24 hour plumbing in Harrison, Canberra
Harrison is a 2000s suburb south-east of the Gungahlin town centre, home to Harrison School and a long strip of townhouse complexes along Well Station Drive. It was built in a single decade with the same materials throughout, so the whole suburb tends to hit the same failure points at the same time.
What usually goes wrong in Harrison
- Crimp fittings on PEX and polybutylene lines letting go inside wall cavities
- Pressure limiting valves at the meter seizing and passing full mains pressure into the house
- Mains-pressure hot water units from the original build reaching replacement age
- Shared sewer lines in townhouse complexes blocking for several households at once
- Frozen garden taps and hot water copper tails on winter mornings
Local notes from the plumbers
Harrison was built through the 2000s between Horse Park Drive and Flemington Road, and its plumbing is the plumbing of that decade: polybutylene or PEX water lines run through a manifold, plastic push-fit and crimp fittings, a mains-pressure hot water unit on a concrete pad against the wall and a pressure limiting valve at the meter. Twenty years in, the fittings are the weak point. A crimp ring that was not fully closed on install will hold for years and then let go, usually behind a bathroom wall or under the kitchen bench, and the leak is found by the wet carpet next door. Pressure limiting valves at the Icon Water meter have started to seize and pass high pressure into the house, which is why so many flexi hoses and relief valves fail at the same time on one street. The townhouse complexes along Well Station Drive share sewer lines, so one household's blockage reaches several. Winter frosts on the open plain freeze exposed garden taps and the copper tails on hot water units, and the relief valve is the first to drip afterwards.
Housing in Harrison
2000s brick and rendered homes on small blocks between Horse Park Drive and Flemington Road, large townhouse complexes along Well Station Drive, and low-rise apartments near the light rail stops on the Flemington Road side.