How to Avoid having Your Garden and Driveway Dug Up For the Sake of a Broken Drain

It was a dilemma seemingly without an answer. We had a blocked drain and were faced with the awful prospect of digging up the garden.

Let me explain. My better half is an extremely proud and capable gardener and her lawn, flowerbeds and front driveway were not just her pride and joy but admired by all in the Warriewood neighbourhood where we live.

The first people we contacted – reluctantly recommended by a friend -were “Mr Bodge Its” as my old English dad used to say and they said we’d have to dig up the whole area. I didn’t want to be the one to tell the news to the wife when she got home from childminding. 

Blocked drains in Northern Beaches was my rescue and with it came the news of a modern technique that seemed to be the perfect answer to our dilemma. 

An appointment was made and I got back to my tech work from home job and waited for the key in the latch.

When giving good, or seemingly good news, always present the worst news first, it softens the blow. So it was that I told the wife that the busted drain – that she mistook for a blockage – could mean the digging up of the garden…but could also be fixed with not so much as a heavy footprint on her sacred turf.

A neighbour was passing when they heard her shriek – “You’re Not Digging up My B&#@*$ Front Garden!” They looked in thinking someone was being murdered!

No, my dearest, I said, it may not come to that. As best I could after what I had heard over the phone I explained about “no dig” pipe relining. 

It was better explained later when the guys turned up on cue to make a full assessment of the situation: Broken drains these days could now be repaired without the need to destroy the wife’s garden and set her back years of hard labour.

It was explained that a combination of tree roots and ground movement was responsible but there should be no need to excavate two meters down at all thanks to relatively new pipe relining technology.

A new pipe lining could be installed inside the broken one and leave us with a permanent seamless solution. 

At this point, my wife heard angels though I did caution that the proof of the pudding would be in the eating, as it were. 

My tendency to caution proved unfounded, however, as after a prompt quote and a follow-up visit the pipe relining was done with barely a few muddy footprints on the drive. Certainly none of the horrendous mess and disturbance that we’d feared when the drain first started acting up.

In conclusion, always seek a second opinion when you have a dilemma and always deal with recognised and professional tradespeople you can trust. 

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