Evans Plumbing attended at Sarah’s home in Essendon to inspect the sewer line. After a thorough inspection it was clear there was a blockage between Sarah’s sewage line and the mains, or possibly in the mains. This meant the onus was on the local water authority to clear the blockage and not Sarah’s responsibility.

Following the strict water authority (Greater Western Water) guidelines, Evans Plumbing rang the water authority to advise them of the blockage and arrange for them to attend to clear it. Upon attending, the Water Authority advised that Sarah’s ‘boundary trap’ (aka sewer line) had actually collapsed. To confirm this, we undertook a full inspection of the drain with a CCTV camera. As it was not in the mains, it became Sarah’s responsibility to rectify.

In order to replace the boundary trap, Evans Plumbing was required to remove a portion of Sarah’s driveway out to the footpath, to allow for excavation. We arranged Moonee Valley Council permits and approval, had the footpath closed out the front of Sarah’s home utilising qualified traffic and pedestrian management service and scanned the area to be excavated for underground services such as power cables and pipes using trained underground utility locating services.

We removed the herringbone pavers in the driveway, cut and removed the reinforced concrete underneath to facilitate the excavation. We installed the new boundary trap approximately 3.8m deep, with the use of trench shields for safety at such a depth, backfilled the hole and compacted accordingly, reinstated the concrete for reinforcement and relayed the pavers to match the original design.

What started as a blocked toilet ended up being a bigger issue than Sarah had anticipated but fortunately for her, having the Evans Plumbing team on her side meant it could be resolved quickly, following all necessary safety protocols and in accordance with Australian Standards and Authority and Council guidelines.