Our tenant in Koondoola has reported a blocked drain. Can we book you as the landlord?

Yes. Landlords and property managers can book us directly. Give us the tenant’s contact details and we’ll arrange access with them. Consumer Protection WA treats sewerage as an essential service, with 24 hours for the landlord to organise the repair, so tell us when you book if it’s urgent.

Can a drain in a newer Madeley home really have roots in it?

It can. Water Corporation says a hairline crack is all a root needs, and every home here is now more than 15 years old. More often, though, a younger home blocks because of fat, wipes or something dropped down the toilet. A drain camera shows which it is.

We share a drain with the villa behind us in Girrawheen. Who fixes it?

A shared property drain is usually the owners’ joint responsibility, but it depends on where the blockage is and on any strata arrangements. If it’s in Water Corporation’s main, they clear it. We’ll show you where we found the blockage and note it on the invoice.

Do you clear drains at Landsdale business units?

Yes. Staff toilets, lunchroom sinks, floor wastes and shared lines in unit complexes. Tell us about access, keys and opening hours when you book. We don’t pump out grease traps. That’s a licensed liquid-waste contractor’s job.

Who pays if the blockage is in the sewer main?

Blockages in your property plumbing are the owner’s responsibility. If it’s in Water Corporation’s main, normally outside the property, Water Corporation clears it. If we find it there, we call them in.

North · Blocked drains, Girrawheen to Madeley

Blocked drains in Girrawheen, Marangaroo, Landsdale and Darch

At the 2021 Census about a third of Girrawheen’s homes were rented, and more than one in five was a townhouse, villa or other semi-detached home. A few kilometres north in Landsdale, nearly every home was a separate house and about two in three were still being paid off. Those figures follow the building dates. Girrawheen and Koondoola were built up through the 1970s, while Landsdale, Darch and Madeley were market gardens and small rural lots until the late 1990s, and that gap of roughly thirty years shows up in the drains too.

The short answer

McDermott Plumbing clears blocked drains, toilets and sinks in Girrawheen, Koondoola, Marangaroo, Alexander Heights, Landsdale, Darch and Madeley. Call (08) 6187 3999 or text 0406 882 648. It’s a run west from our Ellenbrook base, so we’ll give you a real arrival time when you ring. We clear with a drain machine or the hydro jetter, and use a CCTV drain camera when a line keeps blocking. If sewage is overflowing from Water Corporation’s main or onto the street, call Water Corporation on 13 13 75 as well.

Girrawheen and Koondoola: the older drains

Girrawheen was set out under a town planning scheme the Shire of Wanneroo approved in 1970, between Wanneroo Road, Beach Road, Marangaroo Drive and Mirrabooka Avenue. Koondoola’s primary school opened in 1975 and its shopping plaza in 1978, and before that much of the suburb had been a regional landfill site. In a house here that has never been re-plumbed, the drain running out under the garden is coming up to fifty years old. Water Corporation says homes more than 15 years old are less likely to have PVC sewer pipe, and that a hairline crack is enough for a root to get in.

Girrawheen also has a lot of grouped housing. In 2021, 733 of its occupied homes, or 22.4%, were townhouses, villas or other semi-detached dwellings, against 13.0% across WA. Units built on one block often run into a shared drain before it reaches the sewer junction, and Water Corporation says a single 100 mm junction can serve up to five home units. When the front villa and the back villa both gurgle at once, the shared section is the first place we look.

Marangaroo and Alexander Heights

Marangaroo Primary opened in 1987, the same year the suburb to the east dropped its first name, Alinjarra, and became Alexander Heights after Alexander Drive. Rawlinson Primary followed in 2003. The houses in these streets mostly came after Girrawheen’s, so their drains sit somewhere between the 1970s lines to the south and the 2000s estates to the north. Homes that back onto Koondoola’s bushland reserve or the Marangaroo golf course have big trees close to the boundary, and roots will travel a long way towards a leaking joint.

Landsdale, Darch and Madeley: the 2000s estates

Landsdale began changing from market gardens and small rural lots into housing in the late 1990s, and Darch was opened up mainly from 2001. Madeley, on the western side, holds the Kingsway City shopping centre. At the 2021 Census, 97.5% of Landsdale’s occupied homes were separate houses and 68.1% were owned with a mortgage, against 40.0% across WA. Landsdale also has commercial and light manufacturing areas, where staff toilets and lunchroom sinks share lines.

In a Darch or Madeley home of twenty-odd years, a blocked drain usually starts in the kitchen or the toilet rather than the garden: fat, food scraps and wet wipes. Roots aren’t ruled out, though. Trees planted when these estates were new have had two decades to grow, and every house here is now past the 15-year age Water Corporation flags.

Renting in Girrawheen or Koondoola?

About a third of homes in Girrawheen (34.1%) and Koondoola (34.3%) were rented in 2021, against 27.3% across WA. Under Consumer Protection WA’s guidance, a sewerage fault is an essential-service repair, and the landlord must organise it within 24 hours. Tenants should tell the landlord or agent as soon as they can, in writing if possible, and ring Water Corporation on 13 13 75 as well if sewage is overflowing.

Landlords and property managers can book us directly, and we’ll sort out access with the tenant. We write on the invoice where the blockage was and what caused it, which helps when the question of who pays comes up. This is general information, not legal advice.

What blocks drains around Girrawheen and Landsdale

Tree roots in original 1970s house drains in Girrawheen and Koondoola, and near the bushland reserves and the golf course.
Shared lines in villa and townhouse groups, where one unit’s blockage backs up into the next.
Fat and food scraps from busy family kitchens. Water Corporation says fats, oils and grease hardening in pipes cause 30% of its wastewater blockages.
Wet wipes. Water Corporation says even wipes labelled flushable don’t break down like toilet paper.
Paper towel and grease in staff toilets and lunchroom sinks at Landsdale’s commercial and light industrial units.

Blocked sink in Landsdale?

In a Landsdale or Darch kitchen, a slow sink is usually the trap and the short waste pipe under the bench, packed with fat and food scraps, often with the dishwasher draining into the same waste. In an older Girrawheen kitchen that hasn’t been redone, that waste has had decades of use. Try the safe checks in our blocked kitchen sink guide first, and keep caustic drain cleaner out of it. If the toilet, shower or outdoor gully starts gurgling or backing up at the same time, the blockage is further down the line, so stop running water and call.

How we clear it

We work from the inspection opening, gully or nearest sensible access point. A simple choke gets the drain machine. Roots, fat and wipes get the hydro jetter, which scours the pipe instead of just punching a hole through. When a line keeps coming back, the CCTV drain camera shows what’s in it and roughly where, whether that’s a root at a joint, a dip that holds water or something that should never have gone down. Jetting won’t mend a cracked or collapsed pipe, and if that’s what we see, we’ll tell you.

If the blockage turns out to be in Water Corporation’s main, normally outside the property, it’s theirs to clear and we report it. Blockages within the property plumbing are the owner’s responsibility.

Suburbs we cover here: Girrawheen, Koondoola, Marangaroo, Alexander Heights, Landsdale, Darch and Madeley.

Common questions

Our tenant in Koondoola has reported a blocked drain. Can we book you as the landlord?: Yes. Landlords and property managers can book us directly. Give us the tenant’s contact details and we’ll arrange access with them. Consumer Protection WA treats sewerage as an essential service, with 24 hours for the landlord to organise the repair, so tell us when you book if it’s urgent.
Can a drain in a newer Madeley home really have roots in it?: It can. Water Corporation says a hairline crack is all a root needs, and every home here is now more than 15 years old. More often, though, a younger home blocks because of fat, wipes or something dropped down the toilet. A drain camera shows which it is.
We share a drain with the villa behind us in Girrawheen. Who fixes it?: A shared property drain is usually the owners’ joint responsibility, but it depends on where the blockage is and on any strata arrangements. If it’s in Water Corporation’s main, they clear it. We’ll show you where we found the blockage and note it on the invoice.
Do you clear drains at Landsdale business units?: Yes. Staff toilets, lunchroom sinks, floor wastes and shared lines in unit complexes. Tell us about access, keys and opening hours when you book. We don’t pump out grease traps. That’s a licensed liquid-waste contractor’s job.
Who pays if the blockage is in the sewer main?: Blockages in your property plumbing are the owner’s responsibility. If it’s in Water Corporation’s main, normally outside the property, Water Corporation clears it. If we find it there, we call them in.

Nearby

Blocked drain and plumber pages for the areas next to this one.

How we clear drains here.

Official sources

Last updated 19 October 2026. General information only. Every property is different, so call us to talk about yours.

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