Highett
Blocked, burst or leaking in Highett?
Blocked drains, burst pipes and leaks in Highett, from the Housing Commission streets to the old CSIRO woodland, passed to a licensed plumber day and night.
Plumbing in Highett
Commission houses, old gums and a staged precinct
Highett stayed a market gardening district until World War II, then filled quickly. Its biggest wave of houses came in the 1950s, many of them built by the Housing Commission, so neighbouring homes often share one drain layout and one set of pipe materials, and a fault in one house is worth looking for next door.
The former CSIRO site holds ancient yellow box trees found nowhere else in Bayside, together with river red gums. Both send roots a long way for water and find it at old earthenware joints, so a slow drain nearby is filmed before any roots are cut.
That site is becoming a housing precinct, built in stages with each stage needing its own planning permit. Drains serving the first buildings can cross ground still under construction, so the stage and the owners corporation covering a pipe are confirmed before a shared branch is touched.
Jobs in Highett
Roots, sand and shared branches
Blocked drains
Postwar clay drains repeated street by street, and the gum roots that find them.
CCTV drain inspection
A camera down a slow line before roots are cut or a reline is quoted.
Pipe relining
A lining through a root-damaged clay pipe where trenching is the harder option.
What it costs: hot water replacement cost, gutter replacement cost, toilet installation cost
Highett questions
Proving the fault, redrawn easements and rain backups
How is a sewer blockage pinned to one side of the boundary?
South East Water says that when the side is unclear, the owner engages a plumber to find it, and if it proves to be on the corporation's side the corporation arranges the repair. The plumber rods from the boundary trap and measures the cable to show where it sits.
Can an old title plan locate drains on the new precinct?
Not reliably. The civil works permit there allows the expunging of existing easements and creation of new ones, so current asset plans and the legal point of discharge are requested before anyone connects or digs.
Why does the property drain back up only in heavy rain?
Often the council pipe is already full. Kingston asks residents to report flooding after heavy rain when stormwater is not draining away from the road or from an easement on the property, and clearing a private line will not help until that pipe flows.
Does sandy ground change how a drain trench is dug?
It does. Native grass is spreading over the red sands in the northern section of the old CSIRO land, and sand like that slumps in a trench wall, so a dig needs shoring and compacted bedding to keep the pipe on grade.
