Drainlaying

Two trades, two registrations

Plumbing and drainlaying are separate registrations in New Zealand. Plenty of plumbers are not registered drainlayers, and it matters, because drainage work signed off by someone who is not registered for it is a problem you inherit when you sell the house.

Russ first registered as a Drainlayer in 1992 and holds both registrations as a Certifying Plumber and Certifying Drainlayer.

What we do

New drainage on residential and commercial builds. Repairs and replacement of failed pipework. Stormwater and sewer connections. Soakage and land drainage. And the certification that goes with all of it.

Foul water and stormwater are different systems

Foul water is everything that leaves the house through a fixture. Stormwater is what comes off the roof and the hard surfaces. They are separate systems for a reason and connecting one to the other is a problem, both for the council and for you when the network surcharges in a heavy rain.

On older properties we find cross connections more often than you would expect, usually a downpipe someone has run into the nearest gully. It shows up as a drain that only backs up when it rains.

Old pipework

A lot of Hawke's Bay housing stock has earthenware or concrete drainage that is well past its design life. It cracks, roots get in, sections drop and hold water. You usually find out because the drain keeps blocking.

The honest answer is not always to replace the lot. Sometimes one bad section is doing all the damage. A camera down the line tells you which situation you are in, and whether you are looking at a metre of pipe or the whole run.

Falls and levels

Drainage works on gravity and the fall has to be right. Too flat and solids sit in the pipe. Too steep and the water runs away and leaves the solids behind. Both end up as the same phone call a year later. Getting the levels right on the day is most of what separates drainage that works from drainage that needs revisiting.

Ground conditions in the Bay

A good deal of Napier and the flats around Hastings sit on soft or made ground, which moves. Bedding and backfill matter as much as the pipe itself, and a pipe laid straight onto rubble will find a crack eventually. It is not the exciting part of the job but it is the part that decides whether it is still working in twenty years.

Working with builders

Most of our drainage work comes through builders and architects on new builds and renovations. If you have plans, send them through. We can price off drawings, and we would rather look at them early, because drainage is one of the first things in the ground and one of the hardest to change later.

Certification

Drainage work is signed off by a Certifying Drainlayer. That paperwork matters when the property changes hands, and a buyer's lawyer will ask for it.