Whether it is one house tank or a whole estate, our free service makes it easy to price soakaway in Cape Town. Your request goes to a drainage contractor serving Cape Town and nearby areas of Western Cape, so you can compare prices and response times before you commit.
Soakaways in Cape Town
Soakaway work in Cape Town is mostly booked by owners of plots, farms and older houses where a septic tank is the only option. Share the number of people, the tank size and whether the ground is sandy, clay or rocky, so contractors serving Cape Town and the rest of Western Cape can quote accurately.
Want to know more first? Our soakaway guide covers the options, what to check and what affects the price.
Septic tanks and drainage in Cape Town
Cape Town has an extensive sewer, but off-sewer areas are many: Kommetjie, Noordhoek, Hout Bay's upper slopes, Philippi horticultural area, Joostenberg and the Atlantic coast farms rely on septic tanks and conservancy tanks. Sandy soils on the Cape Flats mean a high winter water table, so soakaways flood in the wet months and sealed tanks are common. Granite and shale on the mountain slopes can need rock breaking. Industrial areas such as Montague Gardens and Paarden Eiland use grease traps and conservancy tanks. Honey sucker operators serve the metro from Epping, Montague Gardens and the Cape Flats, and portable toilet hire is busy at events.
Typical soakaway requests in the area come from:
- Houses: a new or rebuilt soakaway for an older house whose pit has clogged or flooded
- Estates and complexes: sizing pits for shared tanks on a complex, with a test report for the body corporate
- Restaurants, shops and offices: pits for rural shops, filling stations and restaurants that are not on a sewer
- Factories, mines, sites and events: pits for site offices, depots and ablutions, sized for the number of workers
- Smallholdings and plots: a larger pit or two linked pits on a smallholding with space but heavy clay soil
- Lodges, guesthouses and venues: larger or multiple pits that cope with peak guest numbers and seasonal overloading
- Farms and game farms: building pits at homesteads and worker housing, kept well clear of boreholes and dams
- Schools, churches and clinics: large pits for schools, clinics and churches, designed for heavy daytime use
Local tips for Cape Town
Common here: conservancy tanks on the Cape Flats, septic tanks with soakaways on mountain slopes. Ask each operator or contractor to allow for this: ask for a pump-out before winter if your tank sits in low-lying sandy ground. Help usually comes from operators in Epping, Montague Gardens and across the Cape Flats.
Soakaways usually means dig a pit, fill it with stone or fit chambers, for 2 to 3 m across, 1.5 to 2.5 m deep, check yearly, lasts 15 to 25 years. Ground in the area: sandy Cape Flats with a high winter water table: soakaways flood.
What to include in your request
- Number of people using the system and the tank size in litres
- Whether this is a new soakaway or a repair of an old one
- Soil type and whether a percolation test has been done
- Distance to buildings, boreholes, streams and boundaries
- Stone pit, rubble pit or chamber, if you have a preference
The more detail you give, the more accurate your quote will be.
Service area: Cape Town and surrounds
Operators, contractors and suppliers on our network work in Cape Town and surrounding areas, including Century City, Woodstock, Epping, Montague Gardens, Paarden Eiland, Claremont, Salt River. Give the suburb, holding or farm name so the quote can include travel, and say how soon you need someone.