Watsonia
Blocked, burst or leaking in Watsonia?
Blocked drains, burst pipes and leaks in Watsonia, from the War Service houses to the gums of Aminya Reserve, passed to a licensed plumber day and night.
Plumbing in Watsonia
Grace Park lots and War Service houses
Frank Watson subdivided the Grace Park section and helped pay for a station, yet the land sat largely empty until after the war, when the affordable blocks at Watsonia began to attract residents. So few houses here predate the war, and the plumber is more likely to meet postwar earthenware and galvanised systems than old cast iron or lead.
Cheap sites kept new settlers coming through the fifties, and the War Service Homes Commission built some houses near where a high school later opened. Homes of that time are likely to have clay sewer drains and galvanised water pipe, so root entry at the joints and rusted supply lines are the usual faults.
Jobs in Watsonia
Postwar pipe and damp ground
Blocked drains
Postwar clay sewers that block again and again as roots return to the same joint.
Burst pipes
Old galvanised water pipe that has rusted through, found and repaired on the owner's side of the meter.
Pipe relining
A lining for root damaged clay near the reserve's remnant swamp gum specimens, where wet ground slows a trench.
What it costs: hot water replacement cost, gutter replacement cost, toilet installation cost
Watsonia questions
Aminya gums, sewer mains and what a camera shows
Do the gums at Aminya Reserve get into drains?
They can. The reserve is valued for its remnant swamp gum specimens, a tree of damp ground whose roots go looking for water, so sewer and stormwater joints nearby are likely targets. The same wet soil can slow a dig, which is one reason relining comes up.
Who clears a blockage in the sewer main?
If the blockage is in Yarra Valley Water's main, the corporation clears it. The drain from the house to the point where it joins that main belongs to the owner, and the plumber works out which side the fault is on before pricing anything.
What does a camera show on an old clay line?
Where a joint has opened, whether roots are inside, and whether the pipe has cracked or dropped. On postwar earthenware that decides between a clean, a lining or a short section dug and replaced.
