Chapter two · the work, item by item
Everything we do fits in the boot of one ute — a vacuum, a brush, a box of screens, and the patience to check the parts nobody looks at.
There is no menu of packages here, because a domestic rainwater tank does not need one. There is a clean, and there is the hardware service that keeps the clean worth having. What follows is the plain description of both, so you know exactly what a fixed price buys before we pull up outside your house.
Full sediment clean
The core job. We isolate the pump, remove the inspection hatch, and draw the settled layer off the tank floor with a low-volume sludge vacuum that works through the hatch opening. The wall band just below the waterline is brushed with a soft telescopic head, then the roof interior and inlet throat are cleared of nesting material and leaf mulch.
If the tank is under a quarter full we finish with a rinse and full evacuation, leaving it dry and ready to catch the next front coming across Port Phillip. If it is fuller than that — and after a proper winter most are — we clean to the depth we can reach and record exactly what remains. We would rather write down an honest note than empty four thousand litres of your water onto the lawn.
First-flush diverters
A first-flush diverter holds back the dirtiest few litres from the start of a downpour, then drains itself slowly through a small release. That release blocks. When it does, the chamber stays full, the ball seat sits high and every later shower runs straight into the tank carrying whatever the roof had on it.
We strip the chamber, clean the release, check or replace the ball and seat, and re-time the drain so it empties between typical Melbourne rain events. Where a house has no diverter and the roof sits under gums, we will say so and quote a supply-and-fit separately — never as a surprise line on the invoice.
Inlet, overflow and mosquito screens
Screens are cheap and decisive. Perished mesh, a collar that has lifted, a rat-chewed corner on the overflow — each one undoes the clean within a season and each one is a mosquito door. We carry stainless and poly mesh for inlets and overflows up to 300 mm and fit them as part of the standard price. Larger or custom collars are quoted at cost plus fitting.
Cartridge filters and pump strainers
If your tank feeds the laundry, the toilets or an outdoor kitchen tap, there is almost certainly a cartridge housing on the pressure side. We depressurise the line, open the housing, flush the bowl, clean the seat, re-grease the O-ring and reinstall. New sediment cartridges — 20, 10 or 5 micron — can be supplied on the day or you can have your own ready.
The pump strainer basket gets the same treatment. Nine times out of ten a pump that "keeps losing pressure" has a strainer packed with fine grit, not a failing motor. We will tell you when it really is the motor, and we will not try to sell you the replacement.
Gutter and catchment check
Included with every clean, at no charge: a ladder-height look at the gutters, downpipe leaf guards and the section of roof feeding the tank. You get a short written note — "north gutter holding 40 mm of silt, guard missing on the rear downpipe" — so you can book your gutter contractor with something concrete in hand. We do not clean gutters ourselves.
What we do not do
We are not plumbers and we do not pretend otherwise. We do not cut into pipework, install pumps, connect tanks to household plumbing, or make any claim about the drinking quality of your water. If you want water tested, we will point you to a NATA-accredited laboratory and hand over the sample bottles. Commercial, farm and body-corporate tanks are outside our scope; we stay with houses and townhouses across greater Melbourne.
Not sure which of the above your tank actually needs? Most people are not, and that is fine — four questions on the phone usually settle it. Ring 40735731472, or read how a visit runs before you decide.