Mature gums, pines and liquidambars over a sewer line will find any gap in it. On the older Mount Eliza properties with original clay drainage, root intrusion isn't a possibility, it's a matter of when. The useful question isn't how to stop the roots - it's whether the pipe is otherwise sound enough for maintenance jetting every couple of years, or whether a section has failed and needs relining or replacing. A camera tells you which, and we'd rather you saw the footage than took our word for it.

Larger homes here often run multiple bathrooms and higher simultaneous hot water demand than the unit is actually sized for. If your shower goes cold when someone runs a tap elsewhere, that's usually a sizing or supply issue rather than a fault - and worth getting right when the unit is next replaced rather than replacing like-for-like.

Some older properties in the area were originally on septic before connection to sewer. Where that changeover happened decades ago, the old infrastructure is sometimes still partly in the ground and occasionally still connected in ways that surprise people.