Plumber Bedford

Bedford WA 6052, City of Bayswater. About 6 km north-east of the Perth CBD.

Bedford is a low-density residential suburb about six kilometres north-east of the Perth CBD in the City of Bayswater, with commercial strips along Beaufort Street, Grand Promenade and Walter Road. It was built in two waves: the first in the 1920s when the Beaufort Street tram was extended into the area, and a larger one after the Second World War through State Housing Commission development. For a plumber that split is the key fact, because a 1920s house and a postwar one fail in quite different ways.

• Two building eras decades apartThe 1920s houses and the postwar State Housing homes were built with different materials to different standards. Galvanised supply and earthenware sewer feature in both but at different ages and depths, so we work out which era a property belongs to before assuming anything about its water and sewer connections.
• Original 1920s housing along the old tram routeThe earliest Bedford homes went up beside the Beaufort Street tram extension and are now a century old. Their supply pipe has narrowed with corrosion and their sewer joints have opened up, and renewing a run properly costs less than returning to repair the same section each year.
• Postwar State Housing stockThe larger wave of Bedford housing came after the war, so those homes are around seventy years into their service life. Many have been renovated once already, which means a newer bathroom connected to original galvanised supply and earthenware sewer. That junction is where we are most often called back, so it is worth checking the old pipework can carry the new fixtures before it is covered up.
• Commercial strips through the suburbBeaufort Street, Grand Promenade and Walter Road carry shops, cafes and consulting rooms in among the housing. Those kitchens and public amenities need grease traps and floor wastes serviced outside trading hours rather than during them.