Find a trusted plumber in Newcastle

Hunter Water, your pipes and theirs

Hunter Water supplies water and takes away sewage across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Cessnock and Port Stephens. The mains in the street and along the back of many blocks belong to Hunter Water. The pipes between your house and the connection point are generally yours, and so is the bill when roots get into them. That split of ownership is the first thing to sort out when a drain blocks.

Before anyone digs, a good plumber will run a camera through the line to see where the blockage sits and what the pipe is made of. If the trouble turns out to be in the main, that’s a job for Hunter Water rather than your plumber. Downpipes are another thing to get right here: rainwater has to go to the stormwater system, not into the sewer, so an old illegal connection is worth fixing while the plumber is on site.

Clay pipes, storms and rainwater tanks

Newcastle’s older suburbs were mostly sewered decades ago, and much of that underground pipe is vitrified clay with joints that roots love. Miners’ cottages in Wallsend and Lambton, interwar brick homes in Hamilton and post-war fibro in Mayfield all turn up the same symptoms: a gurgling toilet, a slow shower and an overflowing gully after rain. Clearing the line with a jetter fixes it for a while; relining or replacing the worst section fixes it for longer.

Weather is the other big driver. An east coast low can dump more rain than gutters, downpipes and stormwater pits were ever sized for, and the calls come in waves afterwards. Out in the newer estates like Fletcher, Cameron Park and Thornton, the common job is different: many homes there have a rainwater tank plumbed to the toilets and laundry, and the pump or the switch-over valve eventually wears out.

Licence checks for Newcastle plumbers

Every plumbing, drainage and gasfitting job in NSW needs a licensed plumber, however small the job. Licences come from Building Commission NSW, and you can look anyone up on the Verify NSW licence check. Make sure the licence is current, that it’s in the name of whoever is quoting you, and that the class matches the work. Gas is a separate class from water plumbing.

Our guide to checking a licence in NSW walks through the search and what each licence class covers.

Newcastle plumbing prices

Expect roughly $90 to $150 an hour in business hours, plus a call-out fee of about $80 to $200. A dripping tap often comes in under $300 all up. Clearing a root-blocked sewer with a jetter usually lands around $250 to $700, with a camera inspection on top, and a new hot water system typically costs $1,800 to $4,500 installed. For the same job, a Newcastle plumber’s bill is usually a little lighter than a Sydney one.

The plumber price guide lists more jobs. Use it to sanity-check a quote, then get your actual price in writing.

Getting matched with a Newcastle plumber

Describe the leak, blockage or hot water problem and give us your suburb. We pass it to one licensed plumber nearby, someone whose licence, insurance and reviews have already been through our checks, and that’s the only business that sees your number. It costs you nothing.

Plumbing job in another city? Our plumbers page links to each one, and the other trades we cover in Newcastle are a click away. Sorted on what you need? Get a free quote.