West Devon Drainage — Common Questions
Do you cover West Devon 24 hours a day?
Yes. Exjet runs a 24-hour callout across West Devon, every day of the year, and the phone is answered by someone who knows the area. We will give you an honest arrival time rather than an optimistic one — it is a big district and we would rather you knew.
Which areas and postcodes do you cover?
EX20, EX21, EX22 and PL19 — Okehampton, Hatherleigh, North Tawton, Holsworthy, Bradworthy, Beaworthy, Halwill, Tavistock and everything between them, including the farms and single properties off the lanes. If you are just over into Cornwall or up towards Torrington, ring anyway.
Can a blocked soakaway cause flooding in the yard?
Almost certainly, and it is one of the most common jobs we do out here. Older soakaways silt up, and a system built for a farmhouse roof is now taking the runoff from two barn conversions and a concrete yard. We can camera the run, find where it is failing, and tell you whether it needs cleaning, repairing or replacing.
Do you empty septic tanks out here?
Yes. We empty septic tanks and treatment plants and, more usefully, we can tell you why one keeps needing emptying. Nine times out of ten the tank is fine and the soakaway has failed. Emptying it again every few months treats the symptom and costs you a fortune.
Can you survey the drainage before I buy a rural property?
Yes, and it is worth doing before you buy. A pre-purchase CCTV survey on a rural property tells you whether the drainage is sound, where it actually runs, and whether the septic tank arrangement will pass muster under the current rules. It is a small cost against the price of finding out afterwards.
Is there a call-out charge?
No. There is no call-out charge anywhere in West Devon. You get a price before we start and it does not change because the job turned out to be down a longer lane than we expected.
AREAS WE COVER IN WEST DEVON
EX20 — Okehampton, North Tawton, Hatherleigh, Sticklepath, South Zeal, Belstone, Chagford, Bridestowe, Lydford and the moorland edge.
EX21 — Beaworthy, Halwill Junction, Black Torrington, Highampton and the Torridge villages.
EX22 — Holsworthy, Bradworthy, Clawton, Pyworthy, Pancrasweek and the farms out to the Cornish border.
PL19 — Tavistock, Mary Tavy, Peter Tavy, Lamerton, Milton Abbot and the western fringe of Dartmoor.
If your property is not in a town at all — and a great many out here are not — that is fine. We work off what three words, a grid reference or a gate description just as happily as a postcode, and we do not stop at a district boundary. Ring us and we will tell you straight whether we can get to you.
Nearby areas: Exeter to the east, Barnstaple to the north, Tiverton to the north east and Launceston and Liskeard over the Cornish border.
Why Choose Exjet in West Devon
Exjet has been working on drains and sewers across the South West since 1986. We are a Devon firm, not a national brand routing calls to whoever is nearest, and we are used to rural work — long drives, no mains, no plans, and access that a 3.5-tonne van cannot always manage. Our engineers turn up with the right kit for that, and if a job needs a smaller unit or a longer hose run we bring it rather than telling you it cannot be done.
No call-out charge, clear pricing before we start, and a 24-hour emergency line answered by people who know where Halwill Junction is.
The firm was founded in 1986 by the parents of our current managing director, who joined the site team himself in 1998. The story is here.
Moorland, Farm and Off-Mains Drainage
Okehampton, North Tawton, Hatherleigh, Sticklepath, South Zeal, Chagford, Bridestowe, Lydford, Beaworthy, Halwill Junction, Black Torrington, Holsworthy, Bradworthy, Clawton, Pyworthy and Tavistock — plus the farms and single properties between them that do not appear on any street map.
Two things come up again and again out here. The first is surface water: run-off from moorland and from a lot of hard-standing arriving faster than a Victorian soakaway or a field ditch was ever built to take. The second is that the drainage on a farm or an old rectory has usually been extended three or four times, and no one alive knows where all of it goes. We trace it, camera it, and give you a plan you can actually keep.
what we do
West Devon is a long way from anywhere, and that shapes everything about the drainage. Properties are spread out, a great many are off mains drainage entirely, and the ones that are connected sit at the end of long private runs that nobody has looked inside for decades. Add the rainfall that comes off the western side of Dartmoor and you get systems that cope perfectly well until the first serious storm of the autumn, and then do not.
We work across the whole district — Okehampton and the moorland fringe, Hatherleigh and the Torridge villages, Holsworthy and the farms out towards the Cornish border, and Tavistock down the western edge of the moor.
Blocked Drains Okehampton & West Devon
Exjet covers Okehampton, Holsworthy, Hatherleigh, Tavistock and the villages of western Dartmoor — blocked drains cleared, CCTV surveys, no-dig repairs and septic tank work, with a genuine 24-hour callout.