TL;DR: Plumbing in a unit block behaves differently to a house. Shared stacks, no isolation valve in your kitchen, a hot water unit crammed in a cupboard, and a neighbour below who notices your leak before you do. Jasco Plumbing works in apartments across Sydney, finds the real source, and tells you straight whether it’s your problem or the building’s. Call 02 5950 5382 or book online.
Water in an apartment travels sideways, then down
That’s the difference. In a house, a leak stays your problem. In a unit, a slow leak under a shower base can show up as a damp ceiling two floors below, and suddenly there are three parties asking who’s paying for what.
Same story with drains. If the kitchen sink on level 4 and the one on level 6 are both backing up, it’s almost never the individual traps. It’s the shared waste stack, and clearing one apartment’s pipe just pushes the problem to the next tenant.
So the first job in any apartment callout is diagnosis. Where does the fault actually start? Until that’s answered, nobody should be pulling out a chequebook or a jackhammer.
What we fix in units and apartment buildings
- Blocked kitchen and bathroom drains in individual lots, plus stack blockages affecting several units. See our blocked drain service.
- Recurring blockages where the same unit blocks every few months. A CCTV drain inspection shows what’s inside the pipe instead of guessing.
- Hidden leaks behind shower walls, under hobless shower bases, around balcony drains, and in wall cavities between lots.
- No hot water. Electric units in a cupboard or on a balcony, instantaneous gas systems, and units fed off a central building system.
- Burst and split pipes, including flexi hose failures under vanities. Flexi hoses are one of the most common causes of apartment flooding. See burst pipe repairs.
- Leaking and dripping taps, worn mixer cartridges, and water hammer that bangs through the whole riser. See leaking tap repairs.
- Toilet faults. Running cisterns, weak flush, in-wall cistern access. See toilet repairs.
- Gas appliance work in units, done by a licensed gas fitter. See gas fitting.
Your lot or common property?
This is the question that holds up most apartment repairs, and it decides who arranges the work. The general split is straightforward. The owners corporation is responsible for maintenance and repair of common property, while owners repair anything in their own property. NSW guidance treats plumbing in boundary walls and under the floor as common property, with internal fixtures such as baths, toilets and sinks sitting with the lot owner.
In practice, that means a dripping tap or a blocked trap in your kitchen is usually yours. A blocked waste stack affecting multiple bathrooms, or a burst main supply pipe serving the whole building, generally sits with the owners corporation. Tracing the source matters, because damage rarely appears directly under the pipe that failed.
We’re plumbers, not strata lawyers. What we can do is find the fault, explain in plain English where it starts, and put it in writing if you need to pass something to your strata manager or committee. If it turns out to be common property, you’ll know before any work goes ahead rather than after. The NSW Government strata repairs guidance is a useful reference if you want to read the rules yourself.
Renting? Tell your agent, then tell us what’s happening
Tenants should raise repairs with their landlord or agent, but if water is actively running and causing damage, ring us anyway so we can help you stop it. Knowing where the isolation valve is beats waiting on a phone queue.
How we work inside apartment buildings
Units come with logistics that houses don’t. We plan for them.
- Access sorted upfront. Tell us the building name, level, and whether we need a fob, intercom code, or a loading dock booking. It saves a wasted trip.
- Isolation first. Many older units have no individual stop tap. We check what can be isolated at the lot before anyone talks about shutting down a riser, and if the building supply has to be turned off, that’s arranged through the building manager, not sprung on your neighbours.
- Neighbours considered. If a fault runs between lots, we say so early so the unit above or below can be checked properly.
- Small spaces, clean finish. Drop cloths down, boots off inside, work area wiped before we leave. Lifts and hallways included.
- Real plumbers only. Every job is done by a fully licensed plumber, NSW licence #488187C. We don’t send apprentices out on their own.
Why apartment owners and tenants call Jasco
We’re family run, with Bill and the team covering St George, the Sutherland Shire, and greater Sydney. There’s no call centre and no franchise script.
- Fixed price agreed before work starts, so there’s no surprise invoice.
- No callout fee for new customers, and no charge to come out and quote.
- 24/7 emergency response when a pipe lets go at 2am.
- Lifetime workmanship warranty on what we fix.
- $20 million public liability insurance, which most strata schemes and building managers will ask about.
- A text 30 minutes before arrival, and a phone call if anything holds us up.
- 30+ 5-star Google reviews from local homes and units.
More about how we work is on our about page.
Apartment suburbs we cover
We work right across Sydney, with plenty of unit and high-rise work in the denser pockets of the south. A few examples: Wolli Creek, Rockdale, Kogarah, Brighton-Le-Sands, and Carlton. Not listed? Ring us. Chances are we’re nearby today.
Apartment plumbing questions we get asked
My ceiling is dripping and the unit above says nothing’s wrong. What now?
Get it inspected. Water tracks along beams and pipework before it drops, so the wet patch is often nowhere near the fault. We’ll trace it properly instead of blaming the nearest bathroom.
Can you clear a blockage without shutting down the whole building?
Usually, yes. Most single-lot blockages are cleared through the fixture or an accessible point. If the fault is in a shared stack, we’ll explain what access is needed and who has to authorise it.
Do you need strata approval before you start?
For repairs inside your own lot, generally no. For anything touching common property or shared pipework, the owners corporation or strata manager needs to be involved. We’ll tell you which category your job falls into before we quote.
Can you run a camera through an apartment drain?
Yes. A drain camera works well in unit pipework and stacks, and it’s the fastest way to prove whether a blockage is a one-off or a structural problem in the line.
What should I do while I wait for a plumber?
Turn off the water at your lot isolation valve if you have one. If you can’t find it, contact your building manager. Move anything valuable off the floor, put down towels, and take photos before you clean up.
Tell us what’s happening in your unit
Describe the problem, the level you’re on, and how long it’s been going. We’ll give you an honest ETA and a fixed price before anything starts. Call 02 5950 5382 and a real plumber picks up, or request a callback and Bill or one of the team will ring you back within 15 minutes.