Drain Unblocking
Cleared where it is inside your erf, and reported straight to Overstrand where the network is the problem.
More on drain unblocking →Home/Plumber Onrus
A plumber in Onrus and Onrusrivier at the same rate as Hermanus, because Onrus adjoins it and is not a special trip. Same water supply, same response, one piece of local infrastructure worth understanding.
The same work as in Hermanus, on the same supply, with the same call-out.
Cleared where it is inside your erf, and reported straight to Overstrand where the network is the problem.
More on drain unblocking →Tested before replaced, including the sediment that settles out of this supply at the bottom of a cylinder.
More on geyser repair →Fixed search fee, and the best possible conditions to test in when the house is standing empty.
More on leak detection →Fouled aerators and running cisterns, batched onto one visit rather than spread over three.
More on tap & toilet repairs →Next door to Hermanus, so the response is the same as in town rather than a planned run.
More on emergency plumbing →Worth doing where a line keeps backing up, to separate your pipework from what the network is doing.
More on cctv drain inspections →Tell us what is happening and whether anybody is at the property. Onrus is next door, so the answer on timing is usually a straightforward one.
Most sewers work by gravity: the pipe falls, the contents move, nothing is under pressure and a failure tends to announce itself slowly as a smell or a damp patch. Onrus has something different running through it, and it is worth knowing about because it fails in an entirely different way.
Where the ground will not allow sewage to run downhill to where it needs to go, a pump station lifts it and pushes it through a pressurised pipe called a rising main. Onrus has one, and on Monday 25 October 2021 it burst in Main Road, Onrus River. The municipality's own notice at the time warned the public not to swim in the Onrus lagoon while the spill was dealt with.
The distinction matters for how you read what you are seeing. A gravity sewer problem usually shows up inside a property first: a toilet slow to clear, a gully rising, a smell in one place. A rising main is under pressure, so when it fails, the contents come out fast and they come out at the point of failure, which is generally in the road or on the verge rather than in anybody's house. Water or effluent surfacing in the street, on a day it has not rained, with nothing wrong inside any of the houses, is a network event and it is not something a plumber should be charging you to look at.
There is a second reason to know which you are looking at. A pressurised main that has failed is a public health matter with a watercourse nearby, and in Onrus that watercourse is the lagoon. Reporting it quickly is genuinely useful in a way that reporting a slow basin is not. Overstrand takes those reports around the clock on 028 313 8111, with the Hermanus numbers on 028 313 8090, 8997 and 8137.
Inside your boundary the picture is the ordinary one, and Onrus is on the Greater Hermanus supply, so the blended dam and borehole water and its deposit behaviour apply here exactly as they do in town. If it is surfacing in the road on a dry day, that is a free call to the municipality. If it is backing up inside your house while the street is fine, that one is yours.
Is the call-out to Onrus the same as Hermanus?
Yes. Onrus runs straight on from Hermanus, which is why the rate is identical and no distance loading applies. The figure is quoted before dispatch the same way it is everywhere.
What is a rising main and why does it matter here?
Where sewage cannot flow downhill to where it needs to go, a pump station pushes it uphill through a pressurised line called a rising main. Onrus has one. It matters because a rising main does not fail quietly the way a gravity sewer does: it is under pressure, so when it goes, it goes visibly and quickly.
Has that actually happened in Onrus?
Yes. On Monday 25 October 2021 a pipe burst on the Onrus rising sewer in Main Road, Onrus River, and the public was warned not to swim in the Onrus lagoon while it was dealt with. That is the municipality’s own record of the event.
What should I do if I see sewage surfacing in the road?
Report it rather than investigate it. Overstrand takes reports 24 hours a day on 028 313 8111, and the Hermanus numbers are 028 313 8090, 8997 and 8137. Keep children and dogs away from it and do not try to clear it yourself.
Do you cover Onrusrivier and Vermont together?
Yes, they run into one another and they are on the same visit. Vermont has its own page if that is where you are, but for booking purposes they are the same trip.
Is Onrus on the Greater Hermanus water supply?
Yes, which means the blended supply from De Bos Dam and the Table Mountain Group boreholes applies here, and so does the iron and manganese deposit behaviour that comes with it. Fouled tap aerators are worth checking before anybody quotes you for a pressure problem.
Can you look after a house that is empty most of the year?
Yes, and a lot of Onrus work is exactly that. Photographs before and after, written approval before anything beyond making it safe, and a meter reading recorded on every visit so a slow leak has somewhere to show up.
The lagoon end of Onrus is low lying. Does that affect drainage?
Low-lying ground and gravity drainage are always a combination worth thinking about, particularly during heavy rain when the network is under pressure. A non-return valve on a vulnerable connection is inexpensive and it is the difference between a wet garden and a wet house.
Get In Touch
Tell us the address and what you are seeing. If it is outside in the road rather than inside the house, say so, because that changes who should be dealing with it.