Plumber Salter Point

Salter Point WA 6152, City of South Perth. About 7 km south of the Perth CBD.

Salter Point sits on a peninsula in the Canning River about seven kilometres south of the Perth CBD in the City of South Perth, named for the timber landing that operated here in the 1880s. It is almost entirely residential, much of it substantial waterfront housing. For a plumber the peninsula setting decides the work: a high water table, very little fall for drainage, and new large homes connecting into services laid for far smaller ones.

• Water on three sidesBeing a peninsula means groundwater is close to the surface across most of Salter Point. Soak wells here fill in winter and stay full, so stormwater on these blocks needs an outlet rather than more soakage capacity.
• Very little fall for waste linesOn flat riverside ground a drain has minimal gradient to work with, and any sag or settlement stops it running properly. A slow drain in Salter Point is often a levels problem rather than something stuck in the pipe.
• Rebuilds on original waterfront lotsNew Salter Point houses are far larger than the ones they replace, with more bathrooms and more fixtures, connecting into the same water main. Sizing that connection at the start avoids pressure problems that are expensive to fix later.
• Sandy river ground that movesThe soil along the foreshore shifts with the water table, and that movement pulls at rigid drainage over time. Displaced joints in older Salter Point lines are frequently ground movement rather than roots, and the repair is different.