The drain game

blocked drains MelbourneThere are certain advantages that come with living in an apartment block as opposed to a house. Extra security, a close knit community and better views with greater height. There are also downsides, problems in other apartments can have consequences in yours. My neighbour who generally causes very little trouble recently came by to warn me about her blocked drains. Melbourne had apparently received an excellent bloom of beetroots and she had been washing the roots down her sink leading to a major build up. Normally her beetroots wouldn’t concern me at all but our drains were on a joint system, so her blocked drain is my problem. While she is a fairly harmless individual she is also a little away with the fairies and it wouldn’t surprise me if she hadn’t bothered to arrange a drain expert to come and take a look. I figured as it was now my problem too I’d take it off her hands and shoot her the bill.

I managed to find a pretty good company that would come out and take a look quickly. I could already tell them the problem I just needed them to fix it. I would have to give my pleasant neighbour a run down of acceptable things to throw down the sink, tough vegetable roots not being one of them. Luckily when the plumber came and was able to quickly fix the drain unblocking, Melbourne has a pretty good piping systems so it wasn’t too difficult. Once the job was done  I told him to invoice the apartment next door. Fortunately for me the only infrastructure we share is the drain and one structural wall, I can’t imagine she could find a way to cause problems with that but you never know. Whilst dealing with other people’s problems is an annoyance I do think the pros of living in a shared block outweigh the cons. If I need an egg or some sugar I have multiple neighbours to ask.