By Matthew Baring-Gould, Kingscliff-based drainage plumber. Servicing Tweed Heads for 4 years. 5.0 stars across 173 Google reviews. Licensed NSW 383340C and QLD 15036450. ABN 74 605 392 348.
Years of untouched silt had choked the stormwater tanks at an Ocean Shores unit block. Vacuum excavation to clear the silt, hydrojet on the branch lines, CCTV survey, report back to the body corporate.
What the customer called us for
Body corporate for a unit block in Ocean Shores called us in because their stormwater system was backing up and nobody could remember the last time anyone had been down into the stormwater tanks.
What we found when we got there
The in-ground tanks had never been maintained. Silt had built up to a point where the tanks could not accept new water during moderate rain. Years of untouched sediment, no drainage path left for the stormwater to go.
Why we did it this way
On commercial and body-corporate stormwater, you can hydrojet all day but if the holding tanks are full of silt you are just moving the silt around. The right order is: suck the solids out first, then jet the branch lines back into clean tanks, then camera the whole system to confirm no damaged runs.
What we did on site
- Brought in vacuum excavation and removed the built-up silt from each in-ground tank.
- Hydrojetted every branch line back into the now-clean tanks to flush out the fines.
- Ran the CCTV camera through the whole system to verify the lines were free-flowing.
- Documented damage to the concrete tank bases where years of standing silt had eaten into the concrete.
- Produced a report and quote back to the body corporate for the concrete repair work.
The result
System back to free-flowing. Body corporate now has a documented condition report and a quote to repair the concrete tank bases before the next wet season.
If you have the same issue
If you manage a block of units, a strata property or any kind of body-corporate stormwater, book an annual stormwater tank clean. The cost of annual vacuum + jet is a small fraction of the structural repair bill when the tanks start eating themselves. Call Matty on 0447 188 394 or request a quote.
Customer names and addresses have been withheld. Individual results vary. Drain Masters Plumbing is licensed in NSW (383340C) and QLD (15036450).
Frequently asked
How often should body-corporate stormwater tanks be cleaned?
Once a year as a minimum. In coastal properties with sandy soil or heavy leaf litter, twice a year is better.
Does the body corp need to pay for all of this up-front?
The clean itself is a standard commercial-stormwater service. Any repair work (like the concrete tank base rebuild here) is quoted separately so the body corporate can approve it at the next meeting.
Why is a CCTV survey part of a stormwater clean?
Without the camera, you cannot tell whether the blockage was silt alone or whether the line itself is cracked, offset, or infiltrated. The camera is the only way to tell maintenance from capital repair.
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