Why the job is bigger out here
On a standard suburban block, the filtration question is usually "which tap". In Martin it is more often "the whole supply".
Properties are larger, so there is more reticulation, more hard landscaping to stain, and more equipment between the water and where it is used. There is also usually somewhere sensible to put a proper mains-side installation — which is a genuine advantage over a newer estate lot with a narrow side passage and a meter jammed against a boundary.
So when someone in Martin rings about a filter, the conversation tends to start at the point where water enters the property rather than under the kitchen sink. Whole house filtration
Bores do more work here
About one in four Perth household gardens runs off a private bore drawing on the shallow Superficial aquifer. On larger properties that figure climbs, because reticulating serious ground off scheme water is not how anyone does it.
The consequences of untreated groundwater also show up faster when the bore is running harder. Iron staining on paving, limestone and rendered walls. Sprinkler heads that stop rotating and solenoids that clog. Deposits in anything with a narrow passage. Wear through the pump, which is the expensive part.
Those are three separate problems wearing one name. Suspended sediment is physical and gets handled physically. Dissolved iron is chemical — it has to be brought out of solution before anything can catch it, which is why a plain sediment filter on an iron bore changes nothing and disappoints everyone. Smell is different again.
That is the honest reason we will not quote a bore system down the phone. Two bores on neighbouring properties can deliver quite different water, and the equipment follows what yours is actually producing. Bore water filtration
Bore and scheme water stay apart
This matters more where both supplies are in heavy use.
Bore water feeds the garden and the reticulation. It is not connected to the household drinking supply, and the two systems must remain physically separated so that nothing from the bore can find its way into the scheme water in the house or the mains beyond it. That is a requirement of how the plumbing is done, not a matter of preference — and it is a large part of why this is licensed work.
Most Martin properties we quote end up with two separate jobs: treatment on the bore side, and something quite different inside the house. We price them separately so it is clear what each one buys you.
Inside the house
The scheme water arriving in Martin is the same supply as the rest of the district. Perth's Integrated Water Supply Scheme is a blend — roughly 44.6% groundwater, 36% desalinated seawater and 18.7% surface water, plus a little groundwater replenishment — and the proportions shift through the year, which is why tap water can taste different between seasons.
For drinking water, the options are the usual ones. An under-sink cartridge filter feeding a separate tap handles taste, smell and chlorine, and is the cheapest correct answer when that is the complaint. Under-sink installation
Reverse osmosis goes further, and needs the cupboard space for a unit, a pressurised storage tank and a drain connection. Reverse osmosis
Water Corporation puts elevated hardness at 200 mg/L under the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. Hardness is dissolved minerals and cartridge filters do not remove it, so if scale is the complaint we will tell you which type of system actually addresses it rather than fitting one that will not.
Servicing a property this size
Two things to plan for.
Cartridges load faster on a bore. A filter handling untreated groundwater gets through consumables far quicker than one on treated mains water, and the number printed on a box assumes the latter. We tell you at install what interval your setup is realistically going to demand.
Access has to be designed in. On a larger property, a filter installed somewhere awkward means every future service visit costs more than it should. Where the housing goes, how it is mounted, and whether the cartridge comes out without moving anything are decisions worth making properly on day one. Cartridge replacement
Why Martin calls us
A licensed plumber does the work
Plumbing Licence 8396 and Gas Licence 13098, both held by Tim, who does the job himself.
$0 call-out fee
, even out here. We come and look at the bore, the pump, the mains and the house at no charge.
Free quote, written down before anything starts
Transparent pricing, no hidden costs.
We will tell you when something will not fix your problem
On bore work that is the single most valuable thing a plumber can say.
Monday to Friday, 7:00am to 4:00pm.