Plumber Camillo

Camillo WA 6111, City of Armadale. About 24 km south-east of the Perth CBD.

Camillo sits about twenty-four kilometres south-east of the Perth CBD in the City of Armadale, on gently rising ground below the scarp. It was part of Kelmscott until 1978 and was developed mainly through the 1970s and 1980s, so most houses here are running their original drainage and, in many cases, their original pipework. For a plumber that age is the whole picture: ageing sewer lines, tired tapware and hot water units on borrowed time.

• Housing at the age where pipework mattersA Camillo house built in the 1970s or early 1980s is at the point where copper, any remaining galvanised sections and earthenware drainage all warrant assessment. Unlike the newer estates further out, a replumb here is sometimes genuinely the right answer rather than an oversell.
• Forty years of garden growth over the sewerEstablished trees and shrubs across these blocks sit over drainage laid when the houses went up. Roots find the joints, and a drain that blocks every year is telling you about the condition of the line rather than about what is being flushed.
• A high share of tenanted housingMuch of Camillo is investor-owned, and we do a steady run of landlord work here: hot water replacements, leaking tapware and blocked drains that need attending quickly. We quote before starting and report what we found, so an owner who is not on site can see what the money went on.
• Rising ground toward the scarpThe eastern side of Camillo begins to climb, and on the higher blocks excavation for a sewer repair or a soak well can strike harder ground than the flat suburbs nearby. That affects what a trench costs, so we look at the block before quoting it.