Questions
Straight answers, no hedging
The things people ask most, plus the technical ones worth understanding before you spend money. If yours is not here, ask.
Asked first
Booking and pricing
Send a direct message on Instagram at @aquacore_plumbing, or use the enquiry form on this site. Include the suburb, what is happening, and a photo if you have one, because a photo usually answers three questions at once.
By the job. The price is worked out on site against your actual setup and agreed before any work starts, so there is no meter running while a decision gets made.
Melbourne and the north-western suburbs, with completed work on record in Glenroy, Airport West, Ascot Vale, Greenvale, Essendon and Brighton Beach. If you are nearby, ask.
It depends on the age and what failed. A unit under about eight years old with a failed element or valve is usually worth repairing. A tank over ten years old that is leaking from the body is not, because the leak is the tank itself. Both options get quoted so the decision is yours.
Turn the water off at the meter, which is usually at the front boundary. Open a tap inside to drain the pressure out of the line, and keep anything electrical clear of the water. Then get in touch. Finding your isolation valve before an emergency is half the battle.
Mains pressure much above 500 kPa wears out taps, flexible hoses and appliance valves years early, and the failures look random until someone puts a gauge on the line. Testing it takes minutes and a pressure limiting valve is a small part.
Worth knowing
The technical side
You do not need to know any of this to get a job done. It is here because knowing it makes the quote easier to judge.
Waste moves by gravity, and it needs enough slope to carry solids along with the water. Too flat and the water runs ahead while the solids stay put, which is how a drain that was never blocked becomes a drain that blocks every few months. Too steep does the same thing for the same reason. Falls get set with a level and checked before the trench is closed.
It is the connection point where the property drain meets the sewer, and it holds a water seal that stops sewer gas coming back up the line. When drainage is being relocated the boundary trap connection has to be made properly or the whole system stops venting the way it was designed to.
It mixes cold water into the hot line so the temperature reaching a bathroom outlet is safe to touch, while the tank itself stays hot enough to stop bacteria growing. If your hot water is scalding at the basin the valve is either missing, set wrong, or has failed.
You do if there is any way water that has left the drinking supply could get back into it. Rainwater systems, irrigation, commercial equipment and fire services all create that risk. A reduced pressure zone device removes it, and these devices are designed to be retested on a schedule rather than fitted and forgotten.
Yes. Sheet roofing, box gutters, flashings, cappings and stormwater are roof plumbing, which is a licensed plumbing discipline separate to the pipework inside the building. It is also where most water damage starts, because the flashing and gutter junctions are the hard part, not the sheets.
Yes, and it works better that way. Rough-in has to happen before sheeting and waterproofing, so the plumbing needs to be sequenced with the other trades. Getting outlet positions and waste falls fixed at that stage is much cheaper than moving them once a wall is finished.
Work stops and you get a call before it continues. Old pipework and buried drainage hold surprises, and the only fair way to handle one is to explain what has turned up, what it changes, and what the options cost before any more money gets spent.
Yes. A single failed tap or a running cistern is a normal day. Small maintenance is also the cheapest way to avoid the emergency version of the same problem later.
Question not answered here?
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