Strathmore
Blocked, burst or leaking in Strathmore?
Blocked drains, burst pipes and leaks in Strathmore, from Napier Park to the Moonee Ponds Creek, passed to a licensed plumber day and night.
Plumbing in Strathmore
Wartime houses, red gums and a buried creek
Strathmore was built piecemeal through the twenties and thirties, then a second wave of development that spread through Strathmore, particularly in its northern portion, began in the early forties. Houses of that era often still run on earthenware sewers with cement joints and early galvanised water pipe. Once joints have shifted and the steel has rusted, a lining or a new section usually outlasts a patch.
Napier Park was left to the community on condition that its indigenous river red gums were kept. Big gums send roots a long way into neighbouring drains, so near the park a camera goes down first, and root cutting or a lining is preferred to a trench inside a tree protection zone.
The park once had a creek that ran only after rain. The stormwater was directed underground in the 1960s, and runoff now passes through a swale and a tank on its way to Five Mile Creek. A backed up drain near the park may be a swale problem rather than a blocked council pipe.
Jobs in Strathmore
Gum roots, old joints and the creek edge
Blocked drains
Root entry near the red gums of Napier Park, and old clay joints in the wartime houses to the north.
Pipe relining
A lining where a trench would cut through the roots of a registered street avenue.
Gutters and downpipes
Matching profiles on listed post-war buildings, where council may want a heritage permit first.
What it costs: hot water replacement cost, gutter replacement cost, toilet installation cost
Strathmore questions
Creek works, council permits and protected avenues
Who owns a blocked stormwater pipe under the nature strip?
The property owner, as far as the legal point of discharge, and that includes pipe beneath the footpath. Past that point, council drains flow either to a creek or a large diameter main drain, and a fault in a main drain or the creek itself goes to Melbourne Water.
Does a trench across the footpath need council approval?
Often. Moonee Valley requires an Asset Protection Permit when building works move materials to and from a property, to protect footpaths, kerbs, trees and drains. Where a drain replacement brings a machine across the footpath, that permit is lodged before trenching starts.
Can a sewer connection be trenched under a protected street tree?
Not by open machine trenching on one avenue. Its cypresses are the only known example of Cypress being used as a street tree in Victoria and sit on significant tree registers, so a new water service or sewer connection in that nature strip needs council consent and boring or hand digging.
