Emergency Plumbing in Sydney Apartments: What's to What houses?

A water pipe bursts in your home, causing a flood. Your pipe bursts in your Sydney apartment causing major water damage to your floor, your neighbour’s ceiling and three sets of insurance claims. In case you’re trying to capture a condo, listed below are a couple of details you want to understand.

Apartment living is common in inner Sydney; over half of the houses in the area are apartments. In the suburbs, such as Elizabeth Bay, Rushcutters Bay and Potts Point, it is close to one hundred per cent. But most emergency plumbing tips are geared for residents of a home – shut off the water source in the front yard, see if any stones are missing from the outdoor grate, inspect the sewer pipe in the back yard. This is not the case, in a walk-up in Darlinghurst, for those residing on the fourth floor.

In a sense, apartment plumbing disasters differ from home plumbing disasters, and the only two things are certain, it affects your safety, your insurance and the people living on your floor below you.

The Water Goes Down; The Cascade Effect

A leaky pipe in a stand alone home results in one home being impacted. The water accumulates on the floor and is bad on the floor, possibly seeping into the floor. It is located on your land.

There an apartment building takes over the function of gravity. When a flexi hose on level four breaks it’s not just the kitchen floor that is drenched. It penetrates even those that are concealed within the concrete slab, such as pipe chases and electrical conduits, as well as gaps around waste pipes, and flows to a third level. Then it travels along the ceiling cavity and makes its way as a brown stain on the bedroom wall on level two. The person on the 1st floor discovers a puddle in their hallway, but doesn’t know where it is from.

Three units are impacted, three separate insurance claims triggered, and the Strata Manager is collecting and assessing evidence to determine which pipe failed and whether the pipe was in a unit or common property.

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For strata buildings, insurance is dealt with in three parts. It is the strata insurance which covers the building itself including shared pipes, common walls, slab in between floors, etc. Fixtures and improvements made to your unit are covered by your lot-owner insurance. Content insurance covers contents. If your unit suffers a pipe burst and results in damage to the unit below, who exactly had the pipe above becomes the point of contention in regards to cost allocation. We record this for all the emergency work undertaken.

Locating The Shut Off Valve In An Apartment

The ‘master’ shut-off valve to a house is located at the water meter close to the front fence. Simple. In an apartment it depends on the building construction and design.

Modern Houses and Flats (built since ~ 2000): These are usually fitted with their own isolation valves that are usually found in a good sized utility cupboard, close to the house or flat entry, under the kitchen sink, or in the laundry. There is a shut-off panel located in a corridor within some newer buildings for each unit to access.

May or May Not have individual shutoffs: Mid-century apartments (1960s – 1980s). Others will have a shut-off located in the basement or meter room that is typically accessible only to the caretaker or plumber. Some people have isolation valves on the underside of the sink that have not been used in the last 30 years and are failing.

Older walk-ups (pre-1960s): More likely to have a lack of or little individual isolation. The entire building can be interrupted by one shut off and if it is turned off it will stop water to all units.

Learn where your shut off valve is. Test it. If it is on for seizure or if corroding or does not exist, consult your strata manager on installation. The opportunity to have a working isolation valve in your apartment, rather than having to run to your basement to find the shared isolation valve is the difference of a hundred litres versus a thousand.

Shared Sewer Stacks: When the Blockage Isn't Yours

Each apartment building contains vertical sewer stacks (pipes) that take waste from each apartment on each floor to the apartment building where the sewer is connected at ground level. If the blockage occurs in the stack (commonly, due to wet wipes, grease, or some other foreign object), the sewage back flow through the lowest drain opening within the stack.

It’s normally a unit in the bottom floor or basement. Another unit resident did not cause the clog. The flushing person may be 5 stories above. Ironically, however, sewage has now been rising up through the floor of the bathroom on the first floor, and it is the bathroom occupant who is crying for assistance.

Then we empty the pile, do a camera inspection of the blocked location and record if it was in a private lot or in the common property area of the drainage. That documentation is very important for strata managers to be able to allocate the repair cost properly.

Gas Emergencies Are More Dangerous in Apartments

Enclosed spaces trap gas and make gas leaks in an apartment much more dangerous than a home. A house has clearances under doors, open windows and ventilation through the attic. An apartment, especially a modern and air conditioned unit, keeps a gas contained and limits the escape routes.

In apartments, the procedure is the same as in the home–STOP the gas (or if you can reach the isolation valve safely), OPEN all windows and doors, and LEAVE! Do NOT turn on any electrical appliances or switches. Call from outside. Never re-enter until allowed to by a licensed gas plumber.

When the building is older, and the gas meter room is common, the caretaker or plumber may have to turn off the gas supply to several units to contain the leak. This will be an inconvenience to your neighbors, but it’s necessary and temporary.

Notify Your Neighbour Before They Find Out the Hard Way

Regarding your particular apartment, here is the one most important emergency tip: If water is running, alert the person below you promptly. They can even be notified when someone knocks on the door, even at midnight, which allows time for the removal of items from the spot where water will come through the ceiling. Before the drip call comes, a laptop can be lifted up off the ground and not be sent in for recycling. If a rug can be removed from the wet area, it is a rug that doesn’t need replacing.

The converse is also the case! If you have noticed a wet area on your ceiling that wasn’t previously there, then knock on the door of the unit above you. There might be a leak somewhere that they haven’t found. The earlier it’s discovered, the smaller effect it has in both directions.

Working With Strata During an Emergency

Inside your unit, if there are problems you are usually free to contact a plumber; if the strata are contacted, they will likely let you know that you need to fix the issue as soon as possible. It is performed in your lot area and is paid for by you.

When the problem concerns shared infrastructure, such as a blocked sewer stack, a burst pipe in one of the common-area risers or a failure of a central hot water system, the strata manager/building caretaker should be engaged in the solution process. They permit work to be conducted on the common property but the cost is from the building’s maintenance fund.

In the event of an emergency, don’t wait for strata consent to put out the fire! Shut the water supply, try and contain as much as possible and call a plumbing professional. Organize paperwork following. We pen a written report for each and every strata emergency to explain what did not go as planned, where it stands and what we have done – all of the documentation information the strata manager and building insurer will need to process the emergency.

If you live in a Sydney apartment: Find your isolation valve now. Be aware of how to contact your building caretaker. Having the contact number of your strata manager in your cell phone. Not to mention, inspect your flexi hoses, your hose leak is your neighbour’s ceiling leak, in an apartment complex.