Cleared the same day where we can. And on stormwater we will tell you honestly whether you have a blockage or a system that was asked to discharge at the wrong moment.
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The stormwater around Leichhardt drains toward the Hawthorne Canal. That canal was not built as a drain, it was converted from one: it began as Long Cove Creek, had its mangroves cleared from 1890 and was straightened between 1895 and the early twentieth century.
It discharges into Iron Cove, which is tidal. So the level at the very bottom of the system is not fixed. It rises and falls twice a day, and on a high tide there is simply less fall available to everything upstream of it.
That is why a lighter storm can flood a yard that a heavier one left alone. It is not a mystery and it is not an intermittent blockage. It is a coincidence of rain and tide, and the way to see it is to write down when it happens.
We would rather tell you that than sell you an excavation. What we can genuinely fix is your side: the private lines, the pits and the downpipes, where a restriction quietly eats the margin you are relying on.
Note the time it happens, two or three times. That pattern is a diagnosis, and it costs you nothing to collect.
Long Cove Creek had its mangroves cleared from 1890 and was straightened between then and the early twentieth century into what is now the Hawthorne Canal.
So the drainage line running through this suburb is an engineered watercourse rather than a natural one, and the ground either side of it is low.
That history is the reason the rest of this page reads the way it does.
Iron Cove opens into the harbour, so it rises and falls twice a day exactly as the harbour does. The outlet the stormwater system discharges into is not at a fixed level.
Which means the capacity of the whole system varies through the day, without anything about your property changing at all.
It is the single most useful thing to understand about drainage in this suburb.
Rain on a falling tide has plenty of head. The same rain on a high tide has much less, and the system backs up further before it clears.
So a yard can flood in a light storm and stay dry in a heavier one, purely because of when the rain arrived.
That looks like a fault appearing and disappearing at random. It is not random, and it is not necessarily a fault.
A private line at ninety percent capacity copes on an ordinary day and fails on the day the tide is against it. A line with real margin copes with both.
Which is why clearing and maintaining your own lines matters more here than in a suburb with a fixed discharge level.
It is also the part you can actually do something about, which is the honest reason to spend money on it.
Sewer takes what goes down your fixtures. Stormwater takes rain off roofs and paving, and they are separate systems that must not be connected.
Trouble indoors on a dry day is sewer. Water in the yard during rain is stormwater. Those are different problems with different equipment.
Saying which one you have when you ring is what gets the right machine to the property.
A single slow basin is that fixture and its trap. Several, or the lowest fixture in the house, is the main line out telling you so.
Once is an event. Three times in a year at the same point is a defect describing itself, and clearing it a fourth time is buying the same afternoon.
Keep a rough note of the dates, and note the weather and roughly the tide if it is a yard problem. That combination is genuinely diagnostic here.
An open joint, a root entry, a section that has lost fall, or a junction added during a renovation. Those four account for almost every recurring blockage.
All four are visible on camera in seconds and all four have a repair rather than a schedule of visits.
On low-lying ground a lost section of fall matters more than usual, because there was less fall to give up in the first place.
Roots do not break sound pipe. They enter at an opening the ground has given them, and jointed lines of this age offer one every metre.
Roots also follow moisture, and on ground that holds water there is more of it to follow.
The durable repair removes the opening rather than this season's growth.
Wipes remain the largest single cause of what we cut out of drains regardless of what the packet claims. They stay intact, they snag, and they hold everything behind them.
Kitchen fat is the slower version, cooling onto the wall and narrowing the bore until a line that had been getting worse for a year finally stops.
Both eat into exactly the margin that matters here, which is why they are worth dealing with while the line is still moving.
Whether there is a defect, where it is, and whether the line has the fall and the capacity it should. The last of those is the one that matters most in this suburb.
The recording is yours whatever it shows, and footage of a sound pipe with good fall is a genuinely reassuring answer on low ground.
It also gives you a baseline, which on a system whose behaviour varies with the tide is worth more than usual.
Agreed as a fixed figure before anyone starts. These are indicative 2026 ranges. Telling you that nothing is wrong is part of the visit rather than a separate charge.
Through an existing access point, cleared and flow tested before we leave.
Footage handed over, so a restriction is something you can see rather than be told about.
The private side, which is the margin you actually control.
Roots and hardened build-up take longer than a soft blockage.
Including when the answer is that your system is working and the timing was against you.
Especially on stormwater. The timing is frequently the diagnosis, and it saves you money more often than it costs us work.
Through the existing access point, then run properly to confirm the line is genuinely clear.
On a repeat, or where we need to know whether the private line is actually restricted rather than assumed to be.
What we found, what it will change, and where our side of the problem stops.
Deal with the water first and we will work out the cause afterwards. A licensed plumber can be on the way at any hour.
Call 1300 381 569Possibly not, and it is worth establishing before anyone excavates. Stormwater here runs toward the Hawthorne Canal, which was straightened out of Long Cove Creek from 1895, and that canal discharges into Iron Cove, which is tidal. So the level at the bottom of the system moves twice a day. Rain arriving on a falling tide has plenty of fall to work with. The same rain on a high tide has much less, and the system backs up toward whatever is feeding it. A lighter storm at the wrong moment beating a heavier one at the right moment is exactly what that looks like.
Write down the time. Genuinely, that is the most useful thing you can do, and it costs nothing. If it happens on some storms and not others regardless of how heavy they are, timing is a strong candidate. If it happens on every rain event, or if it is getting steadily worse over months, that points at a restriction on your side. Two or three noted occurrences tell us more than any amount of guessing, and we would rather have them than sell you an investigation you did not need.
Yes, and here more than most places. On a system with a moving discharge level, the margin between coping and not is small, and a private line running at ninety percent capacity is fine on an ordinary day and fails on the day the tide is against it. Keeping your own side genuinely clear is where that margin comes from. It is the part you control, and it is much cheaper than the alternatives.
Your side of it, and we will be straight about where that ends. We can clear, camera and assess the private stormwater lines, pits and downpipes on your property and tell you whether they are actually restricted. We cannot change the level of a tidal outlet, and we cannot alter a council stormwater asset or the canal, which is heritage-listed. Anybody promising to fix the flooding outright is selling you something.
No, and mixing them up causes real problems. Sewer takes what goes down your fixtures. Stormwater takes rain off roofs and paved areas. They are separate systems that discharge to completely different places, and connecting a downpipe into the sewer is both against the rules and a good way to surcharge the system in heavy rain. If you are not sure which of yours is which, that is worth confirming.
No. They clear the bowl, which is all the label really promises, then fail to break down the way paper does. They are the most common avoidable cause of the sewer blockages we attend, and unlike the stormwater question there is nothing ambiguous about the diagnosis.
A standard clear through an existing access point is $150 to $400. A camera inspection with the footage handed over is $250 to $450. Jetting a stubborn or root-filled line is $400 to $700. An honest assessment of whether you have a fault at all is part of the visit, not an extra, because telling you nothing is wrong is a legitimate outcome.
Tell us whether it is sewer or stormwater, and if it is stormwater, roughly when it last happened. That second answer genuinely changes the conversation.
Fixed price agreed first, the private side cleared and filmed, and an honest answer about what is actually wrong.
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