24 hour plumbing in Ngunnawal, Canberra
Ngunnawal was one of the first Gungahlin suburbs, built from the early 1990s on the slopes above Gungaderra Creek. It is older, greener and more spread out than the estates that followed, and its plumbing is now at the thirty-year mark where early plastic fittings and second hot water units fail.
What usually goes wrong in Ngunnawal
- Brittle 1990s grey plastic fittings and crimp rings leaking behind laundry and kitchen walls
- Second-generation hot water units now due for replacement
- Root intrusion in sewers from thirty-year-old street trees and gardens
- High mains pressure on the lower streets toward the creek
- Stormwater running off the slope and overloading gutters and surface drains
Local notes from the plumbers
Ngunnawal was the first of the Gungahlin suburbs to fill up, built from the early 1990s along Gundaroo Drive and Gungaderra Creek, so it is the one place in the district where plumbing has reached the thirty-year mark. That is the age when the early polybutylene pipework of the 1990s shows itself. The pipe is usually fine, but the grey plastic fittings and the crimp rings of that period go brittle and leak, and the leak is typically behind the laundry wall or under the kitchen sink where no one looks. Hot water systems from the original build have been replaced at least once, and the second unit is now due. Ngunnawal has larger blocks than the suburbs built after it, with real gardens and street trees that have had three decades to grow, so sewer blockages from roots are more common here than anywhere else in Gungahlin. The land slopes toward the creek, and the lower streets get high mains pressure and stormwater that runs off the hill into gutters and drains that were sized for a drier estate.
Housing in Ngunnawal
Early to late 1990s brick veneer homes on blocks noticeably larger than later Gungahlin suburbs, sloping toward Gungaderra Creek, with townhouse groups near the Ngunnawal shops and along Gundaroo Drive and established gardens and street trees throughout.