Drains Laid Since Menzies Was Prime Minister
This is a fact that puts into perspective the drainage issues experienced by Maroubra: Randwick City Council maintains a greater or more drainage pipes, over 261,000 metres, and a greater or more drainage pits, over 10,120, within its local government area. The council itself states that the majority of this network was constructed in the 1950s and 1960s. Sixty, seventy years of unremitting service, hauling freight of which the original engineers would have been unaware. At that time there were much fewer hard surfaces in the streets of Maroubra. Nowadays, all infill developments, pave driveways and concreted courtyard areas cause an increase in the amount of rain, which enters drain systems rather than percolates or seeps into the earth.
The drainage of Maroubra is nearly as old. The houses which populate the suburb, the fibro cottages and brick-veneer houses between Anzac Parade and the beach, were piped with terracotta sewer pipes. They were laid in metre long pipes, cement over them creating a collar between them. The joints in the suburb have been undermined by 60-plus years of soil movement, tree root pressure, and gradual deterioration. In the case of a blockage occurring in a house at Maroubra, what is really going on with the pipe is often what is behind the symptom.
Next comes the apartments. According to ABS Census, 48 per cent of dwellings in Maroubra are flats and apartments, with many being more recent around Maroubra Junction, and along Maroubra Road. These are PVC drained and have common sewer stacks and this is a totally different problem, an overwhelmed system, wet wipe deposits caused by various homes and the strata liability question arises when a shared line fails.
And through it all is the element of coast. Sandy soils close to the beach move more than the clay. Exposed fittings are corroded by salt air. During east coast lows, stormwater flooding of drains occurs because of the excess size of the drains that were built to handle a smaller, less paved town. We operate in all types of properties in Maroubra, houses, duplexes, town houses, walk up, and modern complexes and the drainage is a different problem on each one.
Numbers Drainage Infrastructure Maroubra
True information found in council records, census data, and research on drainage published in peer-reviewed journals. This is the reason why drain gets blocked here and why it is important to repair it.
Across Randwick City, a council-managed drainage pipe, most of which dates back to the 1950s and 1960s is now under mounting pressure.
Drainage pits under the management of Randwick Council. Increased development results in more hard surfaces which in turn subject these pits to increased stormwater.
People in Maroubra (2021 Census), the largest suburb population in Randwick Council. Increased population, increased drainage requirements.
Average lifespan of terracotta sewer pipes. Several house sewer lines in Maroubra have reached/exceeded their design life.
Sources: Randwick City Council drainage asset data and program background; ABS Census 2021; industry estimates of pipe lifespan.
What Really Obstructs Drains in Maroubra
Various properties have varied issues. These are the most prevalent causes that we witness in the houses, apartments and townhouses of Maroubra.
Tree Roots On Terracotta Pipes
In the majority of freestanding houses in Maroubra, the sewer pipes consisted of terracotta which was laid in the 1950s and 1960s. The pipes have a connection every metre and each connection is a possible root entry point. Norfolk pines along the shore and paperbarks through the residential street and backyard eucalypts are all rooting around in search of moisture. After getting into the pipe, roots grow larger, trap debris and choke the flow until the drain completely fails.
Kitchen Drain Grease
Fat that is spilled into the kitchen sink is solidified when it reaches the cooler pipe. In the older houses of Maroubra, the drains in the kitchen tend to be long and run horizontally beneath the slab or through the subfloor, and then join the sewer. That provides grease with ample pipe to coat, reducing the bore month after month until a slow drain becomes a complete obstruction. It is slow enough to allow most people to become oblivious to it until things cease moving altogether.
Wet Wipes In Stacks In An Apartment Building
The wet wipe issue in the apartment buildings of Maroubra increases with the population density. Flushing them by one household may not create a noticeable problem. Two or three families in the same building washing wipes down together, and the wipes lie at every turn, at every cross-roads, at every irregularity. They mix with grease and other debris to create thick plugs that will not move with regular plunging. It is the most prevalent preventable cause of apartment blockage of drains that we encounter.
Overload Of Stormwater Following Heavy Rainfall
Maroubra is located in a special flood catchment which is examined by Randwick Council. The Maroubra Bay Flood Study established areas of trapped low-lying land behind the beach, along Marine Parade, Haig Street and French Street where stormwater accumulates during severe storms when the trunk drainage along Fitzgerald Avenue is overwhelmed. When stormwater drain pipes of your property had already sort of been plugged with leaves and silt, the heavy rain causes the system to spill over the edge.
Broken or Cracking Pipe
When terracotta pipes outlive their design life, they do not block, they break. Driveways may cause soil settlement under driveways, heavy traffic along laneways, and extended root pressure which may crack sections of the pipes or even collapse them. When a pipe collapses, it not only reduces the flow, a hole is formed under the ground, which becomes increasingly worse. The only sure method of ascertaining whether a recurring blockage is due to structural failure and not merely due to buildup is through CCTV inspection.
Sandy Soil Slipping along the Coast
Homes nearer to the Maroubra Beach are on sandier soil which moves more than the clay base towards the inland location. In decades, that movement makes the joints of the pipes to separate a little. What begins as a hairline fissure turns into a point of entry of sand wash-in and root intrusion. We find it more often in streets along Marine Parade, South Maroubra, and between the beach and Fitzgerald Avenue.
Six Signs A Blocked Drain Is Growing
A majority of blockages develop over time. Early detection of such red flags is economical and avoids such a deluge that spoils a Saturday morning.
Several Fixtures That Are Draining Slowly
When all the kitchen sink, shower and basin are sluggish simultaneously, it is not obstructed at any single outlet, but is much further down the main sewer line. The more fixtures are involved the deeper the problem is rooted.
Gurgling Noises in Drains
Turn off the toilet and listen to the shower drain bubble. Turn on the washing machine, gurgles the kitchen sink. The air, which is behind an incomplete obstruction, pushes through the nearest water seal, making that recognisable sound. It is an early indication that there is a restriction of flow.
Bad Smell in Drains or the yard
The waste that is left in a partially blocked pipe decays and forms hydrogen sulphide, rotten egg gas. When the odor is greatest in the neighborhood of an outside grate or in the laundry, it is probable that the obstruction is in the principal sewer between the house and the boundary.
Abnormally Green or Moist Patch in the Lawn
Leaked or broken sewer pipe underground is a slow-release manure. A greener and softer piece in the garden than the rest, especially where the line a sewer would take out of the house down to the street, is a good sign of a compromised line under.
Water Creeping in other Fixtures
You open the toilet and water gets in the shower. You turn on the dishwasher and water leaks in the floor waste of the laundry. When fixtures start affecting each other, they share a drain line that's obstructed downstream. This alone turns into a complete sewage spill.
Excess Water Coming out of a Drain Grate
The initial noticeable indication of a main sewer blockage is often dirty water or sewage that pools around an external grate at ground level, particularly at the property boundary. It implies that the whole way between your home and the road should be cleared. Waste not on this one.
The Drain clearing and repairing in Maroubra
The various causes require various tools. This is what we have and at which time each approach is applicable.
📹 Drain Inspection CCTV
Diagnosticus with the exact cause of the blockage, roots, grease, collapsed section, a foreign object and the exact position. At Maroubra, where at houses the pipe materials are as old as the house and in apartments as new as PVC, knowing what we are handling before we begin helps to avoid unnecessary damage and waste of effort.
We capture the footage which can be shared with you, your strata manager or your insurer. In the case of frequent blockages, the camera images of the current inspection and an earlier one inform us on whether the damage behind is deteriorating.
💦 High-Pressure Jet Blasting
ClearingHigh pressure water jet is focused and cuts through root masses, grease build-up, wet wipe accumulations, and sediment. Jetting, which is used in place of mechanical punching of a hole through the blockage, punches a hole through the entire bore of the pipe, cleaning years of deposits off the pipe walls. In the majority of the blocked drains in Maroubra, both houses and apartments, jetting is the solution to the issue, and the pipe is reinstated into full flow capacity.
🔧 Pipe Relining (No-Dig Repair)
Permanent FixIn cases where the camera can show broken joints, root inserts, or corroded areas, relining can usually be the most viable long-term solution. A resin-coated liner is placed into the pipe and allowed to dry to form a seamless new pipe inside the old one. There are no joints, and no future root entry. No excavation implies no digging up of the driveway, garden or courtyard. In Maroubra, where lots of houses are well landscaped and have established outdoor landscapes, relining will save property and permanently fix the drainage problem. Warranties on relined pipes are 35 years or beyond.
⛏️ Excavation and Replacement
When NecessaryThere are pipes that are too deteriorated to reline. When one of the sections has completely collapsed, moved out of position or has experienced numerous breaks in a short run then that section must be excavated and replaced with the new PVC. We employ contemporary pipe with fewer joints, is much more resistant to root intrusion than terracotta, and the design life is in decades. We do not recommend excavation except where it is really the only method, more disturbing and expensive than relining, but in a case where the pipe is really involved, the only way to go.
Houses vs Apartments: Two Drain Jobs in a single suburb
The real combination of property types is the peculiar feature of Maroubra as far as the drain work is concerned. Within one week, we could unblock a tree root in a backyard sewer in a 1960s fibro house on Storey Street, a shared sewer stack in a 6 storey walk-up at the Junction, and a greasy drain in a kitchen of a duplex on Maroubra Road. They are all totally different jobs.
Under a freestanding house, you have ownership of the sewer line between the house and the boundary trap. Cleanup points, typically in the backyard or the side passage are clear to you. The most common problems are root intrusion and deterioration of terracotta pipes. Repairs may imply relining, or digging in the yard, which is inconvenient but does not impact any other property.
The drains of an apartment building are installed in the same direction, in a shared stack of drains, then joined to the main sewer of the building. The stack blockage impacts several units. The division of responsibility lies between the individual owner (pipes within the lot), the owners corporation (shared pipes) and the owners of Sydney Water (connection between the end of the lot and the street). We clear the blockage and record all the information so that the strata manager can be able to put the responsibility in place once the mess has been sorted out.
The Flood Area Behind the Beach
The drainage in Maroubra does not only dispose of the sewage but also stormwater. And the space behind the Maroubra Beach makes things tricky when it pours. The 2017 suburb-wide flood behaviour map produced in the Maroubra Bay Flood Study commissioned by Randwick Council, shows the areas lying trapped behind the beach that pool with water when the trunk drainage system cannot hold any more water.
The steep upper catchment flows to a low, flat area behind the beach. It has two major trunk drainage mains that run along Fitzgerald Avenue and Marine Parade and eventually drain into the main stormwater outlet into Maroubra Beach. These conduits are not able to handle such downpour. Water collects behind in streets, back yards and even ground-floor rooms in the nearest properties to those low points.
Drainage Council drainage is the responsibility of the council. But your own stormwater pits, the grated drains in your driveway and outside yard, the roof down-pipes, the drains under your slab, they belong to you. When the rain comes, there is no outlet as they are partially blocked. We clear residential stormwater drains and make sure grates, pits and connections are flowing freely so that, when the next downpour occurs, your property sheds the water as it should.
The way a Drain Call-Out Works in Maroubra
Being aware of what your drains are composed of will give you a clue of the dangers, and what kind of repair is feasible.
| Material | Typical Use | Usual life span | Root weakness | Repair possibilities. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clay / Terracotta | Homes, terraces before 1970s | 50-60 years of age | high, joint every 1 metre | relining, replacement, replacement of section, replacement.t |
| Cast Iron | Mid 20th century apartment blocks | 50-75 years old | Medium, externally corroded with time | relining, replacement of sections.t |
| PVC | Buildings after 1970s, remodelling | 50-100+ years old | fewer joints, flexible material | Replacing sections when damaged.d |
| Asbestos Cement (AC) | 1940s-1980s structures | 30-50 years old | Medium, becomes soft and deforms over time | needs a license to remove, not replace |
Lifespan estimates provided by industry estimates on Australian conditions. Real performance varies depending on the quality of soil, water and history of maintenance.
What Our Customers Say
"Our drainage in the backyard had been overflowing. Plumber Sydney was out and found the problem quickly and cleared it all up in no time and left the area clean and provided tips on how to ensure that it did not happen again. "
"Highly recommended to their plumbing needs, "Fast and efficient service offered. I made a call in an enquiry call-out, and they came within two days and reasonably priced to offer their services to you."
"Callout was fast, excellent service, highly recommended, thank you again."
Frequently Asked Questions Blocked Drains Maroubra
Areas We Service Near Maroubra
We clear blocked drains across Maroubra and all surrounding Eastern Suburbs and coastal locations.
Blocked Drain in Maroubra?
Don't let it get worse. A slow drain today is an overflow tomorrow. Call us and we'll get it sorted, properly, the same day, at a price you've agreed to upfront.
