Olinda
Blocked, burst or leaking in Olinda?
Blocked drains, burst pipes and leaks in Olinda, from the old guest house streets to the mechanics institute, passed to a licensed plumber day and night.
Plumbing in Olinda
Guest houses, commuters and gravel streets
Olinda's guest houses faded after the war, and Victorian Places says better motor transport turned the town into a commuter dormitory. A former guest house can carry extra toilets and basins and long runs of old pipe, while the postwar houses add copper, galvanised and later plastic, so one property may hold several materials.
Two Olinda streets sit within a Green Wedge Zone, and the sealing plan for them now lacks the funding to proceed, with stormwater left to a design stage that has not happened. Roof water there needs a legal point of discharge confirmed with council, since no kerb or underground drain can be counted on.
Jobs in Olinda
Long old runs and unplanned stormwater
Blocked drains
Long, old drain runs in houses that were once guest houses.
Burst pipes
Rusted galvanised lines in postwar houses from when Olinda became a commuter dormitory.
Gutters and downpipes
Roof water on streets with no kerb, run to an outlet council has agreed.
What it costs: hot water replacement cost, gutter replacement cost, toilet installation cost
Olinda questions
A hall on a slope and pipes behind slats
Is plumbing under the old mechanics institute hard to reach?
It can be. The timber hall is elevated in part to accommodate the gentle slope of the land, and its base is closed in with timber slats, so pipes underneath are slow to get at. It sits in the heritage overlay too, so visible downpipes may need a council permit.
Why does a converted guest house block more often?
More fixtures feed into drains that were often laid long ago, and one line may carry several toilets and showers. A camera finds the weak joint or the root entry instead of jetting the whole run blind.
Can old galvanised pipe be patched rather than replaced?
A single leak can be patched, but galvanised pipe tends to rust through along its length, so a run that has leaked once usually leaks again. Replacing the worst section in copper or plastic is often the better spend.
