24 hour plumbing in Braddon, Canberra
Braddon has gone from car yards and light industry to the busiest cafe and apartment strip in Canberra in little more than a decade. Lonsdale Street and Mort Street carry the restaurants and new buildings, while the streets behind them keep the original inter-war cottages of one of the city's earliest suburbs.
What usually goes wrong in Braddon
- Grease trap and shared drain blockages under the Lonsdale Street cafes and bars
- Flexible hose bursts and blocked floor wastes in apartment buildings
- Galvanised water lines in 1920s to 40s cottages rusting closed and bursting behind walls
- Roots from Haig Park plane trees and elms in earthenware sewers
- New bathrooms plumbed onto old sewers with bad junctions causing repeat blockages
Local notes from the plumbers
Braddon is two suburbs in one and the plumbing calls split the same way. Along Lonsdale Street and Mort Street the apartment buildings, cafes and bars generate flexible hose failures, blocked floor wastes and grease trap problems that stop a kitchen trading. Shared drains under the older shopfronts were built for workshops and car yards, not for a strip of restaurants, and they block regularly. Behind the strip, the streets towards Haig Park hold 1920s to 1940s cottages, some heritage listed, with the original galvanised water lines and earthenware sewers still in the ground. Galvanised pipe here is closing up with rust from the inside and the first sign is usually poor pressure at the kitchen tap, followed by a burst behind a wall. The plane trees and elms along Haig Park and the older streets have roots in most of the sewers. Renovations are constant in Braddon, and a new bathroom plumbed onto an old sewer with a badly made junction is a common cause of repeat blockages. Northbourne Avenue is low and the mains pressure on that side is high, so pressure limiting valves are often needed.
Housing in Braddon
Apartment buildings and converted shopfronts along Lonsdale Street and Mort Street, 1920s to 1940s cottages on the residential streets towards Haig Park, some heritage listed, and a steady stream of renovated and extended homes.