The Thornlie kitchen problem
Thornlie is big and it is settled, which means most of the kitchens we work in have been changed at least once since the house went up.
That sounds like it should make a filter install easier and it often makes it more interesting. A renovated kitchen has a benchtop that may be stone where it used to be laminate, a sink that may have been swapped without any thought to a future filtered tap, and pipework under the cabinet that is a mix of whatever was current at each renovation.
So the two questions that decide a Thornlie job are physical ones. Is there a hole in the sink or benchtop for the filtered tap, or does one need drilling — and if so, into what? And what state is the cold feed isolation valve actually in?
Stone gets drilled slowly with diamond tooling. Laminate drills easily and then needs the cut edge sealed properly or the substrate takes on water over the years. Stainless needs the right cutter. None of it is difficult with the correct tools and all of it is expensive to get wrong, which is the argument for having a plumber do it. Filtered tap installation
Systems nobody has serviced
The second half of our Thornlie work is cartridges.
In a suburb this size, with this much housing turnover, we open a lot of cupboards containing a filter that the current owner did not install and knows nothing about. Sometimes it came with the house. Sometimes a previous occupant fitted it and the paperwork left with them.
Those systems are usually still connected and usually no longer doing much. A loaded cartridge stops being effective long before it stops passing water, so there is no obvious moment where it fails — the flow just gets slower and the taste comes back.
There is a second thing worth knowing. The housing seal ages whether the cartridge is changed or not, and one that has sat for years will often weep once it is finally disturbed. We bring a replacement rather than discover that under your sink. Cartridge replacement
When the complaint is not about drinking
Plenty of Thornlie calls start with the kitchen and turn out to be about something else.
If what bothers you is showing up in the shower, on the tapware, in the washing machine or on the glass in the bathroom, an under-sink filter will do nothing for it — because it only treats one tap. That is a mains question, and a mains system is a different installation at a different scale.
Worth being precise here. Perth's Integrated Water Supply Scheme is a blend of roughly 44.6% groundwater, 36% desalinated seawater and 18.7% surface water, and the mix moves through the year. Filtration deals well with sediment, chlorine and the taste and smell that travel with them. It does not remove dissolved minerals — Water Corporation puts elevated hardness at 200 mg/L under the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, and hardness is dissolved, which is why it furs up a kettle.
We tell you which part of your complaint a filter will change and which part it will not, rather than agreeing with all of it and taking the money. Whole house filtration
What we do in Thornlie
Under-sink filters
— the usual answer for taste, smell and chlorine at the kitchen tap. Under-sink installation
Cartridge changes on any system
, including ones fitted by somebody who never came back.
Whole-house filters
where the mains is the right place to treat.
Reverse osmosis
where the cupboard has the room. Reverse osmosis
Bore water treatment
— separate supply, separate equipment. Bore water systems
Leaks
around housings, connections and valves, which is how a fair number of Thornlie filters finally get attention. Leak detection
Why Thornlie calls us
Licensed plumber and gas fitter
Plumbing Licence 8396, Gas Licence 13098, both held by Tim, who does the work himself.
$0 call-out fee and a free quote
No charge to come and look, and the price is in writing before anything starts. Transparent pricing, no hidden costs.
We service what we did not install
Which matters more in a suburb where half the filters came with the house.
We say when the smaller job is right
If an under-sink unit does what you want, we will not sell you a mains system.
Monday to Friday, 7:00am to 4:00pm.