Retaining Walls and Agricultural Drains in Endeavour Hills

Why walls weep

A timber sleeper or concrete retaining wall holds soil, and that soil holds water after rain. If there is no free-draining backfill and no agricultural drain leading to a legal outlet, the water has nowhere to go but through the face of the wall or out at the base. The lawn below stays soft, sleepers bow, and a damp stripe appears along the terrace.

Not every wet wall is a plumbing failure. Some walls were built without a drain. Some drains have silted up. Some wet patches are a leaking water service in the fill, which is a different job. We use cameras, listening gear and a look at the outlets to separate those causes.

What an ag drain does

An agricultural drain is a slotted or socked pipe in a gravel or free-draining bed, laid behind or at the base of a wall, falling to a pit or another legal point. It is not a sewer, and it is not a substitute for roof water being piped properly. When we jet or relay an ag line, we are restoring that groundwater path, not 'waterproofing' the wall in a structural sense.

If the wall itself is moving, bowing badly or cracking, you also need advice from a builder or an engineer. That is outside a plumbing quote, and we will say so.

Booking a look

Send a photo of the wall, the wet area and any pit you can see, and ring 03 8658 7175. We inspect, explain what we can do as plumbers, and quote that work as a fixed price. Nothing starts until you agree.

Endeavour Hills pipes at a glance

Endeavour Hills was built through the 1970s and 1980s on rising ground between Dandenong and the Lysterfield hills, postcode 3802, in the City of Casey. A lot of the original brick veneer is still on the block it was built on, often with a steep drive, a sleeper or concrete retaining wall and a stormwater pit at the low corner. Water services may be copper, with patches of later poly, and many sewers are still earthenware with tree roots from street and backyard plantings. Hot water is often a gas storage unit squeezed onto a narrow side path, which is why a replacement sometimes has to come down the front steps.

We use cameras, locators, pressure tests and acoustic leak detection so we can see the pipework before anyone cuts a wall or opens a trench on a slope.

Related services

• Emergency plumbing
• Blocked drains
• Hot water
• Gas fitting
• Hot water replacement
• Heat pumps
• Leaking taps
• Burst pipes
• Toilets
• Leak detection
• Pipe relining
• Stormwater
• Roof and gutters
• Bathrooms
• Commercial plumbing
• Backflow and maintenance

More guides

• Stormwater on sloping blocks
• Retaining walls and ag drains
• Ageing hot water in 1970s homes
• Tree roots in hillside sewers
• Choosing a plumber
• No hot water checklist
• Burst pipe, first minutes
• Leaking tap, when to call
• Gas heater safety
• Finding your meter on a slope
• Water pressure on the hills
• Hot water for split-level homes