Blocked Drains in Mount Cotton

Jim Monger Plumbing and Gas offers blocked drain clearing to homeowners, landlords and property managers across its service area, using a jet rodder or electric eel, with a CCTV drain camera to look for the cause. The business is based at Victoria Point, with Mount Cotton in its service area. The suburb drains to several creek systems and conditions differ across it, so useful advice depends on where your block sits. A gully backing up after a storm, a slow drain on a lifestyle block and a drain that stopped after a blackout each point to a different check. Work out which one you have, then ring us with it.

Before anyone puts a machine down your line, it helps to know three things: what the weather has been doing, where your block sits on the hill, and whether your wastewater leaves the property at all. The answers change what you check first and what you ask us to do.

Council names localised creek flooding and overland flow in heavy rain as the primary flood risks here, naming Tingalpa, Eprapah, Native Dog and Serpentine Creeks. So when a yard drain fails only in a downpour, clear its grate and look at where the water is coming from before paying to clear a pipe. Council’s creek flood maps leave overland flow out, so being off them does not rule this out. Council also lists Mount Cotton Road south of Woodlands Drive as having flooded before, so if your way in uses that stretch, check it after heavy rain and never drive through floodwater.

Height varies a long way here: Redland Water’s 2016 master plan split this area into four water zones because elevations run from 10 to 105 metres, from the south-east corner of Mt Cotton Village up to the reservoir zone. That plan covers water supply, not drains, but blocks here clearly sit at very different levels, so a neighbour’s answer may not fit yours. As a general guide, a backup on a sloping line often shows first at the lowest gully. West of Mount Cotton Road, the same plan describes rural land climbing to the back of some properties, so a private run there may be long and steep, and a camera can help before anyone digs.

Then check the power: Council’s profile says some properties here have on-site wastewater systems that may not operate during extended outages, so after a long blackout, check the system has power before you pay for a blocked pipe. Council also reported in August 2016 that a generator was installed so the Mt Cotton wastewater treatment plant could keep operating in blackouts, a report about that plant only. Whatever your set-up, if sewage overflows during an outage, do not touch it, and ring for help.

The kind of property changes the next question. Native Dog Creek runs through Mount Cotton Village, and its catchment reaches well beyond the suburb, about two thirds of it in Logan City. Council’s entry for that whole catchment describes lifestyle blocks in its upper west and says many rural non-urban properties use septic or on-site systems. That says nothing about your own block, so confirm where your wastewater goes, and if it goes to a tank, ask about the tank, since Council recommends an annual check on septic properties. In the Village, the low density residential layout the 2016 plan described suggests a more suburban line, but confirm your connection rather than assume it.