Every Tuesday after a long weekend, plumbing systems across Canberra start falling apart. It’s been happening for years, and after fixing the same disasters over and over, you start to see the pattern.
Last Labour Day weekend, a family in Watson rang at 7am Tuesday. Their garbage disposal was making sounds like a dying wombat and smoke was coming from under the sink. Turns out they’d hosted Sunday lunch for 15 people and decided the disposal unit could handle five kilos of pumpkin scraps. It couldn’t.
Garbage disposals cop an absolute hiding on long weekends. People prep massive meals, have a few drinks, and start shoving everything down there. Potato peels are the worst – they turn into this starchy glue that blocks everything. But the record goes to a Dickson restaurant that tried to dispose of their leftover rice from a function. Ten kilos of rice. It expanded in the pipes like concrete. Took six hours to clear that mess.
Coffee grounds are another killer. Everyone thinks they’re fine because they’re small, but they build up into this dense sludge that nothing shifts. Add some fibrous veggie scraps like celery, and you’ve got a blocked drain that’ll ruin your Tuesday.
The thing is, garbage disposals aren’t bins. They’re meant for the little bits that rinse off plates, not half your meal prep. But try explaining that when there’s 20 people coming for lunch and the kitchen’s chaos.
Nothing good comes from mixing beer and plumbing. But every long weekend, someone’s brother-in-law or helpful mate decides that dripping tap needs fixing. By Tuesday, it’s a disaster.
Had a call from Florey recently where the helpful relative got so enthusiastic tightening a tap that he cracked the entire ceramic basin. The original problem? A fifty-cent washer. The repair bill? $800 for a new basin plus installation.
Another classic from Campbell – bloke decided to service a mixer tap after a barbecue. Got the hot and cold connections backwards, couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working, kept pulling it apart and putting it back together. Eventually cracked a fitting inside the wall. Water everywhere, tiles had to come off, absolute nightmare.
These DIY attempts usually happen Sunday afternoon when everyone’s relaxed and feeling capable. Someone mentions the tap’s been dripping for months, Uncle Dave says he’s handy with tools, and before you know it, there’s water spraying across the ceiling and no plumber available until Tuesday.
Older Canberra houses weren’t built for modern long weekends. The plumbing in those 1960s Narrabundah and Ainslie homes was designed for a family of four, not three generations plus cousins visiting for Easter.
The toilets cop it worst. Kids flush toys – had one in Yarralumla where a toy dinosaur made it halfway down before getting stuck. Adults use mountains of toilet paper. And everyone, absolutely everyone, flushes those “flushable” wipes that are about as flushable as a tennis ball in Canberra’s older pipes.
But the real problems start when blockages happen and people panic. They keep flushing, hoping it’ll clear. Water rises, overflows, goes through the floor. One Weston family had sewage come through their kitchen ceiling onto Easter lunch because someone upstairs kept flushing a blocked toilet. The smell lasted weeks.
Modern estates in Gungahlin handle the extra load better with their bigger pipes and better fall. But those character homes everyone loves? Their skinny old pipes give up the moment you add extra people.
Standard hot water systems are sized for normal use. Four people, regular showers, bit of washing. Chuck eight house guests in for the long weekend and watch what happens.
Had a Kambah family ring on Easter Sunday absolutely ropeable. Six showers, two loads of washing, and someone filled the spa bath – all before 9am. Their 250-litre system never stood a chance. These older Tuggeranong houses have systems from the ’90s that seemed massive then but can’t cope with modern usage.
Electric systems trip their breakers from overwork. Gas systems can’t reheat fast enough. And those temperating valves that mix hot and cold water to prevent scalding? They pick long weekends to fail. One minute you’re having a normal shower, next minute it’s either Antarctica or third-degree burns.
The worst part is when the system completely packs it in from overuse. Elements blow in electric systems. Thermocouples fail in gas units. And naturally, this happens Sunday night when replacement parts are impossible to find.
Long weekend cooking sessions expose every problem with gas cooktops. Burners that seemed fine suddenly won’t light. Flames turn orange instead of blue. And that’s when things get dangerous.
All that enthusiastic cooking means spillovers everywhere. Sauce bubbles over, oil splatters, and suddenly burner ports are blocked. The flame can’t burn properly, starts producing carbon monoxide instead of carbon dioxide. One Belconnen family actually had their rangehood catch fire – years of grease buildup finally hit ignition point during their Queen’s Birthday cooking marathon.
But gas leaks are the real worry. Those flexible gas connections behind cooktops deteriorate over time. Heavy pots getting shuffled around during major cook-ups can crack already weak connections. A Red Hill home evacuated last long weekend when their flexi hose split right as 20 people sat down for lunch.
You can smell gas leaks, but blocked burners are sneakier. Orange flames mean incomplete combustion – you’re filling your kitchen with carbon monoxide. Windows closed for Canberra’s cold weather makes it worse.
Look, none of this is rocket science. Service your plumbing before holidays, not after emergencies. If the tap’s been dripping for months, get it fixed properly before visitors arrive, not during lunch after a few drinks.
Keep plunger in obvious spots – guests will try fixing a blocked toilet themselves rather than telling you about it. Put bins next to toilets so people don’t flush everything. Maybe mention your hot water system’s limits so everyone doesn’t shower at 7am.
And garbage disposals? Just put a compost bin on the bench for the big cook-up. Easier than explaining to insurance why your kitchen flooded from backed-up drains.
Most importantly, know which plumber actually answers their phone on public holidays. Because when it all goes wrong on Easter Monday, you don’t want to be scrolling through Google reviews while water’s pouring through your ceiling.
Every suburb’s different too. Gungahlin’s new pipes handle abuse better than Reid’s heritage plumbing. Beach houses at Bateman’s Bay that sit empty most of the year always have dramas when the whole family descends. Know what your place can handle.
The pattern’s the same every long weekend though. Tuesday morning, the phone runs hot with the same problems. At least it keeps things interesting. Though I’d rather be fishing.
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