Blocked Drains Pelican Waters

Contained properly and explained honestly, and cleared today

Blocked Drain Specialists for Pelican Waters

First of all, here's a bit of good news that many Pelican Waters householders are not aware of, which alters what to expect from a drain issue here.

It is almost certain that there are no tree roots in your drains! The suburb started to develop in 1990 so its sewer and stormwater pipes were installed in modern PVC pipes, not the clay pipe that was used to construct older suburbs such as Buderim and Nambour. Clay has short sections about 1 metre long with a joint every metre and after many years of ground movement these joints have fractured and encourage the growth of roots through the cracks. That's why the blockage information Unitywater has published has placed Buderim as the worst blockage suburb in its entire Sunshine Coast, Noosa and Moreton Bay network. PVC has relatively few places where roots can enter and roots have a much more difficult time entering.

When a Pelican Waters drain blocks, the cause is most frequently something other, and figuring out which something other is important, since the fixes are entirely different. The ground itself can be the answer in this suburb.

Pelican Waters has been constructed on the Bells Creek estuary and associated wetland, and was developed in the early 1990s as the first canal estate since the 1960s when the canal estate of Kawana Waters was developed near Caloundra. Filled and reclaimed ground is subject to settlement and that settlement is not uniform. This is why most of the drain issues we attend in this suburb are the same.

Apex Essential Services clears blocked drains throughout the whole suburb, the canal frontages, Spitfire Banks and the island, the golf course precinct, Pelican Waters Boulevard, Marina Village, the newest releases towards Bells Creek and much more, and completes any major work with a camera down the line so that you can see the cause for yourselves rather than having to take anyone's word for it.

The things that block Pelican Waters drains

1. Settlement bellies, the local specialty

This is the fault pattern that typifies this suburb and it is important to understand correctly because that is why some homes have been clearing the same drains for 10 years.

When land is filled or reclaimed for canal development, the fill will compact over the years and decades that follow, but will not compact uniformly. There is some settling that happens in some sections, and not in others. Hard pipes through that ground will follow it down, and what was a smooth and even fall is changed into a run with a dip in it. This dip is what the trade refers to as a belly, and it's a blockage factory.

Here's why. A properly graded pipe will have water and waste running through it and will continue to run. In a belly, the low point will always contain water. Any solids deposited at the house settle in that still water and are not swept away. Grease and sand bind to them. Over months the deposit builds, a plumber removes it, and the process will begin again from the start. The pipe is not broken in the sense that it comes in pieces. It's just out of shape, and no amount of clearing changes the shape.

2. Groundwater infiltration is the second factor, as is the tide

The substantial differences in water levels in the system caused by tides result in a corresponding rise and fall in groundwater beneath canal blocks. All pipe joints that have been displaced or opened up below the tidal range are filled with groundwater twice a day. This does two things, it fills the sewer with water which should not be there, and it washes away fine material from around the pipe, which in time can cause the settling that led to the problem in the first place.

Also, it generates a quite helpful diagnostic. If the drains in your house only gurgle, run slowly or back up during king tide and heavy rain, the fault is below the water table. When you call, mention timing as it will point our camera to the correct length of pipe before, not after, twenty metres of search.

3. Debris from construction in newer builds

Land continues to be released and homes continue to be built, and Pelican Waters has plenty of brand new drainage, but brand new drainage doesn't necessarily equate to clean drainage.

Sand, render washings, cement slurry, paint water and plaster and offcuts get into drainage in the construction process. A lot of it is flushed away, a little of it isn't. Cement and render in particular can harden in a low point and what is being left behind is just like a permanent blockage and will trap everything the house sends down after. The bad news for owners is that the blockage doesn't typically manifest for six months or a year after handover and no one puts the construction in the same sentence.

If your home is newish, and you have had an unexplained blockage, mention when it was built. Camera shots of construction debris are entirely different and it's worth capturing, a construction fault can be a warranty issue, not a maintenance expense.

4. Wet wipes and unflushables

Toilet paper is designed to dissolve in water in about half a minute. In contrast, wet wipes are designed to be strong, and many do not even degrade, no matter what the packet says about being “flushable”. They flush beautifully and then pick up at the next bend, junction or belly and begin to add everything that follows. Add makeup wipes, disinfectant wipes, sanitary products, cotton buds and paper towel and you have a big blockage category.

In a house with a belly they are a lot worse than in a normal house, since the belly provides them with a place to rest.

5. Fats, oils and grease

The fat from cooking drains as a warm liquid, but then solidifies on the pipe when it cools. Layer by layer, the effective diameter reduces and when a slug of food waste finishes the job, it is zero. The kitchen lines here are used more than their share of the time when it comes to entertaining, with Pelican Waters having outdoor kitchens, long weekend cooking and extended family staying. In a pipe with a belly, grease clings to everything that is already in the standing water, and speeds everything up.

6. Hair, soap and sand

Family bathrooms are steadily forming hair-and-soap mats, and in a four-bathroom-house there are just more of them forming. A good amount of sand is flowing down showers, rinse taps and washing machines in this suburb, and that's because of local additions such as the beach at Golden Beach, boating from the ramps and pontoons, and fishing which attracts a lot of people. Sand is insoluble, will not decompose, and is denser than water, so it will settle down at the first place it slows: again, the belly, in this suburb.

7. Storm season on low level flatlands

Storm cells interact with low-lying estuarine ground having limited fall to work with from November through March. Unlike hillside lines, flat stormwater runs do not self-flush, and result in accumulation of leaves, sand and silt. A stormwater system that's operating at 80 percent during winter is down for the count when it gets hit with the first serious cell, and if it happens with a high tide holding up the outfalls, the water won't have anywhere to go. The low cost repair is a jetting in October and the high cost repair is a flooded garage in January.

Early Warning Signs to Take Action on

• If the toilet or plugholes are gurgling when other fixtures drain, it means air is pushing through a partial blockage, and it's the first warning sign that you are going to get.
• Two or more fixtures that are slow at the same time. A lazy sink means it is a local clog, multiple lazy sinks indicate a main line clog.
• Toilet water levels that are abnormally high or low or that bubble when the toilet is flushed.
• Sewage odour in the yard, bathroom or laundry area or around the pool plant area.
• In dry weather, overflow relief gully weeping. The grate outside is the intentional escape for your sewer, not one you should cover with concrete, plant a flower bed around or put a pot on, or the overflow will go into your home instead.
• A green stripe along the path of the drain, or persistently damp ground, a cracked pipe leaking into soft ground.
• Symptoms which follow the tide instead of household water usage. That's a diagnosis in the making, as above.
• The same blockage in the same spot at the same time. The single most telling sign of a belly.

Almost all of it is a very simple clearing job within a day if it is caught early. If it goes ignored, the endgame is a health hazard, a plumbing emergency in your house, and on a block on the canal, within metres of the water, an environmental hazard.

How We Clear Pelican Waters Drains, and Keep Them Clear

1. Contain, assess and locate. If anything is flowing towards the stormwater grate or towards the canal, it is stopped first. Then: sewer or storm water, kitchen branch or main run, and access locations? If you read the site correctly before anything goes in the pipe, then the correct tool does indeed go in first.
2. Properly clear the blockage. The water jetter that uses water at several thousand psi and is equipped with purpose-cut nozzles to cut set grease, break up compacted sand and construction debris, cut any roots if they exist and scour the pipe back to the original diameter is the workhorse. That is important, more than people realise: punching a hole through the deposit will restore flow for weeks, while scouring the wall will restore the pipe. An electric drain machine with cutting heads is better for some internal lines.
3. Camera the line. Once the pipe is cleared a CCTV drain camera is inserted and records a video of the problem area, so that the question of why did this block? can be answered without a second visit. Standing water in a belly, construction debris in a low area, grease buildup, out of place joint, wipe mass. You look at it with us and you retain it.
4. Locate the fault to within the centimetre. A surface locator traces the camera head from above ground and records the exact position and depth. For those Pelican Waters blocks where the fault could be located under a pool surround, a paved entertaining area, a driveway or established landscaping, that is the whole difference between a targeted repair and an excavation not wanted!
5. Quote the actual options, side by side, and include the prices. If it is structurally OK then you are all done, footage included, and we will just simply say it was a “usage” problem and not a pipe problem. If there is a defect: a maintenance clearing, a sectional patch, relining or grade correction (when there is a severe belly). Your pipe, your budget, your choice.

Fixing a Belly: The Honest Options

This is the one thing we need to be honest about: it's different to the older suburbs we work in, and it's the only one for which the “just reline it” answer should have a qualifier.

Why relining alone may not solve a belly

Pipe relining is the inclusion of a resin-infiltrated liner into the old pipe and hardening it into a smooth, jointless new pipe within the old pipe. It is good technology, and Unitywater has implemented it on a scale: 25 kilometres of wastewater relining in the Sunshine Coast and Noosa in a recent 2-year program. Seals cracks and displaced joints and root entry points permanently, without excavation.

However, a liner will follow the shape of the host pipe. If your pipe has sagged then the liner has sagged. You get a smoother, sealed pipe with the standing water still at the low point. Relining is the total solution to a cracked pipe or pipe infiltration. It makes things better but doesn't cure them, and if the plumber never mentioned that when quoting a reline for a belly, they were doing you a disservice.

What actually works

• Small bellies: may be controllable. A proper jetting to full diameter and reasonable household practices will maintain the operation of this dip for years if done when it is shallow. We will be honest if that is the realistic call, and approximate how often you might expect to clear it.
• Small cracks or displaced joints that do not sag much: relining or a sectional patch that is sealed and has no digging. This is the best possible scenario, and it's a frequent occurrence here.
• Severely low graded: this area requires excavation and re-grading, bedding and compaction to prevent settling back down. We don't recommend it lightly, but it is the most invasive and the only thing that really rectifies a poor run, and we'd rather say that than sell you a liner to clear the same line in three years.
• Sectional patch repairs handle the more frequently occurring situation of one joint being displaced or a short run that has been damaged, at an economical alternative to the full cost of a reline.

Which of these applies is determined by the camera, and you're presented with footage and drainage solutions side by side and priced accordingly before you commit.

Landscaping, Pools and Digging

This deserves a whole section here as it leads to more damage to the drains in Pelican Waters than tree roots.

This is a suburb where people build. It's constant: on new blocks and existing blocks, pools, outside kitchens, retaining walls, fencing, decking, irrigation, shed slabs, pontoon works and landscaping upgrades. And services in an estate of this era can be shallower than people think. Each year we see drains that have been punctured by a post hole that came straight through a sewer pipe, or a pool being dug that has broken a sewer pipe in the wrong location.

The damage often doesn't show up right away. A cracked or misaligned joint may drain well for eighteen months and then gradually get clogged because debris accumulates at the breakage, by which time they have already forgotten they installed a pool. When we camera a line here and notice a clean break at a very convenient place, our first question is what was built nearby, and the answer is always illuminating.

Two things prevent it. Before beginning any digging ensure you know what is below the ground: Unitywater have a free online mapping tool available, which can be used to view their installations on any property, and a plumber's site plans will indicate the private runs. If your work has already been done and your drains have begun to misbehave since, say so, it's diagnostic information that points to the right stretch when you call.

Whose Pipe Is It?

On almost any sewer project, the boundary issue is raised. The principle: you are responsible for maintaining private drains within the property boundary up to the point where they connect with the public water and sewer mains, which are the responsibility of Unitywater.

That's practically useful for two reasons. First, Unitywater have a free online mapping tool which allows you to input an address and view any utility infrastructure crossing the block, before landscaping or assuming a fault belongs to you. Second, camera video can be used to resolve the issue without an opinion, it provides evidence of where the fault lies: on the public main or somewhere else? If the fault is on the public main, we document where it is and give you the information you need to pass on to your utility, rather than paying to treat a pipe that isn't yours.

The Pelican Waters Drain Playbook

• Kitchens: use a sink strainer, use a jar for used cooking oil and bin it when it is full. Grease is the catalyst on all other problems when there is a dip in a pipe.
• Bathrooms: a few dollar hair catcher over all shower waste. A handful of dollars spent overall, in a four bath house that's the highest ROI on this page.
• Toilets: only three Ps. The rest is done by a lidded bin next to every toilet and a small card in case you have visitors, who may not be familiar with your plumbing system.
• Sand: rinse the feet, boards, fishing gear and boat equipment outside on a grated well-drained area, not in the bathroom. Shake out towels before the washing machine. Sand that is stopped at the door never settles in a belly.
• Overflow relief gully: know where yours is and keep it clear of paving, turf, decking and pots, in a suburb where everyone landscapes.
• Before you dig: check the Unitywater mapping tool and site plans prior to digging pools, posts, retaining walls, irrigation, or slabs. Five minutes is better than a broken sewer that you'll come back to in eighteen months.
• Prior to storm season: gutters and surface grates cleaned out in spring and any slow stormwater drain jetted in October. Yet January, as usual, is the month when the flat, low-lying networks are unforgiving, particularly at high tide.
• If it blocks twice in the same spot: don't consider it to be bad luck, just get a camera down it. Here that pattern equals belly or defect, and finding it once costs less than clearing it forever.
• Buying here? A pre purchase CCTV drain inspection is an inexpensive “due diligence” which is something you need to do before you settle on a canal block, as it is not disclosed in a standard building report and a beautiful home can be built on top of a run that has gone awry.