Three hours in a side laneway in Northcote, and what we hope you remember afterwards: that it was quiet, tidy, and finished when we said it would be.

One — the four questions

When you ring or send the form we ask four things: which suburb, roughly what size the tank is, whether there is a pump connected, and how you get to the tank — gate, laneway, side path or through the house. That is enough to give you a fixed price on the spot in the great majority of cases. If access is genuinely unusual (a tank behind a deck, an in-slab tank under a courtyard) we say so and arrange a look before quoting.

Two — the booking and the window

We run two jobs a day, not six. You get a date, and the evening before you get a text with a thirty-minute arrival window. Nobody needs to be home if the tank is reachable from a side gate, though most people like to be there for the hatch coming off. We bring our own water for rinsing where a job needs it and ask permission before using a house tap.

Three — on site

Drop sheets down on paving, pump isolated at the switch, hatch off, and a look inside before anything else so you can see the starting point with your own eyes. Then the vacuum work, the wall brush, the roof interior, the inlet throat. Hardware pass next: diverter, screens, strainer, cartridge housing. A final look at the gutters from the ladder, and the pump back on with the line run clear at the nearest tap.

The sludge goes into sealed drums in the ute. Paving gets rinsed and swept. We have no interest in leaving a black tide mark across your bluestone.

Four — the note we leave behind

Every job ends with a single page: sediment depth measured before and after, parts replaced, condition of the diverter and screens, gutter observations, and a suggested month for the next service. It sits on the bench with the invoice. Three years later, when you cannot remember whether the overflow screen was done, it is on the page.

When to book, and how often

For a Melbourne house with a tiled or metal roof and no large trees overhead, a full clean every three to four years is sensible, with a filter and diverter service each year. Under gums, wattles or a neighbour's liquidambar, halve those intervals — leaf fall and bark strips are relentless.

Timing matters too. Late autumn, once the worst of the leaf drop is over and before the winter fill, is the ideal window. Early spring is second best. The one time we discourage a clean is mid-January, when tanks are low and you will want every stored litre for the garden. If you are on tank water for the laundry or toilets and you notice a smell or discolouration, ignore all of the above and ring us.

Payment, insurance and the boring bits

Invoice on completion, payable by card on site or by bank transfer within seven days. GST-registered, ABN 41 882 507 116, $20 million public liability cover for residential work. If something we touched fails within thirty days, we come back and put it right at no charge.