Licensed local plumbers, on the Lower North Shore.
Blocked drains, hot water, leaks, gas and emergency repairs for St Ives homes, businesses and strata — with a fixed price agreed before the work starts.
No callout fee on eligible jobs · Free quotes
Established in 1823 but initially slow to develop because of its distance from the city; the post office opened in 1885 and most of the suburb was built after 1950.
66.1% separate houses, 26.1% flats and 7.6% semis across 6,771 dwellings — the largest housing stock on the Upper North Shore.
A post-war suburb means most house drainage went in from the 1950s onward. That is old enough to matter, and consistent enough across the suburb to predict.
These jobs come up here more than they come up elsewhere. They follow from what St Ives is built from, when it was built, and what it sits on.
Ku-ring-gai Chase to the north, Garigal to the east and south-east, plus the Dalrymple-Hay Nature Reserve and the 123-hectare Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Garden.
14.39 square kilometres built mostly after 1950, so the drainage is consistent in age and now around seventy years old.
6,771 dwellings, 66.1% of them houses — a lot of private drainage lines, most of them near bushland.
Most repeat blockages are a pipe problem, not a blockage problem. We look before we quote.
Every job below is handled by a licensed plumber, quoted before it starts, and covered by the lifetime labour warranty on eligible work.
Cleared properly, with a camera down the line to find out why it blocked.
Fix a cracked or root-damaged pipe without digging up the garden.
Burst pipes, sewage overflows and gas faults — 24 hours a day.
Repairs and replacements across electric, gas, solar and heat pump.
Find a hidden leak before anyone opens a wall or a slab.
Licensed gas work — appliances, new lines and suspected faults.
See what is actually in the pipe instead of guessing at it.
Isolate, repair and make good — usually the same day.
Get roof and surface water away from the house properly.
Describe what’s happening at your St Ives property and we’ll tell you straight — including when the simple fix is the whole job.
What a job looks like here depends on what the suburb is built from and built on. Start with how people actually live in it:
At 171 metres across 14.39 square kilometres — the largest suburb in the area by land, with national park on two sides.
Ku-ring-gai has one of the highest tree canopy covers of any council in the region — between 45% and 49% — and the council’s Urban Forest Strategy aims to increase it. Bordered by Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park to the north and Garigal National Park to the east and south-east, with the Dalrymple-Hay Nature Reserve and the 123-hectare Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Garden nearby.
St Ives sits in the Ku-ring-gai Council, postcode 2075. Work needing a compliance certificate is lodged the same way across the LGA.
Local figures sourced from: Ku-ring-gai Urban Forest Strategy — Ku-ring-gai Council · ABS 2021 Census QuickStats — St Ives (NSW) · St Ives, New South Wales — Wikipedia
Built out in the two decades after the war, so the drainage went in as one generation rather than accumulating — consistent in age, and now around seventy years old.
A post-war suburb means most house drainage went in from the 1950s onward. That is old enough to matter, and consistent enough across the suburb to predict.
Nobody likes ringing for a price and being told “it depends”. These are typical ranges across the Sydney market — not Voyager’s price list, but a realistic yardstick to judge any quote against, including ours.
| Drains and pipes | |
|---|---|
| Clearing a simple blockage | $150 – $400 |
| Clearing a blocked main sewer line | $300 – $600 |
| High-pressure jetting | $250 – $600 |
| Cutting tree roots from a line | $400 – $1,200 |
| CCTV drain inspection | $250 – $550 |
| Pipe relining, per lineal metre | $450 – $800 |
| Pipe relining, typical whole job | $4,000 – $10,000 |
| Excavate and replace, per metre | $300 – $600 |
| Repairs | |
| Leaking tap — washer or cartridge | $120 – $250 |
| Burst pipe, accessible | $250 – $500 |
| Burst pipe, underground | $800 – $2,500+ |
| Hot water, leaks and emergencies | |
| Hot water repair (element, thermostat, anode) | $150 – $550 |
| Hot water replaced, supplied and installed | $1,200 – $3,500 |
| Water leak detection | $250 – $600 |
| After-hours emergency attendance | $400 – $900 |
Hot water replacement above is supplied and installed — labour-only quotes look cheaper because they are not the same thing. And relining costs more per metre than digging, but that comparison ignores excavation, spoil removal and putting your driveway back, which is where dig jobs get expensive.
Voyager prices by the job, not by the hour, so the number you approve is the number you pay.
St Ives is genuinely mixed — 66.1% separate houses, 26.1% flats or apartments and 7.6% semis or townhouses — so the answer depends on which of those you are in.
In a freestanding house: you are responsible for the wastewater pipes between your property and the point of connection. Sydney Water maintains the main. A Sewer Service Diagram shows where your private pipework actually runs.
In a strata block: section 106 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) makes the owners corporation responsible for common property — generally any pipe serving more than one lot.
Sources: Sydney Water — maintaining your service · Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW)
Some problems wait for a booking. Burst pipes, sewage backing up, a hot water unit emptying itself into the floor and any suspected gas fault do not.
Voyager runs a 24/7 line for St Ives and the rest of the Lower North Shore. When you call, say what’s happening, where it is, and whether water, sewage or gas is involved — that’s what decides how fast someone needs to be there.
Before we arrive: turn off the affected supply if it’s safe to do so, and move what you can away from the water. Don’t pour drain chemicals down a blocked line — it makes the pipe unsafe to inspect and rarely clears the blockage.
The largest suburb in the area by land. Access varies from straightforward suburban blocks to park-edge properties where equipment has to be carried in.
We assess access before quoting rather than discovering it on the day. On constrained sites it often decides which repair method is realistic, and that changes the price.
Storm season finds every drain that was never quite right. Better to know before it rains.
A short call is usually enough to tell whether it’s urgent, and what’s likely to be involved.
Where it matters, that means a camera down the line rather than a guess from the surface.
Priced by the job, not the hour. You approve it before anything starts.
You get told what caused it and whether anything else needs attention — including when the answer is nothing.
Voyager covers the whole Lower North Shore. These are the closest to St Ives:
24/7, including nights, weekends and public holidays — there is always someone on the line for St Ives. Arrival time depends on where crews are when you call, and genuine emergencies — burst pipes, sewage overflows, suspected gas — go ahead of booked work. Say what is happening when you call 0485 028 787 and you will be told honestly how long it will be.
More national park frontage than anywhere. Ku-ring-gai Chase to the north, Garigal to the east and south-east, plus the Dalrymple-Hay Nature Reserve and the 123-hectare Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Garden.
In a house, you. In a strata block, usually the owners corporation. St Ives is 66.1% houses and 26.1% apartments. In a house you maintain the pipes from your property to the point of connection, and Sydney Water maintains the main. In a strata block, common property is the owners corporation’s. Villas and townhouses are the grey area and worth checking first.
There’s no callout fee on eligible jobs, and quotes are free. You get a fixed price for the work before anything starts — priced by the job, not by the hour, so a job that takes longer than expected doesn’t cost you more.
Usually because the blockage was cleared but the cause wasn’t found. A post-war suburb means most house drainage went in from the 1950s onward. That is old enough to matter, and consistent enough across the suburb to predict. A camera inspection shows whether you’re dealing with a one-off or a damaged pipe that will keep catching.
Usually yes, but access shapes the method. The largest suburb in the area by land. Access varies from straightforward suburban blocks to park-edge properties where equipment has to be carried in. We work that out before quoting, because on constrained sites it decides which repair method is realistic.
Often not. St Ives has more national park frontage than any other suburb in this group. On the blocks backing onto it, roots are the default explanation for a recurring blockage. Relining repairs the pipe from the inside, which leaves driveways, paving and established gardens intact. Whether it suits your pipe depends on its condition — that’s what the camera inspection determines.
Across the Sydney market a simple blockage runs $150–$400, jetting a main line $250–$600, and pipe relining $450–$800 per lineal metre with most whole jobs landing between $4,000 and $10,000. Those are market ranges rather than Voyager’s price list. More national park frontage than any other suburb here, so root intrusion is the common cause. Post-war drainage of consistent age does at least make the diagnosis more predictable. Voyager prices by the job, not the hour, and the price is agreed before work starts.
Yes — Voyager Plumbing holds NSW Contractor Licence 476657C, which you can check directly on the NSW Fair Trading register. All work is carried out by licensed plumbers and covered by public liability insurance.
Voyager Plumbing was founded by Mathew Veselcic, a licensed plumber, drainer and gasfitter who has held his own NSW contractor licence since December 2016. He is the nominated supervisor on the company licence that covers the work in St Ives, and personally accountable for it.
Free quote, a fixed price agreed before the work starts, and someone on the end of the phone at any hour.
Voyager Plumbing · NSW Contractor Licence 476657C
Verify with NSW Fair Trading
Page reviewed and updated 2 September 2026
