Reservoir
Blocked, burst or leaking in Reservoir?
Blocked drains, burst pipes and leaks in Reservoir, from the postwar estates in the east to Edwardes Lake, passed to a licensed plumber day and night.
Plumbing in Reservoir
Commission estates on tight clay
Victorian Places calls Reservoir a suburb of the fifties and sixties, when the Housing Commission built large residential estates in the east of Reservoir. Homes of that period are likely to have original earthenware sewers with mortar or rubber ring joints and galvanised water pipe, so roots, cracked joints and corroded supply lines are the usual faults.
When level crossing works north of the station opened old timber culverts, Heritage Victoria noted that the underlying clay is impermeable. Water from a cracked pipe in clay like that pools around the trench rather than soaking away, and as the clay swells and shrinks the joints move, so a camera inspection comes first.
Jobs in Reservoir
Postwar sewers and clay joints
Blocked drains
Root-filled earthenware joints in the postwar estates to the east.
Burst pipes
Corroded galvanised water lines in fifties and sixties homes.
CCTV drain inspection
A camera along a sewer moved by swelling clay.
What it costs: hot water replacement cost, gutter replacement cost, toilet installation cost
Reservoir questions
Lake-bound stormwater and the old reservoir mains
What can go down a stormwater drain near Edwardes Lake?
Only rainwater. Darebin says street and property drains here flow into the lake, and the Edwardes Lake wetland treatment system filters stormwater before it gets there. Sediment, chemicals and drain cleaning waste stay out of the street drain, and a sewer pipe is never connected to a stormwater line.
Who is responsible for a burst main near the reservoirs?
The water corporation, not the property owner. The Preston Reservoir complex was built as part of the Yan Yean supply system, and large mains are likely to run to and from it, so services are located before any digging nearby.
Is a whole-house repipe worth it in an estate home?
Sometimes. Where galvanised supply pipe has corroded right through the house, replacing all of it may outlast a run of patches, and the plumber can price both.
