Why Como has so much of this work
Como is dense. At the last census the suburb held 7,645 private dwellings across 6.7 square kilometres, and only about a third of its occupied dwellings were separate houses. More than half were semi-detached homes, townhouses or villas, with flats and apartments on top of that.
That is a suburb of grouped dwellings. And grouped dwellings mean drainage that was designed for a whole development rather than a single house — shared runs, shared soakwells, and pipework that crosses from one lot to the next before it reaches anywhere the water can go.
Add the commercial frontage along Canning Highway, which runs through and divides the suburb, and there is a lot of Como where stormwater is somebody's operational problem rather than a domestic nuisance.
What makes a commercial job different
More roof, less ground
A unit block or a business premises puts a large roof and a large area of hardstand on a site with very little soft ground left to soak into. The soakwell capacity has to do more work with fewer places to go.
Water where people walk and park
A flooded back lawn is an annoyance. A flooded car park, entry or loading area is a liability and, if it stops customers getting in the door, a trading problem.
Shared responsibility
When a run serves four villas, the blockage is in one section but the consequence lands on all of them. Working out which part of the system has failed, and whose it is, comes before anything else.
Access and disruption
Work has to fit around tenants, customers, parking and deliveries. Knowing what that will look like before the day matters more than it does on a house.
On-site disposal still applies
The City of South Perth requires all stormwater falling on a site to be collected, contained and disposed of on that site, whatever the storm. A commercial site does not get an exemption for having run out of room.
What we do
Stormwater drainage for grouped dwellings
Shared runs, shared soakwells, and the capacity questions that come with several roofs draining into one system. Soakwells and stormwater
Soakwell installation and replacement on commercial sites
Sized for the actual roof and hardstand area, and placed where they can be got at again later rather than sealed permanently under the one part of the site nobody can close. Soakwell replacement
Blocked and failing stormwater drains
Grates backing up, runs that have silted closed, car park drainage that no longer clears. Blocked drains
Finding faults in systems nobody has drawings for
Older strata properties frequently have drainage that has been extended and altered over decades with no record of it. Leak detection
Urgent work inside our hours
Brought forward where water is threatening a building or an access way. Monday to Friday, 7:00am to 4:00pm. Urgent drainage work
Quoting for strata and committees
Strata work has a different rhythm to a house call, and we work with it rather than against it.
The written quote is the document. It is itemised, it says what is included, and it is the price — transparent pricing, no hidden costs, nothing appearing at the end that was not there at the start. That matters more than usual when it has to go to a committee, a manager or an owner who is not on site and cannot see the problem for themselves.
If the honest answer is that one section needs replacing and the rest is sound, the quote says that. We are not going to price a whole system because it is easier to write.
The call-out to look and quote is free, the same as it is on a house.
Who does the work
Plumbing licence 8396, held by the person doing the job. HouseWorks Plumbing & Gas also holds gas licence 13098, though gas work is not what this site is about — for stormwater and soakwells the plumbing licence is the relevant one.
Commercial or residential, it is the same licensed plumber attending, and the person who quotes the work is the person who does it. More about us
Talk to us about a site
Tell us what the property is, what the drainage is doing and who needs to sign off on the work. We will come and look at no charge and put a written price in front of you.
Monday to Friday, 7:00am to 4:00pm.