Cleared the same day where we can. And under a block built on amalgamated lots, we put a camera down rather than trusting a plan that was never going to show all of it.
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Lane Cove's flat boom is precisely dated. The first block went up in 1962, and by 1979 close to 200 of them lined the main roads around the village.
Each one stands across three or four of the old house lots. Those lots already had drainage, stormwater and service runs threading across them, laid for detached houses that were themselves not new.
When the block was built, some of that was reused because a workable connection was cheaper than a new one, some was abandoned exactly where it lay, and some was simply built over. Almost none of it generated a record.
So the useful first step under a building like this is not a diagram, it is footage. It is the difference between a targeted repair and an exploratory one, and it is a spend that only has to happen once.
Then something about that section is not what the plan says it is. Twenty minutes of footage will usually explain the whole thing.
The first block of flats went up in 1962, and by 1979 nearly 200 blocks lined these streets. That is a genuinely remarkable rate of change over seventeen years.
Each of those blocks stands on three or four amalgamated house lots, and the houses that were there before had their own drainage running to the street.
So under a walk-up there is more pipe than anybody drew, and some of it is older than the building standing on top of it.
Where a house connection already existed in a workable position, reusing it was the sensible and economical thing to do, and that is frequently what happened.
So the line taking a whole block's waste to the main may be the line that served a single cottage in 1955, upgraded where it had to be and left alone where it did not.
That is not bad practice for its era. It simply means the age of the building tells you very little about the age of the drainage under it.
Amalgamating lots and building over them produced no tidy set of as-builts, and what was abandoned, capped or quietly reused is not recorded anywhere anybody can find.
Which means a plan of the building, where one exists, describes the building rather than what is genuinely under it.
A camera beats a plan here, and that is not a criticism of the plans. They were never drawn to answer this question.
A bend sited for a cottage that stood there in 1955 makes little sense under a block of twelve apartments, and material stalls at exactly those points.
So a line that blocks repeatedly in the same place on a walk-up is frequently not a failing pipe. It is a geometry inherited from a building that no longer exists.
That is visible on camera in seconds and it has a repair, which is why filming beats clearing again.
House-era stormwater was laid for houses that no longer exist, and some of it is still connected to something. Downpipes on a 1968 block occasionally discharge into a 1940s line.
That works until it does not, and when it stops working the cause is invisible because nobody knew the line was there.
It is one of the more common surprises a camera turns up in this suburb, and it explains a lot of wet-weather problems that have no obvious source.
One apartment slow is a branch problem, and the branch is generally that lot's. Several at once is downstream of all of them, and that is the owners corporation's.
So the single most useful thing to do first is ask a neighbour whether they have the same symptom. One message settles who should be calling whom.
It also matters because a plumber called to your apartment cannot repair a common line and should not try.
A sewer blockage is indifferent to the weather. Trouble that only arrives in a downpour and eases when it stops is the stormwater side, and they are separate systems.
On a block with mature planting around it and a legacy stormwater system underneath, wet weather trouble is frequently a pit or an old line rather than the sewer.
Saying which one you have gets the right equipment to the property first time.
Roots do not break sound pipe. They enter at an opening the ground has given them, and the older inherited lines under these blocks are jointed every metre.
The gardens around the blocks are now sixty years established, and the street trees are older than that.
The durable repair removes the opening rather than this season's growth, and it does it without opening a shared driveway.
Wipes remain the largest single cause of what we cut out of drains, and on a common line the load arrives from every apartment connected to it rather than from one household.
Kitchen fat is the slower version, and the same arithmetic applies. Fat from a dozen kitchens narrows a line far faster than fat from one.
That is why common lines in walk-ups block more often than a house of the same age, and it is nobody in particular's fault.
Where the line actually runs, how old it is, whether there is a defect, and what repair it needs. In this suburb the first two are genuine unknowns.
The recording is yours whatever it shows, and for an owners corporation it is the thing that makes a decision possible at a meeting.
It also becomes the building's record of its own drainage, which in most of these blocks does not currently exist.
Fixed price agreed before anyone starts. These are indicative 2026 ranges. On a building nobody has a reliable plan for, mapping it once is the spend that stops the rest recurring.
Through an existing access point, cleared and flow tested before we leave.
Footage handed over, with what we find marked and located.
Roots and hardened build-up in aged pipework take longer than a soft blockage.
What is actually down there, recorded once, for a building that has never had it done.
What the line is, where it runs, and which parts predate the building.
One unit or several. That single answer places the fault on the branch or on the common line before we arrive.
Through the existing access point, then run properly to confirm it is genuinely clear rather than simply moving again.
Standard on any repeat, and worth it on a first call under a block that has never been filmed.
Along with a written note of what is there and which parts look older than the building above them.
We will get it running today. And if this keeps happening in the same spot, we will show you what is actually down there rather than booking you in again.
Call 1300 381 569Because on a building that sits across amalgamated house lots the plan generally shows what was installed for the block, not what was already in the ground when it went up. Those lots carried three or four houses' worth of drainage and stormwater. Some was reused, some was abandoned where it lay, and very little of it was drawn. Footage shows what is genuinely there rather than what somebody intended in 1968.
Because a workable connection that already existed was cheaper to reuse than to create a new one. That was ordinary practice and there is nothing wrong with it, but it means the age of the building tells you very little about the age of what it discharges into. We have opened plenty of lines under 1970s blocks that plainly predate them.
Frequently because it was not sited for the building above it. A bend or junction that makes no sense for a 1968 walk-up can make perfect sense for a cottage that stood on that spot in 1955. Those legacy shapes are where things catch, and they are also exactly what a plan drawn for the new building will not show you.
That the fault is downstream of all of them, on the shared side rather than in anybody's fixture. One unit slow is a branch problem. Several at once means the common line, and on this housing that is where the inherited pipework usually is.
More often than people expect here. House-era stormwater was laid for cottages that no longer exist, and some of those runs are still quietly taking water under a building that was designed around a different arrangement. When a blockage does not behave like a sewer blockage, that is frequently why.
Rarely, and on older pipework they do harm. They sit on top of the obstruction rather than passing through, they generate heat, and in aged pipe they attack the line about as readily as the blockage. If somebody has already poured one down, tell us when you ring rather than after we have opened it.
A standard clear through an existing access point is $150 to $400. A camera inspection is $250 to $450 with the footage handed over. Jetting a stubborn line is $400 to $700. Mapping what is actually under a block, which is the one worth doing once properly, is $450 to $900 depending on the size of the building.
Tell us how many homes are affected and whether it has happened before. Those two answers narrow it down faster than anything else.
Fixed price agreed first, footage handed over, and a straight account of what is under the building rather than what a plan claims.
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