Emergency Plumber Cammeray

Up on the ridge, streets such as Amherst and Palmer keep their Federation houses and Californian bungalows, while the walk-up flats and newer blocks cluster lower down around Miller Street. It makes for a genuine split of period detached homes and unit stock.

Age ties most of that older stock together. In the pre-war houses, the original pipework can let go without much warning, while the renovated kitchens and bathrooms in the flats and newer builds tend to run flexi hoses that burst just as abruptly.

Both problems, ageing copper or a split hose, land on the same page: burst and leaking pipes.

Ageing hot water units in the long-held period homes and mid-century flats here tend to fail suddenly rather than easing out, often after years of quiet running.

Heavy summer storms are the other recurring issue. The ground falls steeply from the ridge toward the harbour, and older stormwater lines on the lower streets can surcharge and back up during a serious downpour.

Naremburn sits just the other side of the gully, so this suburb is well within our regular patch rather than a detour.

The mix of period homes and newer flats here is familiar territory, and so are the council rules that come with sitting inside North Sydney's boundary rather than Willoughby's.