Pre-Storm Season Drain Check
How Bayside homes flood in a Melbourne downpour, and the gutter, pit and overflow checks that stop it. A practical pre-storm checklist.
By the Brighton Plumbing Co teamPublished 12 July 2026
Why storm damage in Bayside usually starts with a drain, not the storm
Melbourne storms drop a lot of water in a short window, and most of the flooding we attend afterwards was preventable. The rain did not overwhelm the house. It overwhelmed a gutter full of plane-tree leaves, a stormwater pit that had silted up, or a downpipe that had quietly separated below ground years earlier. The water then went to the lowest point it could find, which in Elwood and the flatter parts of Gardenvale is often the subfloor or the back door.
Bayside adds two complications. Many streets are lined with mature plane trees and figs, which shed heavily and send roots into old earthenware stormwater lines the same way they invade sewers. And parts of the area sit on a high water table, so the ground is already holding water when the storm arrives. There is less spare capacity in the soil than the same rainfall would meet further inland.
Walk the roofline first
Gutters are the first line of defence and the easiest to check. From the ground, look for plant growth along the gutter line, staining on the fascia, and tide marks under the eaves. Those are all signs water has been sitting or overflowing. If you can safely view the gutters from a ladder held by someone else, look for leaf litter, roofing grit and standing water.
While you are looking up, check that every downpipe is actually connected at the top and the bottom. On older Hampton weatherboards and Edwardian homes in Brighton, we regularly find downpipes that stop short of the stormwater point and have been discharging against the base of the wall or into the subfloor for years. That is a slow disaster in dry weather and a fast one in a storm.
- Clear leaves and grit from gutters and valley irons before storm season, not after
- Confirm each downpipe connects into a stormwater point, not just onto the ground
- Look for rust holes and sagging sections where water pools
- Check overflow measures on box gutters, which fail hard when blocked
Find and lift your stormwater pits
Most houses have at least one stormwater pit, usually a concrete or plastic box with a grate, sitting in a path, driveway or garden bed. Its job is to collect surface water and downpipe flows and send them to the street. Pits fill with silt, leaves and garden mulch, and a pit that is half full has lost half its capacity exactly when you need all of it.
Lift the grate and look. If you can see the outlet pipe, the pit is in reasonable shape. If you are looking at a bowl of mud, scoop it out with a gloved hand or a small trowel. If water sits in the pit and does not drain away over a few hours in dry weather, the line downstream is blocked or broken, and that is worth investigating with a camera before the sky does the test for you.
Know your overflow path
Every block has an overflow path, which is simply where water goes when the drains cannot cope. Good overflow paths run around the house and out to the street. Bad ones run at a door, a subfloor vent or a light well. Walk your block in the rain once and you will learn more about your drainage than any plan will tell you.
Simple landscaping choices matter here. Garden beds built up against weatherboard walls, paving that falls back towards the house, and raised paths that dam water in a side setback all turn a manageable downpour into water inside. If your block is low-lying, as many in Elwood are, keeping the overflow path clear is not optional.
What we check that you cannot see
The underground half of the system is where the serious problems hide. Old earthenware stormwater lines crack and displace at the joints, roots follow the moisture in, and the pipe slowly chokes. From the surface everything looks fine until the first big storm, when water backs up out of the pits and gullies.
A CCTV camera inspection shows the actual condition of the line: where roots have entered, where a joint has dropped, where silt has settled. High-pressure jetting clears roots and silt and restores the pipe to its full bore. Where a section is broken, we can show you the footage and talk through repair options before anything is decided. In Victoria, work on below-ground drainage must be done by a licensed plumber, so clearing gutters and pits is yours to do and the buried pipework is ours.
A simple pre-storm season routine
None of this takes long, and doing it in autumn or early spring beats doing it while water is coming under the laundry door. If your drains coped poorly last year, or the house is older and the stormwater lines have never been looked at, book a camera inspection before the season turns.
- Clear gutters and check downpipe connections
- Lift and clean every stormwater pit on the block
- Watch where water flows in the next ordinary rain and note anything pooling near walls
- Book a camera inspection if pits drain slowly or the house flooded last season
Common questions
Can I clear my own stormwater drains?
You can clear gutters, grates and the silt inside pits yourself. Work on the buried pipework, including repairs and anything involving cutting into a drain, must be done by a licensed plumber in Victoria. If a pit will not drain, that is the point to call us.
How do I know if my stormwater line is blocked before a storm?
Slow-draining pits, water pooling around downpipes during ordinary rain, and gurgling from gullies are the usual signs. A CCTV camera inspection confirms it and shows exactly where the problem is, so any quote is based on what is actually in the pipe.
Who is responsible for the drain between my house and the street?
As a general rule the property owner is responsible for the private stormwater system on their block, and the council or water authority looks after the street infrastructure it connects to. If a blockage sits at the boundary we can identify which side it is on with the camera.