Storm Water and Soakwells in Bentley

Drainage not coping in Bentley?

Ring us and a licensed plumber comes out at no charge. He works out what has failed on site, then leaves you with a written price before anything begins. No hidden costs, and nothing owing if you would rather not go ahead.

Mid-century housing, modern loads

Bentley was built out largely through the 1950s and 1960s, and much of the original housing followed the pattern of the era — single-storey, modest footprint, sitting on a block with plenty of open ground around it.

Drainage installed for that kind of house had an easy job. Small roof, minimal paving, and a large area of bare sandy garden that absorbed most of what the system did not catch.

Seventy years later the picture is different on nearly every one of those blocks. Extensions and rear additions have grown the roof. Carports, patios and alfrescos have added more. Driveways have been widened and lawns replaced with paving or concrete.

Each change adds impervious area and removes soft ground. The two effects compound, and the soakwells carrying it are frequently the originals. Nothing has broken — the system has simply been handed a job several times the size of the one it was built for. Backyard flooding and drainage

The grouped housing side

Bentley also carries a substantial amount of grouped and higher-density housing — unit blocks, villa groups and townhouse clusters, a lot of it built from the 1960s onward.

Those developments concentrate roof and hardstand on a single site with very little permeable ground left over. The drainage was designed for that load at the time, but with little margin, because there was nowhere spare to put extra capacity.

They also produce shared systems: several roofs feeding runs that cross boundaries before reaching common soakwells. Which means the grate that backs up is often nowhere near the section that has actually failed, and it means working out where the fault sits comes before any conversation about whose it is. Strata and commercial drainage

Large sites need a different conversation

The other thing about Bentley is scale. Alongside the housing there are significant institutional, education and business sites in the suburb, with roof and hardstand areas far beyond anything domestic.

On those sites the drainage questions change shape. Capacity is calculated rather than estimated, water across a car park or an access way is an operational problem rather than an inconvenience, and any work has to fit around people using the place. Knowing what the disruption looks like before the day matters as much as the price does.

We quote that work the same way we quote a house: a licensed plumber attends at no charge, and the written price is itemised and final. Transparent pricing, no hidden costs.

Check the council, not the suburb

Bentley sits outside the City of South Perth, so the specific rules that apply in Como and the suburbs immediately around it are not automatically the ones covering your block here.

The general principle holds across the metro area — stormwater is expected to be dealt with on the property rather than discharged onto the road, the verge or a neighbour. But the detail, the volumes and the approval process are set locally, and they vary.

Tell us the address when you ring. We will work to the requirements that actually apply rather than the ones we use most often.

What we do in Bentley

Why Bentley calls us

Free quote in Bentley

Tell us the address, whether it is a house, a unit group or a larger site, and where the water ends up. We will call you back to arrange a time.

Nearby areas we serve

Como · Wilson · Karawara · Victoria Park · View all service areas