Plumber Castle Hill, NSW 2154
Castle Hill is the commercial heart of the Hills, with Castle Towers, the Metro station and a growing cluster of apartment buildings surrounded by streets of large brick homes from the 1970s to 90s. Blocks are big, the ground is sandstone rather than clay, and the streets fall away steeply from the ridge along Old Northern Road toward Cattai Creek and Excelsior Creek, so stormwater moves fast and mature trees have had decades to reach the sewers.
What usually goes wrong in Castle Hill
- Liquidambar and gum roots cracking the earthenware sewer joints of 1970s homes on the big blocks off Old Northern Road
- Stormwater rushing down steep driveways into garages and lower floors of split-level homes during summer thunderstorms
- Pinhole leaks in fifty-year-old copper showing as damp brickwork or a water bill that has doubled
- Hot water systems on their second or third replacement failing in four-bedroom homes with three bathrooms
- Burst flexible hoses and blocked shared stacks in the apartment buildings around Castle Towers and the station
Local notes from the plumbers
Castle Hill was built in waves, and the plumbing follows them. The 1960s and 70s streets around the old village and Showground Road have earthenware sewers and copper that is now fifty years old, and the liquidambars and gums planted with the houses have had that long to find the joints, so blocked sewers and pinhole leaks are the steady calls. The 80s and 90s brick homes further out have PVC drains that hold up better, but three bathrooms on one hot water unit means the second or third replacement tank is now failing. The ground is Hawkesbury sandstone, shallow and hard, so the pipes do not move the way they do on clay, but the blocks are steep. A summer storm sends stormwater down a long driveway faster than a single grate can take it, and garages and rumpus rooms below street level fill first. Around Castle Towers and the Metro station the newer apartment buildings bring a different job list: flexible hoses, pressure pumps and shared stacks where one blockage on the third floor is a flood on the second.
Housing in Castle Hill
Full brick and brick veneer family homes from the 1970s, 80s and 90s on large blocks either side of Old Northern Road and Showground Road, with older 1960s homes near the village, townhouse complexes from the 1990s and 2000s, and apartment buildings around Castle Towers and the Metro station built since 2015.
