Carnegie
Blocked, burst or leaking in Carnegie?
Blocked drains, burst pipes and leaks in Carnegie, from Koornang Park to the tram line, passed to a licensed plumber day and night.
Plumbing in Carnegie
Interwar estates on the old Leman Swamp
A.V. Jennings built his first houses in Carnegie and called them the Hillcrest Estate. Around the same time the tram route served the southern part of Carnegie, which was fully developed by the 1940s. Drains of that age are earthenware with cement joints and the water services galvanised, so displaced joints and rusted supply pipe are the common finds.
A large part of the suburb was once the Leman Swamp, and Lord Reserve and Koornang Park both sit on it. That ground gives a stormwater line very little fall to the street, so pit depths and outlet levels are measured before a line is cleared or relaid.
Council lists Carnegie among the low-lying areas in Glen Eira and points households near stormwater drains to the VICSES flood guides. A pit that overflows in a downpour is a known local risk, not proof that the house drain has failed.
Jobs in Carnegie
Swamp ground and interwar pipes
Blocked drains
Interwar earthenware sewers with tired joints, and stormwater lines with little fall.
CCTV drain inspection
A camera to show displaced joints and roots before a dig is quoted.
Gutters and downpipes
Downpipes and stormwater connections on low ground where outlets back up.
What it costs: hot water replacement cost, gutter replacement cost, toilet installation cost
Carnegie questions
Units, original driveways and shopfront colours
Who pays to clear a drain shared by a row of units?
Many large house lots were recycled as sites for flats and home units in the 1960s and 1970s, and those sites usually run one sewer branch past every unit. The owners corporation consents and pays before a common line is cleared.
Can a driveway be cut open to reach a broken drain?
Not freely in the Albert Flatman's Estates Precinct, where original concrete driveways and crossovers count toward its significance. A planning check comes before the cut, and the concrete goes back like for like.
Are new downpipes on the old tram terminus shops restricted?
They can be. The citation for the Glenhuntly Tram Terminus Estate Shops calls for paint controls on the rendered walls, so new downpipes or external pipework are checked against that colour scheme with the owner first.
