Joseph Strutt. The terraces that grew up around it are some of the oldest private drainage in the city.
Directions from our office - Darley Abbey MillsDE22
Cotton mills founded by the Evans family in 1782, now part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. The surrounding mill village is a conservation area, so repairs that avoid digging are the first choice.
Directions from our office - Markeaton ParkDE22
Derby's most visited park. Markeaton Brook runs from here in a culvert beneath the city centre and is historically the city's most destructive flood source, which is why surface water still backs up in heavy rain.
Directions from our office - Derby Silk Mill (Museum of Making)DE1
The 1721 silk mill on the Derwent is counted among the first factories anywhere. The Cathedral Quarter around it runs on combined Victorian drains shared between shops, pubs and the flats above them.
Directions from our office - Pride Park StadiumDE24
Home of Derby County since 1997, at the centre of the business park built on old railway land. Modern, large-bore drainage that is maintained on a schedule rather than fixed in a panic.
Directions from our office - Royal Derby HospitalDE22
The city's main hospital, on the west side between Littleover and Mickleover. A useful landmark for the Uttoxeter Road corridor, where inter-war housing sits on clay drains.
Directions from our office - Elvaston Castle Country ParkDE72
Two hundred acres of parkland south-east of the city. The villages around it, Elvaston, Thulston and Borrowash, are where septic tanks and soakaways start to replace mains drainage.
Directions from our office - Allestree ParkDE22
The largest park in Derby, now being rewilded. The mature-tree suburb around it is where CCTV surveys most often find root ingress.
Directions from our office - Chaddesden ParkDE21
A few minutes from our Mansfield Road office. Most of the east-Derby callouts start from here, which is why Chaddesden, Oakwood and Spondon get the fastest attendance.
Directions from our office - Alvaston ParkDE24
A riverside park on the flat ground beside the Derwent. Drains around here have shallow falls, so silt and fat settle out and jetting is the routine fix.
Directions from our office - Kedleston HallDE22
The National Trust's Robert Adam house north-west of the city. The lanes beyond Allestree towards Kedleston and Quarndon are largely off mains drainage.
Directions from our office
Rivers and flood risk
River Derwent. Runs through the middle of the city and drains a large Peak District catchment. A wet week in the hills arrives in Derby as a river rise.
Markeaton Brook. Culverted beneath the city centre from Markeaton Park. Historically Derby's most destructive flood source and still the surface-water pinch point in a downpour.
Water coming up through a gully or a manhole is a drainage problem, not a river one. That is what we are for. Call 01332 215521.