Mount Martha
Blocked, burst or leaking in Mount Martha?
Blocked drains, burst pipes and leaks in Mount Martha, from Balcombe Point to Martha Point, passed to a licensed plumber day and night.
Plumbing in Mount Martha
Postwar holiday houses on a granite headland
After the war came a quickening tempo of house building, mostly holiday places but also homes for retirees, until the town ran on into Mornington. Many of those houses may still have their first clay sewer and galvanised water pipe, where roots work into the joints and the steel corrodes from inside.
Victorian Places describes the geographic Mount Martha as a granitic rise pushing out into the bay as Martha Point. Granite, and the clay it weathers into, makes digging up a drain slow and costly, so relining is weighed before any trench.
Jobs in Mount Martha
Granite, slopes and old galvanised pipe
Pipe relining
A lining instead of a trench through granite.
Burst pipes
Corroded galvanised supply in postwar holiday houses.
Leak detection
Leaks found early on the coastal slopes, where escaping water does real harm.
What it costs: hot water replacement cost, gutter replacement cost, toilet installation cost
Mount Martha questions
Slope movement and heritage roof plumbing
Why is a leak on the coastal slope treated as urgent?
After a landslip on the slope above the bay, the Shire's stabilisation works added new and modified stormwater and subsurface drainage to manage water behind the walls. A leaking pipe or an outlet soaking into that ground feeds the same problem, so it is found and stopped quickly.
Can the gutters on Mount Martha House be swapped for modern ones?
Not without consent. The large single-storey timber building, put up as the estate's hotel and now a community centre, is on the Victorian Heritage Register, so its roof plumbing and downpipes are replaced like for like with Heritage Victoria's approval.
Who decides where stormwater goes on the steep unsealed streets?
The Shire. Some of those streets have no kerb and channel to take a property's runoff, so the legal point of discharge is confirmed with council before a line is relaid.
