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Broughton is an old village with a great deal of modern housing built around it, and the interesting difference between the two is not the heating. It is what happens to the water once it leaves.
Older property drains the way property has always drained. Modern estates here were designed with sustainable drainage, meaning swales, basins and balancing ponds that hold surface water and release it slowly rather than sending it straight into a sewer.
That is invisible until something goes wrong, and then it matters a great deal who owns which bit.
Based in Two Mile Ash, around twenty minutes across the city. Gas Safe registered, registration number 981362.
- Gas Safe registered 981362
- Around twenty minutes across the city
- Foul and surface water are two different systems here
- Booked work Monday to Saturday, 8am to 8pm
Last updated
Foul and surface water are two different systems
On a modern estate they are separate, and confusing them is the source of most of the arguments.
- Foul drainage takes waste from your toilets, sinks, baths and appliances. Inside your boundary and serving only your property, it is yours. Beyond your boundary or shared with neighbours, it is generally the water company’s, following the 2011 transfer.
- Surface water drainage takes rainwater from roofs and hard surfaces. On a sustainable drainage estate this goes to swales, basins or a balancing pond rather than into the foul system, and those features are usually maintained by a management company or the local authority rather than by the water company.
- Practical consequence: if a gully in the road is blocked or a swale is not draining, that is a management company or council matter. If your own drain is blocked inside your boundary, that is ours. If several houses are affected, it is likely neither of yours.
Connecting anything foul into a surface water drain discharges sewage into a watercourse
It happens during extensions and conversions. If you are having work done, make sure whoever does it knows which drain is which. See blocked drains.
If you are changing anything outside
Worth knowing before you pave a drive or build an extension.
On a sustainable drainage estate, the surface water system was designed around a certain amount of hard surface. Adding more, a wider driveway, a large patio, a garden room roof, sends more rainwater into it than it was sized for, and the water has to go somewhere.
Permeable surfacing, or a soakaway that takes the run-off rather than piping it to the road, is usually the answer. What you should not do is connect a new downpipe or a driveway gully into the foul drain, which is easier than it sounds and causes real problems downstream.
If a builder or landscaper proposes connecting anything new to an existing drain, it is worth asking which drain they mean.
Before you assume a blockage is yours
Lift the inspection chamber cover nearest the property and look. If it is full, the blockage is downstream of it. If it is empty and the problem is inside the house, it is upstream, between the house and that chamber. That one check tells you which side of your boundary to look at.
Ask the neighbours too. Simultaneous problems point to a shared or public section.
The two sorts of housing
The old village. Older property with solid walls, higher heat loss and larger radiators needed, plus fixed drainage arrangements that predate everything around them.
The modern estates, including Broughton Gate. Mains pressure throughout, unvented cylinders in many, and underfloor heating on ground floors in parts. Faults sit in controls rather than pipework. See underfloor heating.
Hard water
Same Anglian Water supply as the rest of Milton Keynes, around 300 mg/l of calcium carbonate against a UK average of 207. See our hard water guide.
Getting to Broughton
Around twenty minutes from Two Mile Ash. Fine for booked work and out of hours.
Frequently asked questions
A drain in my road is blocked. Who deals with it?
If it is a surface water gully on a modern estate, usually the management company or the council. If it is foul drainage beyond your boundary, usually the water company.
My drain is blocked and so is my neighbour’s.
That points to a shared or public section rather than either of your private drains. Worth reporting before paying anyone.
How do I know which drain is which?
Foul takes waste from the house, surface water takes rainwater. On modern estates they are separate systems, and connecting one into the other causes serious problems.
Can you clear a blocked drain?
Yes, including rodding, jetting and CCTV survey where a drain blocks repeatedly and it is worth finding out why.
Do you cover Broughton Gate and Milton Keynes Village?
Yes, along with Middleton, Monkston, Brooklands and Oakgrove.
What we do in Broughton
Where we cover in Broughton
- Broughton
- Broughton Gate
- Middleton
- Monkston
- Brooklands
- Oakgrove
- Milton Keynes Village
Get in touch
Call 07514 312117 or send a WhatsApp. Gas Safe registered 981362, CIPHE member, fully insured.