24 hour plumbing in Hawker, Canberra
Hawker is a leafy 1970s suburb on the western edge of Belconnen, backing onto The Pinnacle Nature Reserve with Hawker College and a busy local shopping centre at its heart. Blocks are large and sloping, gardens are established, and the plumbing has to cover long distances to reach the sewer.
What usually goes wrong in Hawker
- Long earthenware sewer runs on big blocks blocked by roots after dry weather and rain
- Galvanised hot water flow and return lines in the roof space leaking onto ceilings
- Low water pressure on the higher streets toward the reserve
- Frost splitting garden taps, relief lines and evaporative cooler pipework on south-facing slopes
- Grease and shared-drain blockages at the Hawker shops
Local notes from the plumbers
Hawker sits on the northern side of Belconnen Way under The Pinnacle, and most of it was built in the early 1970s on generous blocks. The recurring problem is the long private drain. A house on a corner block near Hawker College can have thirty metres of earthenware sewer between the back bathroom and the connection at the boundary, and every one of those joints is a place for roots or clay movement to get in. Blockages tend to show up after a dry spell followed by rain, when the ground has shifted and then the roots have grown. Water pressure is moderate to low on the higher streets toward the reserve, and the 1970s galvanised hot water flow and return lines in the roof space are the usual cause of a leak stain on a ceiling. Frost hits hard on the south-facing slopes, so garden taps, exposed hot water relief lines and the pipework to evaporative coolers on the roof are the first to split in winter. Food premises at the Hawker shops need grease traps cleared and shared drains jetted.
Housing in Hawker
Early 1970s brick veneer homes on large, often sloping blocks below The Pinnacle, many with later extensions, plus townhouse courts near the Hawker shops and a rising number of two-storey rebuilds on former Mr Fluffy sites.