Rutherford is one of the nearest suburbs to our base, so the van is often on its streets twice in a day, from the brick homes near the shops to the new estates toward Anambah and the industrial area. Asking for a price costs you nothing.
NSW plumbing, drainage and gasfitting Lic. 000000C (demo)
Sample review
Our workshop's backflow test was due and the last plumber never turned up. They tested it before we opened, lodged it with Hunter Water the same day and emailed me the report.
Sample review · Wattlewater Plumbing is a fictional business
Working in Rutherford
Rutherford's workshops can't shut for a day and its brick homes are on their second or third hot water tank, so the van leaves stocked for both.
Rutherford sits on the New England Highway on Maitland's western edge, with the Maitland airfield on one side and an industrial area of workshops, warehouses and trade suppliers on the other. The streets around the shops and the schools are mostly brick homes from the 1970s and 80s, many now on their second or third hot water system and still on their original sewer lines. Out toward Anambah and Aberglasslyn, new estates are going in, where the plumbing is new and the calls are about rainwater tanks that were never connected properly and pumps that won't switch over to mains water. Homes approved in NSW in the last twenty years were built to BASIX water targets, which is why so many in these estates have a tank plumbed to the toilets or the laundry. In the older brick homes the hot water system is often inside, in the laundry or a cupboard, which decides what can replace it.
What we do here
Hot water replacements in 1970s and 80s brick homes, and clearing sewer lines that have had forty years for roots to find the joints. Most of these homes have the tank in the laundry, so we check the floor waste and the relief valve drain while we're there.
Hot Water Systems →Rainwater tanks plumbed to the toilets and laundry, and pumps whose switch-over to mains water has stopped working. We also clean the inline filter and check the first-flush diverter, which most owners don't know they have.
Annual backflow testing, trade waste connections and wash-bay drains for workshops and warehouses, done outside trading hours. A wash bay sending oily water to the sewer needs a separator and a trade waste approval from Hunter Water, and we fit the separator and help with the application.
Questions
No. A quote is free and you're under no obligation to go ahead. A fee applies only when we're called out to find a fault nobody can see yet, or to an emergency, and we tell you what it is when you book.
Yes. A backflow prevention device has to be tested every year by an accredited plumber, with the result lodged with Hunter Water. We test it, lodge the report and send you a copy, and we can book it outside your trading hours. If a device fails, we can usually fit a service kit then and there and test it again before we leave.
Usually the fault is the pump or the switch-over device that moves the house between tank and mains water. We test both, repair or replace whichever has failed, and check the backflow protection a tank connected to mains water has to have.
An all-in-one heat pump needs outside air, so it can't go in a laundry cupboard. Most often we move the system outside, close to where the old one was, and run new pipes to it. A split heat pump, with the compressor outside, can sometimes keep the tank indoors.
That grate is the overflow relief gully, and it's doing its job: when the sewer line downstream blocks, it lets sewage spill outside rather than up through your shower. Use as little water as you can and ring us. In homes of this age it's often roots in the line, and we show you the camera footage once it's clear.
In business hours we're often there in under half an hour, because Rutherford is so close to the base. After hours a plumber still answers the phone for burst pipes, gas smells and sewage coming up. If water is running where it shouldn't, turn off the main tap at the meter, usually near the front boundary, and then ring us.
Got a job?
Serving Rutherford, Telarah, Aberglasslyn, Anambah, Bolwarra Heights and the Rutherford industrial area.