Balwyn North
Blocked, burst or leaking in Balwyn North?
Blocked drains, burst pipes and leaks in Balwyn North, from the ridge down to the Koonung Creek valley, passed to a licensed plumber day and night.
Plumbing in Balwyn North
Fifties brick, quartz reefs and a northern fall
Most of Balwyn North went up after the war, and in the fifties it was the classic up-and-coming suburb of triple fronted residences, decorative brickwork and picture windows. Houses from that wave likely have clay sewers with mortar joints and ageing galvanised water pipe, so roots at the joints and low pressure from corroded lines are both common.
Underneath is Silurian mudstone, and North Balwyn was one of the few places where payable reefs of gold were found in its quartz veins. Hard quartz can turn up in a deep sewer trench and call for a breaker, which changes the time and the method of a dig.
Jobs in Balwyn North
Galvanised supply and postwar sewers
Burst pipes
Ageing galvanised supply in fifties brick houses, repaired on the property side.
Blocked drains
Root entry at the mortar joints of postwar clay sewers.
Gutters and downpipes
Downpipes and pits on the lower slopes, sized for storm flow.
What it costs: hot water replacement cost, gutter replacement cost, toilet installation cost
Balwyn North questions
Valley runoff and postwar listings
Why does water rush onto lower properties in a storm?
The suburb runs north to the Eastern Freeway in the Koonung Creek valley, falling away from the ridge. Lower slopes get fast overland flow, so pits and the legal point of discharge are checked for capacity.
Can a fifties house be under a heritage overlay?
Yes. An amendment put individually significant places in Balwyn and Balwyn North into the Heritage Overlay permanently, most of them in Balwyn North. The overlay now reaches postwar houses, so the planning property report is checked before visible roof plumbing or downpipes are replaced.
Is low water pressure the main or the house?
In a fifties house it is often the galvanised service inside the boundary, which rusts and narrows. A pressure test at the meter shows which side of it the fault is on.
