Cheltenham
Blocked, burst or leaking in Cheltenham?
Blocked drains, burst pipes and leaks in Cheltenham, from the postwar streets to the newer northern estate, passed to a licensed plumber day and night.
Plumbing in Cheltenham
One postwar burst and a newer northern corner
Cheltenham's market gardens filled with houses and factories in the 1950s and 1960s, so most streets went up in a single postwar burst. Earthenware sewers with cement collars and galvanised water pipe from that era are now old enough for roots to open the joints and rust to narrow the bore.
The northern corner is younger. A primary school there closed and became a housing estate in the 1990s, where plastic drains follow a lodged plan and faults sit at fittings or badly bedded trenches more often than in the pipe itself.
Kingston divides flood duty by pipe: Council for its own drains, Melbourne Water for its main drains, rivers and creeks, the state for main road drainage, and the owner from the house to the kerb. When a property floods, the first task is finding which pipe overflowed.
Jobs in Cheltenham
Postwar sewers and shop outlets
Blocked drains
Postwar earthenware lines where roots have opened the cement collars.
CCTV drain inspection
A camera to show whose pipe a fault is in before anything is dug.
Commercial plumbing
Shop outlets to the kerb, timed around the council footpath works and minor drainage improvements.
What it costs: hot water replacement cost, gutter replacement cost, toilet installation cost
Cheltenham questions
Rodding to the corporation's point, consents and overlays
How does the plumber decide a sewer fault is South East Water's?
The rods go in at the property's Boundary Trap and run through to South East Water's point, judged by the length of rod used. A blockage beyond that point is the corporation's to clear, so the plumber stops and reports it.
Can a drain be built over without asking Kingston first?
No. A drain or sewer can cross a property with no registered easement, and building over one needs consent from all service authorities with a right to it before a building permit. A Before You Dig enquiry comes first.
Are downpipes on an overlay property a planning matter?
They can be. Kingston sets out the permit triggers at Clause 43.01-1 of its planning scheme, and replacing visible downpipes, gutters or external pipework can count as works, so matching profiles are priced in.
What does the Holy Name site's listing mean for its drains?
The complex is on the Victorian Heritage Register as H2008, so any dig or pipe change in its grounds needs a Heritage Victoria permit or exemption first. Its rows of Monterey Cypress are part of the listed landscape, so a root-blocked drain there is relined or rerouted rather than trenched through.
