Water sitting in the yard at Salter Point?
Ring us and a licensed plumber comes out at no charge. He works out what is actually happening on the block, then gives you a written price before anything starts. No hidden costs, nothing owing if you would rather not go ahead.
The water table is the whole story here
A soakwell does not store water. It lets water go into the ground. Everything depends on the ground beneath it being able to take that water away.
On high, dry sand this is effortless — which is why soakwells became the standard answer across Perth in the first place. On low ground near a river, where the natural water table sits close to the surface, it is a different proposition entirely.
Salter Point is surrounded on three sides by the Canning. Blocks closest to the foreshore sit on the lowest ground in the suburb, and there the sand beneath a soakwell may already be holding water before a drop of rain lands on your roof.
The consequences are specific:
The well drains slowly, or barely at all, when the ground is already saturated
In a dry February it performs perfectly. In a wet July week it is close to useless, because there is nowhere for the water to go.
Depth stops helping past a point
The instinctive fix for a struggling soakwell is a deeper one. On low ground that can make things worse, by putting the chamber into permanently wet sand rather than sand that will actually accept water.
Volume matters more than it does elsewhere
If a well cannot empty quickly between downpours, the only thing that carries you through a wet week is having enough capacity to hold the water in the meantime.
This is why a drainage solution copied from a block on higher ground can fail badly a few streets closer to the river. The arithmetic is the same; the ground is not.
What that means for the job
It means the first visit is worth more here than almost anywhere else we work.
Where a block sits relative to the water, how low the ground is, what the existing system was trying to do and whether it was ever going to succeed are all things to establish before anyone quotes a chamber size. Guessing produces expensive holes that do not fix the problem.
We will also tell you plainly when the honest answer is that more volume is the fix rather than a deeper well — and when the existing system is sound and the problem is simply a wet fortnight doing what wet fortnights do.
Large blocks, and what goes on them
Salter Point holds a good number of substantial homes on generous riverside blocks — larger roofs than the suburbs inland, and often a fair amount of paving, driveway and outdoor living space besides.
Large roof area is straightforward to plan for when you know it is coming. The problem arises when a home has been extended, re-roofed or substantially rebuilt over the years without the drainage being revisited. A roof that has grown by half again needs drainage that has grown with it, and on this ground there is less margin for error than most places.
The City of South Perth's benchmark for minor additions is at least 0.02 cubic metres of soakwell for every square metre of impervious area drained. On a large home, that adds up quickly. Soakwell replacement
The rule across the suburb
Salter Point is in the City of South Perth, so all stormwater falling on a site must be collected, contained and disposed of on that site — whatever the intensity or duration of the storm. It cannot be pushed onto the road, the verge or the neighbours.
The City also divides its area into eight drainage precincts with requirements that vary between them. On a peninsula suburb the difference between a foreshore street and one further in is real, so the address matters.
What we do in Salter Point
Soakwells sized for low ground
Installation and replacement with the water table taken into account rather than ignored.
Backyard flooding and drainage
Working out whether the problem is capacity, a blockage, a break, or ground that simply will not take water. Backyard flooding
Blocked and silted drains
Collapsed and cracked chambers
Buried pipe faults, found before they are dug up
Free quote in Salter Point
Tell us where the water sits, how close to the river you are and whether it only happens in the wet months. We will call you back to arrange a time. Monday to Friday, 7:00am to 4:00pm.