Canterbury is the farm town directly north of Concord — about 2,400 people on forty-four square miles of Merrimack County hill country, with the Merrimack River for a western boundary and the Soucook River draining the east side. There is no municipal sewer and no public water anywhere in town. Every house from the Shaker Village to the Exit 18 park-and-ride runs on a private well and a private septic system.
Two Interstate 93 exits, 17 and 18, put Canterbury about fifteen minutes from downtown Concord, and Route 132 — Southwest Road becoming Northwest Road as it passes Center Road — is the old parallel way up through town toward Northfield. Route 106 runs along the eastern edge and carries most of the commercial zoning. The people live in three clusters: the Town Center up around the green and Baptist Road, the Sherwood Forest development, and the southwest corner nearest Concord, with the rest scattered on big lots along a lot of dirt road. Almost half the town is zoned Agriculture/Conservation at five buildable acres, a quarter of it is a Rural district the master plan defines by steep slope and severe soil limitations, and Canterbury has capped new building permits since the late 1970s — one of the first towns in New Hampshire to do it. So the housing stock is old, spread out, and sitting on ground that was never easy to put a leach field in.
The Merrimack River is Canterbury’s whole western edge, and the state’s protected shoreland runs 250 feet back from it. Selling a developed lot inside that band triggers an RSA 485-A:39 septic site assessment — and new work within a quarter mile of the river gets a look from the Upper Merrimack River Local Advisory Committee besides.
Routine pump-outs with filter rinse and baffle check. Most tanks $300–$500.
Baffles, lines, distribution boxes, and honest leach field diagnosis.
Pump-and-inspect evaluations and shoreland site assessments with 48-hour reports.
Same-day pumping when the system backs up.
Same-week scheduling, straight prices, and a crew that knows the Lakes Region.
Tell us where the property is and what's going on. We'll get right back to you with a straight price.
We reply to every request within 2 business hours — emergencies first.
Lakes Region