Greta is growing fast, with new streets going in beside the post-war cottages and farm blocks on every side of town. It's on our run up the New England Highway, and pricing a job here won't cost you a cent.
NSW plumbing, drainage and gasfitting Lic. 000000C (demo)
Sample review
Barely any pressure in the shower on tank water. They found the pump was undersized for the house, swapped it, and now two showers can run at once.
Sample review · Wattlewater Plumbing is a fictional business
Working in Greta
In Greta a cottage from the camp years and a house handed over last month can share a street, and the plumbing behind their walls has nothing in common.
Greta sits on the New England Highway between Maitland and Branxton, in the Cessnock local government area. After the Second World War it was home to a large army and migrant camp, and the older streets near the highway still have weatherboard and fibro cottages from that era. Fibro from those years often contains asbestos, which changes how a plumber goes about cutting into a wall. New estates are bringing young families to the edges of town, and beyond them are rural blocks where the water comes off the roof into a tank and the waste goes to a septic system. Many of the camp-era cottages were extended and re-plumbed a piece at a time, so one water line can run from galvanised steel to copper to plastic between the meter and the kitchen. On the rural blocks, the poly pipe from the tank to the house can be a long buried run, and a slow leak in damp ground often goes unnoticed until the tank is empty in a dry summer.
What we do here
Hot water swaps and new pipe runs in the camp-era cottages, planned around wall sheeting that may contain asbestos.
Hot Water Systems →Working out what the builder's warranty covers, then the jobs after it ends: a tempering valve set wrong, a toilet that won't stop filling. We read the plumbing compliance paperwork from the handover first, so our work doesn't void anything the builder still owes you.
Finding leaks on long buried lines between the tank and the house, and plumbing new sheds and granny flats into the septic system. Pressure testing narrows a leak down to one length of pipe before anybody picks up a shovel.
Leak Detection →Questions
Yes. Greta is about twenty minutes up the highway from our base, and we cover Lochinvar, Allandale and the farm blocks around the town as well. Pricing a job out here is free, the same as anywhere else we work.
Most often the pump is too small for the house, or it's old and has lost its pressure. A blocked filter or a failing pressure switch can do the same thing. We test the pump against what the house draws, then tell you whether it needs a part or a bigger pump. If the pump starts and stops every few seconds while one tap runs, the usual cause is a small leak or a pressure tank that has lost its air charge.
It can be. Fibro sheeting from before the mid-1980s often contains asbestos, so we don't cut or drill it until we know. Where we can, new pipes go under the floor or through the roof space instead of through the wall. If sheeting has to come off, that part is a job for a licensed asbestos removalist, and we plan our visit around theirs.
Check your handover papers first. A fault in the builder's work is theirs to fix during the warranty period, and getting someone else in can complicate that. If the warranty has run out, or the builder isn't returning calls, we fix it and give you a written note of what we found.
Look at your water bill. A sewer service charge on it means you're connected to Hunter Water's sewer. No sewer charge, plus a tank or a treatment system somewhere in the yard, means septic. Many homes in the town streets are connected; many of the rural blocks around them aren't.
Yes. Running water to a shed is a short job. A granny flat with a toilet and shower needs approval before work starts, and where the waste goes to septic, council will want to know the system can take the extra load. We do the plumbing and book the inspections, and tell you early if the septic system needs an upgrade.
Got a job?
Serving Greta, Branxton, Lochinvar, Sweetwater, Allandale and the rural blocks between Maitland and Branxton.