How much does it cost to install a soakwell?
It depends on five things: how many wells the roof area needs, what size they have to be, how deep they go, how far the pipe runs are, and how hard the access is for getting material in and spoil out.
Those five move the price far more than anything else, and they are not knowable from a phone call. So we do not quote drainage sight unseen. A licensed plumber comes out at no charge, looks at the site, and leaves you with a written price — transparent pricing, with no hidden costs added later.
How many soakwells do I need?
It comes down to how much roof and paving drains into them.
The City of South Perth's figure for minor additions is at least 0.02 cubic metres of soakwell for every square metre of impervious area being drained. A 100 square metre roof addition needs two cubic metres or more underneath it.
Whether that is one large well or several smaller ones is usually decided by where they can physically go on the block, which on a subdivided Como lot is often the binding constraint.
How deep are soakwells buried?
Deep enough that the top of the chamber sits below the finished surface with cover over it, and deep enough to reach ground that will genuinely take water away.
The exact depth depends on the size of the well, the ground at that particular spot, and how high the water table sits. Closer to the Swan or Canning foreshores the water table is higher than it is on the higher parts of the suburb, and that changes the answer. It is worked out on site rather than from a table.
Are plastic soakwells any good?
Yes, used in the right place. Modern plastic wells are light, quick to install, will not corrode, and come in shapes that suit narrow side passages and tight rear access.
Concrete is the better answer where the well has to carry load above it — under a driveway, a parking bay, anywhere a vehicle goes. The trade-off is weight, since concrete needs machine access to place, and the fact that concrete lids do eventually crack.
Neither is automatically right. It depends on the volume needed, the access to the spot and what will sit on top of it.
Does Bunnings sell soakwells?
They do. Buying the chamber is the straightforward part.
The work is sizing the system to the roof area it has to drain, excavating to the right depth, connecting the pipe runs so water actually reaches the well, and meeting the council's requirement that all stormwater stays on the property. A well that is undersized or set too shallow will keep flooding the yard regardless of what it cost to buy.
Why does my soakwell overflow?
Almost always one of four reasons: it has silted up and has no capacity left, it has cracked or collapsed, the pipe feeding it is broken or blocked, or it was never sized for the roof draining into it.
They look identical from the surface and the fix for each is completely different, which is why the first visit is about finding out which one you have. More on backyard flooding
Can a soakwell be repaired, or does it have to be replaced?
Both happen, and we would rather do the smaller job.
A silted chamber that is otherwise sound can often be cleaned out. A broken lid can be replaced. A single failed length of pipe can be repaired without touching the well at all.
Replacement is the honest answer when the chamber itself has collapsed, when the walls have failed, or when the well is simply too small for what now drains into it — because no repair fixes a capacity problem. Collapsed soakwell repair · Soakwell replacement
Do I need council approval for soakwells in Como?
Stormwater drainage for new buildings goes through the City of South Perth, and its requirements vary across eight drainage precincts — they are not the same everywhere in the council area.
Repair and replacement work on an existing system sits differently again. Tell us what you are actually doing when you ring and we will tell you plainly what applies to your job rather than guess.
Why does Como have so many drainage problems?
Two reasons that compound each other.
The suburb is old — subdivided in 1905, with its main building years through the 1950s and 1960s — so a lot of the drainage has been underground for over half a century.
And Como has been subdivided heavily. Only about a third of its occupied dwellings are separate houses; more than half are semi-detached homes, townhouses or villas. Every split block and rear dwelling adds roof and paving, and the soakwells underneath very often stayed the size they always were.
How long does the work take?
A straightforward replacement is usually done inside a day.
It takes longer when access is tight, when there is paving or concrete over the old well, when pipe runs have to be re-routed, or when the roof area needs more capacity than the original system had. Whichever of those applies to you is on the written quote before the day, not sprung on you during it.
Do you work weekends or after hours?
No. We work Monday to Friday, 7:00am to 4:00pm, and we do not run an after-hours, weekend or 24-hour service.
Urgent drainage work gets brought to the front of the queue inside those hours, and we tell you honestly on the phone how soon that can be. How we handle urgent work
Do you charge to come and quote?
No. $0 call-out fee, and the quote is free.
You get the written price on site before any work starts, and if you would rather not go ahead you owe nothing.
Are you licensed?
Yes. Plumbing Licence 8396. Drainage and stormwater are plumbing work, and it is done by the licence holder rather than subcontracted out.
Como Soakwells is a working name for HouseWorks Plumbing & Gas, ABN 74 613 553 665, which also holds Gas Licence 13098 — though gas is not what this site is about. More about us