Local Emergency Plumber Wahroonga 

Wahroonga sits on a ridge about 202 metres up, and that height decides how its plumbing fails. Rain does not soak away here.

It runs, fast, off big roofs and long driveways into drainage sized for smaller houses.

The result is the callout we get most in a summer downpour. Intense rain on the ridge overwhelms older stormwater and surcharges gully traps on the sloping blocks, so water that should be heading downhill comes back up at the lowest point instead.

The housing stock does the rest. Character here peaked in the 1920s and 1930s, and the Federation and Arts and Crafts houses along Water Street and Burns Road still sit on large garden blocks with original drainage under the lawn.

Under that lawn is shale and rock, which is exactly the ground that does not forgive an old clay joint. What we're actually called to on those blocks:

• Gully traps surcharging during storms on gully-facing land, usually the ones tucked below the back terrace
• Ageing clay sewer and stormwater lines cracking at the joints and taking in roots from the canopy that shades every street around Wahroonga Park
• Decades-old supply and drainage lines rupturing under ground movement, so the camera comes out before the shovel
• Big paved areas dumping more water into a stormwater run than it was ever built to carry

If a downpour is already backing water up against your house, ring (02) 9062 4032 and start with the blocked drains page while you wait.