Mentone
Blocked, burst or leaking in Mentone?
Blocked drains, burst pipes and leaks in Mentone, from the racecourse estate to the sandstone cliffs, passed to a licensed plumber day and night.
Plumbing in Mentone
Coastal swamp, postwar lots and a racecourse estate
Before the township was laid out, Mentone was a swampy coastal district where cattle rested on the way to market. Ground like that holds water after heavy rain, so an opened stormwater trench can fill and stay wet.
In the 1950s the farms and gardens on the edge of the suburb were cut into house lots, plumbed with earthenware sewers and galvanised steel water pipe. A blocked drain there is often a cracked clay joint, and a camera goes down before any dig.
The old racecourse stayed a training track until 1972, when it was sold as a housing estate. Those homes went in when plastic drains and copper water pipe were standard, so clay joint failures are less likely on that estate.
Jobs in Mentone
Clay joints, rock and roots
Blocked drains
Cracked clay joints in the postwar streets, and wet ground near the old swamp.
CCTV drain inspection
A camera to show roots or a broken joint before a trench is opened.
Pipe relining
A lining through the old pipe where sandstone makes trenching slow.
What it costs: hot water replacement cost, gutter replacement cost, toilet installation cost
Mentone questions
Sandstone, station palms and the seafront hotel
Is rock likely under a drain near the foreshore?
It can be. Black Rock Sandstone is well exposed in the cliffs between Point Ormond and Mentone, and cemented sandstone in a trench changes the machine and the time a dig takes, which can make relining the better answer.
Can palm roots near the station block a house drain?
They can. The protected station gardens still hold three mature Canary Island Palms, and roots that old travel under footpaths toward drain joints, so a camera shows whether roots are the cause before anyone digs.
Does the seafront hotel's roof plumbing need a permit?
The main slate roofed building is on the Victorian Heritage Register, so new gutters, downpipes or roof plumbing on it need a Heritage Victoria permit or exemption first. Its later rear additions are not significant and are treated differently.
