Plumbers in Menai Family homes.

Hot water for a family home

Three people per home is a lot of showers. If your system is struggling, size the replacement on the household, not the old tank, with our hot water size tool. Signs it's on the way out include a relief valve near the top that drips all the time, which Sydney Water says shouldn't happen. See hot water replacement in Sydney for options.

Storms and the sewer

The NSW SES says most of the Sutherland Shire gets some flash flooding in heavy rain, while riverine flooding is mainly around low-lying parts of Woronora and Bonnet Bay.

Heavy rain can also find its way into the sewer. Sydney Water says the usual routes are downpipes wrongly connected to private sewer pipes, cracked pipes that let groundwater in, and overflow relief gullies that are damaged or sit too low. In its Wastewater Fix catchments, Sydney Water inspects private pipes for these faults with visual checks and smoke testing. A plumber can check your property for them too: see stormwater.

Townhouses and shared lines

Around a fifth of Menai homes are semis or townhouses. If yours is in a strata scheme, pipes in boundary walls and under floors are usually the owners corporation's, and fixtures and internal wall pipes the owner's. Outside, where several homes share one private sewer service, Sydney Water says each owner on it is responsible.

Roots in the line

Sydney Water says roots get into small cracks, and the owner is responsible for clearing roots that grow into the junction at the point of connection. Where an existing tree keeps causing trouble, a plumber can set up a regular maintenance plan, or look at a longer-term fix. See tree roots in drains.