Plumber Darch

Darch WA 6065, City of Wanneroo. About 17 km north of the Perth CBD.

Darch is a suburb about seventeen kilometres north of the Perth CBD in the City of Wanneroo, previously part of Landsdale and rural in character until the late 1990s. It was opened for residential development mainly from 2001 as part of the East Wanneroo development area. For a plumber that build date puts the suburb at a predictable stage: sound pipework with decades left, and builder-installed fittings all reaching the end of their first life at much the same time.

• Housing built from 2001 onwardDarch went up over a short period, so the hot water units, cisterns, tapware and isolation valves installed with the houses fail on much the same timetable. When a neighbour replaces a hot water system, yours is usually not far behind.
• Fittings, not pipework, at end of lifeAt around twenty years the water and sewer pipework in a Darch home is sound and has decades left. Anyone quoting a replumb in this suburb is quoting work the house does not need, and we will say so rather than taking the job.
• Rural land until the late 1990sThe suburb was farmland and market gardens before it was subdivided. Where old rural bores, irrigation lines and drainage were left in the ground rather than removed, they turn up during excavation for a pool or an extension, so we locate before digging.
• Landsdale Park bushland within the suburbThe retained bushland reserve holds mature natives close to the properties along its edge, and those roots reach sewer joints in the usual way. Those blocks are the ones worth cameraing rather than guessing at when a drain keeps blocking.