Dandenong
Blocked, burst or leaking in Dandenong?
Blocked drains, burst pipes and leaks in Dandenong, from the Yarraman Creek to the Dandenong Creek, passed to a licensed plumber day and night.
Plumbing in Dandenong
Brick clay, red gums and a postwar boom
An early Dandenong brickmaker made fire bricks from local clay deposits, a sign of the heavy clay under parts of the town. Clay swells when wet and shrinks in drought, which opens earthenware joints and cracks rigid drains, so older lines here are often relined rather than patched.
The car and food factories of the fifties brought a new workforce, trebling the population in the 15 years to 1960. Much of the housing dates from that surge, with earthenware sewers and galvanised water pipes now at the age where joints leak and roots get in.
The country was originally densely forested with red gum, and remnant and replanted gums still send long roots through slow draining ground. A blockage that keeps returning near one is a case for a camera and root cutting, not a plunger.
Jobs in Dandenong
Clay movement and postwar pipes
Blocked drains
Root-filled earthenware sewers from the fifties and sixties.
Pipe relining
A lining for drains cracked by clay that swells and shrinks.
Burst pipes
Leaks in galvanised water pipes from the postwar housing.
What it costs: hot water replacement cost, gutter replacement cost, toilet installation cost
Dandenong questions
Saleyard estates, creek outlets and easements
Who owns the drain on a shared lot?
Attached homes are common here, at nearly three times the Victorian share. A shared sewer branch or party wall downpipe means the owners corporation or the neighbour agrees to access before a machine goes down the side passage.
Are drains on the old saleyards land shared?
Mostly. The town's renewal plan included housing for up to 3000 residents on the old livestock market site, and drains there run through owners corporation common property. Who owns the common sewer branch is settled, and access booked, before a jetter goes in.
Does a stormwater job near the creeks need extra checks?
Often. The Dandenong Creek runs along the east and south of the suburb and is joined by the Yarraman Creek which defines Dandenong's western boundary. An outlet near either may drain toward a Melbourne Water waterway, so the flood level is asked for before a drain is lowered.
Does digging up a drain on an easement need consent?
Yes. Council consent is needed for work on or over an easement or within 1 metre of a Council asset, and South East Water's consent too where its sewer shares the strip. The title shows whether the easement is there.
