Modern houses make the install easy
A Southern River kitchen is generally a pleasure to fit a filter into.
The cabinet is a modern size, so a housing mounts on the side wall with room to swing a cartridge out later. The isolation valve on the cold feed is recent and will actually shut when asked — which is not something we take for granted a few suburbs north. The pipework is consistent, and the sink frequently has a spare knockout where a soap dispenser was meant to go, which means the filtered tap goes in without drilling anything.
Where a Southern River install gets more involved is at the higher end. If you want reverse osmosis, the cupboard has to take the unit, the pressurised storage tank and a proper drain connection above the trap. Modern kitchens usually have the room, and modern kitchens also usually have a bin system, a pull-out, or something else already occupying the cupboard. That is the thing we are actually measuring when we look. Reverse osmosis
Where the mains filter goes is the hard part
Newer estates trade generous blocks for efficient ones, and that shows up when the job is a whole-house system rather than a kitchen one.
A mains filter has to go where the water enters the property. It has to be under cover, mounted properly rather than hanging off the pipe, and sited so a cartridge can be changed without dismantling something. On a Southern River lot with a narrow side passage and the meter tight against a boundary, finding that spot takes more thought than it does on an older, wider block.
It is almost always solvable. It is just the part of the quote that needs a look rather than a phone call.
Young systems, different questions
Because the housing is newer, most of the filters in Southern River are on their first or second cartridge rather than their fifth. So the calls we get here skew differently.
Less: a mystery unit left by a previous owner that nobody can identify.
More: someone deciding what to install for the first time and wanting to know which system actually suits the house. And more people wanting the filter specified at the same time as a kitchen change, which is genuinely the easiest moment to do it — the tap hole gets planned into the benchtop rather than drilled into it later.
If a kitchen is going in, that is the time to ring. Filtered tap installation
Which system suits a newer home
Under-sink filter
if what bothers you is the taste, smell or chlorine in your drinking water. Cheapest correct answer, treats the tap you drink from, sits in a corner of the cupboard. Under-sink installation
Whole-house filter
if the complaint shows up in the shower, the laundry or on fittings. Treats everything reasonably rather than one tap thoroughly. Mains filtration
Reverse osmosis
if you want the drinking water as clean as it reasonably gets and the cupboard has the space for the unit and the tank.
Both, in a lot of houses
A mains filter protecting the house and an under-sink unit handling the glass is a common and sensible combination.
What is actually in the water
Southern River is fed by the same supply as the rest of the district. Perth's Integrated Water Supply Scheme is a blend of roughly 44.6% groundwater, 36% desalinated seawater and 18.7% surface water, with a small amount of groundwater replenishment, and the proportions move through the year.
That is why the water can taste noticeably different between seasons in a brand new house with brand new pipes. Nothing is wrong — it is not the same water.
Water Corporation puts elevated hardness at 200 mg/L under the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. Hardness is dissolved minerals, not particles, so a cartridge filter does not remove it. If scale is your complaint rather than taste, we will say so rather than fitting something that will not change it.
Bores on newer blocks
About one in four Perth household gardens runs off a private bore drawing on the shallow Superficial aquifer, and plenty of Southern River homes had one put in with the house.
Bore water is untreated groundwater and stays entirely separate from the house supply. If it is staining paving or blocking sprinkler heads, that is a separate system with its own equipment. Bore water filtration
Why Southern River calls us
Licensed plumber
Plumbing Licence 8396, Gas Licence 13098, both held by Tim, who does the work.
$0 call-out fee and a free quote
Written price before anything starts. Transparent pricing, no hidden costs.
Honest sizing
We would rather fit the smaller system that does what you asked than the bigger one that does more than you needed.
Monday to Friday, 7:00am to 4:00pm.